Jalen Brunson’s idol Justin Bieber would ask if it’s too late to say sorry. The New York Knicks certainly hope not, especially when it comes to the 2018 NBA Draft.
June 21, 2018 will go down as a fateful day on the metropolitan timeline: two established Knicks stars, Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo, earned their professional entries, and another, Mikal Bridges may soon join them. Bridges was reportedly acquired from the Brooklyn Nets in a trade reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Tuesday night.
For many Knicks fans, it’s better late than never.
The “Nova Knicks” project could’ve gotten a head start in 2018, when four members of a national champion Wildcats team were chosen among the first 32 picks. DiVincenzo, fresh off a brilliant performance in the finale against Michigan, was the No. 17 pick to Milwaukee while Knicks fans are well aware that the Dallas Mavericks chose Brunson 32nd. Two picks before Brunson, the Atlanta Hawks closed out the first round by taking their teammate Omari Spellman.
The Knicks could’ve gotten that train started at ninth overall by taking Mikal Bridges. Instead, New York opted for Kentucky freshman Kevin Knox, kickstarting one of the most disappointing ends to a decade in franchise history.
Many, such as ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, believed that the Knicks would dip into the Main Line’s talent pool. Knicks fans themselves wanted Missouri’s Michael Porter and booed Knox’s arrival when he took to the Barclays Center stage. Instead, in came Knox, then the most recent co-SEC Freshman of the Year alongside Cleveland pick Collin Sexton.
“Michael’s a very good player. I wish him nothing but the best,” then-Knicks general manager Scott Perry said, per Ian Begley, then of ESPN. “Tonight is about talking about Kevin Knox and why we took Kevin Knox, and we feel very good about the selection we made. Ultimately we were comfortable with the pick that he had at No. 9 and got the guy we really targeted and liked at that position.”
Those good vibes, alas, did not last long: Knox got plenty of playing time amidst a lethargic 17-win slog overseen by David Fizdale but brutal advanced stats (PER worst among rookie with a min. of 20 minutes, second-worst offensive win shares in the Association entirely) were rather damning. Knox’s time quickly dwindled and became nearly non-existent by the time the notoriously hard-to-please Tom Thibodeau arrived to serve as head coach.
If it’s any comfort to the Knicks, no one appeared to crack Knox’s code: sent to Atlanta for fellow touted washout Cam Reddish in 2020, Knox struggled to gain any traction in Atlanta, Portland, or Detroit. He was last seen with Portland’s G League affiliate Rip City, playing 11 games with the Trail Blazers’ prospects.
To his credit, Knox blamed only himself for his metropolitan shortcomings, taking responsibility in a 2022 feature from Stefan Bondy, then of the New York Daily News.
“I had my fair opportunity. I didn’t make the best of it, unfortunately,” Knox said. “I put it all on me. I got to work harder … All the narratives they created. I put it all on me.”
The fact that MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was chosen two picks after Knox is bad enough. But Bridges going with the very next selection is perhaps one of the biggest blows of all.
Bridges had a seemingly scripted path to the NBA, as the Philadelphia 76ers (Villanova’s part-time roommates at Wells Fargo Center) took him with the 10th overall selection. But continued affairs on South Broad Street were not to be: Bridges was traded to the Phoenix Suns in a pick swap that netted Zhaire Smith (he of 13 career NBA games) and a first-round pick that originally belong to Miami. Oklahoma City later used that pick to take Tre Mann.
Years later, Bridges, who established himself as a strong two-way player in Phoenix before he was traded to Brooklyn in 2023, admitted he wanted to go the Knicks when they hit the clock at No. 9 in 2018.
“I thought I was going to go to New York at (No.) 9,” Bridges said in a Tidal League podcast. “I was excited, though, because I wanted to go to the Knicks, I wanted to be in New York, I’m like that’s lit. I love MSG, all my best games in college were there.”
Even though Bridges has finally made his way to Manhattan, the aftershocks of the Knox gambit continue to be felt in Manhattan to this day.
Knox was meant to be part of a Knick core headlined by fellow homegrown talents like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Frank Ntilikina. All were ousted in the early stages of Thibodeau’s active reign and the Knicks have mostly turned to veteran acquisitions like Bridges, Brunson, DiVincenzo, and their fellow former Wildcat Josh Hart, to pave a path forward.