Good morning! We have a lot to get to today, so let’s get right to it…
Six and a half years ago, a few weeks before the 2020 trade deadline, the illustrious Marc Berman of the NY Post wrote a piece imploring the Knicks to explore trading for Detroit’s Andre Drummond.
At that time, Drummond was less than two years removed from his most recent All-Star appearance for the Pistons, and was still just 26 years old. The Mount Vernon product was on his way to a third consecutive season leading the league in rebounds, his seventh straight finishing first in offensive rebounds, and his third time in five years getting a few Defensive Player of the Year votes.
Berman’s two-fold logic went beyond Drummond simply being a good player. First, he was unsure about second-year pro Mitchell Robinson, writing that it was “anyone’s guess whether he will emerge as a true standout.” Second, he thought ‘Dre was their best option as a star center target, but only because they were unlikely to catch the biggest fish. To wit:
As much as the Knicks are monitoring Minnesota’s injured big man, Karl-Anthony Towns of New Jersey, he probably won’t fall into their laps anytime soon.
Turns out, Berman was right. Towns didn’t fall into New York’s lap for another four and a half years, and for as much as Robinson grew as core player for the organization that drafted him, he reached his full potential as a backup on a strict usage plan, not as a full-time starter.
Even so, it’s hard not to chuckle looking back on that article now, with the Knicks signing Drummond to replace Mitch as KAT’s backup on Friday night. Part of the humor comes from the fact that early 2020 was probably the last time Andre could be considered a superior player to Robinson. It’s also the last time an article like this actually struck fear into the hearts of Knicks fans, as Steve Mills would be fired two weeks later in favor of a man who turned out to be far more trustworthy.
And then there’s the money, which is where things really come full circle. Drummond was making $27 million at the time compared to $1.5 million for Robinson. Now, Mitch is inked to a new three-year, $47.4 million contract, while the two-time All-Star will play on a veteran minimum deal. The reason the Knicks needed to go bargain hunting is because of hefty expenditures elsewhere on the roster, none of which are heftier than Towns, who “fell into their laps” because of his contract more than anything else.
That cost-cutting mandate from James Dolan has already been well-documented, and Ray Marcano has a special guest column below detailing why the situation isn’t as clear cut as we might think. Regardless, no one is going to care about Dolan’s reasons if Drummond can’t be a reasonable facsimile of Robinson, even if that facsimile is still a shell of the guy Berman wrote about in 2020.
I’ll go into a bit more detail on the 2026 version of Drummond tomorrow, but suffice it to say that he was available on the minimum for a reason. New York’s new backup is probably a borderline top-40 big man at this point in his career. He’s not suddenly going to find the fountain of youth, and his success or failure will likely depend on how well the Knicks can maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses.
That being said (spoiler alert), if the Knicks think Drummond is the answer in April, May and June, they’re asking the wrong questions. This signing is a half measure in no uncertain terms. Even if Drummond is a better player at this point in his career than I’m giving him credit for, the Knicks just added two major questions to their title defense:
Question No. 1: How much will they be impacted by the re-jiggered East? It’s early, and there are still moves to be made, but I find it quite relevant that on my own personal big board, I currently have neither last year’s No. 1 seed or the team that traded for Giannis Antetokounmpo as top-six teams in the conference. The Cavs are currently heavy front-runners for LeBron James. The Celtics made a trade we’re all still wrapping our heads around, but they’re also replacing Brown with a full season of Tatum and adding Mitch and Paul George to a 56-win core. Even if Tyrese Haliburton takes a bit to get his sea legs under him, the Pacers are adding Ivica Zubac and Kelly Oubre Jr to the roster that won the East in 2025. The Sixers are adding Brown to Tyrese Maxey, year-two VJ Edgecomb, and whatever they get from Joel Embiid, not to mention Dean Wade and Anfernee Simons. The Raptors brought back Kawhi. That’s six right there. Throw in the Magic with a coaching upgrade, and the team the Knicks were down 2-1 to in the first round might suddenly be the 10th seed in the East, with Charlotte on the outside looking in. When you factor in the flattened lottery odds and the new disincentive to tank too hard, the margins will matter more than ever when it comes to getting regular season wins. The Knicks have confidence and continuity on their side, but will also have to battle complacency. We’ll see how well they balance those competing interests over the 82-game marathon.
Question No. 2: Will kicking the can down the road make their life easier or harder? The good news: the Knicks gave themselves until February to find a better answer at the backup five. The bad news: everyone can see the ticking clock above their head. Ultimately, that may not matter nearly as much as the market, which will sort itself out between now and the trade deadline. They also aren’t necessarily limited to answering this question via trade, and its possible a buyout guy unexpectedly shakes free. But whereas Jose Alvarado was seen as something of a luxury item for this stretch run, the perception may be quite a bit different this time around. Whether that makes their life materially harder remains to be seen.
