Last season, the Knicks found themselves in an awkward position. They finished second place in the Eastern Conference standings behind the Celtics, but it was a distant second.
Boston won 14 more regular-season games than New York, and beat the Knicks four of the five times they met in the regular-season. The Knicks ran out of gas and healthy bodies during the Eastern Conference semifinals against Indiana, losing in seven games.
So, they reloaded. They traded five first-round picks to Brooklyn in exchange for Mikal Bridges, a versatile wing who is a career 37-percent 3-point shooter and was a First Team All-Defensive team selection in 2022.