All in all, if you told me two weeks ago that the Knicks would wind up staying under the second apron while bringing back Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Mohamed Diawara (with a strong possibility of retaining Jordan Clarkson) and signing Andre Drummond to replace Mitch, I’d have signed on the dotted line. I’m betting others would have joined me.
So now we wait…to see what else they do to round out the roster, to see how the rest of the East shakes out, and eventually, to see what rotation they entrust with the title defense.
(Writing those words will never get old.)
And now, a bonus Monday column from the one and only Ray Marcano!
by Ray Marcano
As a fan, I’m furious that Knicks owner James Dolan said the team wouldn’t go into the second apron to keep the team together.
Dolan couldn’t even let fans enjoy the good vibes from the first championship in 53 years. Instead, four days after the Knicks beat San Antonio for the crown, and one day before the Knicks’ first-ever championship parade (the team didn’t have one in 1970 or 1973), he crushed the hopes of fans with the delicacy of a vice grip squashing a grape.
Dolan, the billionaire who oversees an empire, apparently can’t afford a media team to coach him on the right thing to say, which was as simple as this: “We’ll worry about the business stuff later. We just won and have a parade tomorrow so let us enjoy that first.”
Instead, we had our hopes crushed and watched our guy, Mitchell Robinson, sign with the hated Celtics.
If Dolan has the temerity to show up at this Fall’s ring ceremony at the Garden, he will be booed more viciously than the adult who grabs a foul ball from a child.
The fan is me is pissed, especially given how the Knicks have exploded in valuation. According to the Basketball Network, Dolan has a personal net worth of $2 billion, and although that makes him one the poorest owners in the NBA, the team could surpass an $8 billion valuation, and the Knicks generated an extra $145 million during their playoff run.
The Madison Square Garden Sports Corp, Dolan’s company, can afford the extra tax for a chance to win it all again, the fan in me says.
But the MBA/economics minor in me think Dolan’s right.
I don’t think he’s right about the second apron because the penalties are only severe for repeat offenders.
But I think he knows the team can’t repeat some of the awful decisions that hampered front offices past and held back the franchise.
Shandon Anderson (6 years, $42 million), Jerome James (5 years, $30 million) and (gasp!) Joakim Noah (4 years, $72 million) are just some of the names signed to obscene contracts under the theory they could help the team win. Instead, all they did was clog the cap.
As Jonathan noted last week, giving the injury-plagued Mitch Robinson a three-year deal might not be the smartest move. We love Mitch, but at what cost?
Cost is paramount in any business, as it is at MSG. I was going to dig into its tax records, but KFS alum Vivek Dadhania saved me the effort. His entire ‘X’ thread is worth a read because it dives deep into the cost of resigning Mitch. Here’s one number: sign Mitch and the luxury tax would have jumped to $98M. That’s a number that would make any shareholder squirm.
This departure seems extra painful because we let go of Mitchell Robinson. Fans weren’t quite as upset when Isaiah Hartenstein, who does some things on the court better than Mitch, left for more money in Oklahoma City.
But Mitch is different. He was the longest tenured player who bridged the terrible (17-65 in his 2018-19 rookie season) with the triumphant. He’s the player the coaching staff developed into one of the league’s best offensive rebounders. He’s the player the crowds cheered for if he made just one out of two free throws (or clapped with encouragement when he missed both).
There are other factors.
The Knicks front office has likely run a bunch of simulations to show how many games the Knicks would win if they replaced Mitch with someone like Andre Drummond (welcome Andre). I ran a quick simulation and it makes sense. Drummond’s health gives the Knicks a more reliable win outcome (53-55), while Robinson’s health and game management issues leave open a wider range of possibilities. The front office has more sophisticated tools and knows this.
And for anyone arguing that regular season production still matters, the playoffs did them no favors. The team finished third in the in East with 53 wins – the sixth most in the NBA – and still won the championship. They showed that finishing first isn’t nearly as important as peaking at the right time. Between the beginning of the season, the trade deadline and waivers, there are plenty of chances to peak…
…though they won’t do this as well (1:20 mark)
Dolan isn’t guilty of making a bad business decision or being indifference towards his team. He is guilty of being James Dolan, the owner who for decades was as loathed as Tonya Harding at an etiquette convention. Dolan had one brief moment of forgiveness and threw it all away with a senseless second apron comment.
Dolan handled this in a clumsy manner, and he’s lost any good will earned during the championship.
But that doesn’t mean he’s not right.
Ray Marcano is a long-time journalist who writes for some of the country’s biggest brands and is an award-winning columnist.
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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”