The Knicks see this summer as the all-in summer given the contracts of Brunson, OG, Hartenstein etc will put them firmly into luxury tax/ first apron territory. When you look at how our healthy starting lineup performed in January, it’s hard to find an available upgrade to make that group better. Outside of a Giannis level player unexpectedly becoming available, you can argue that even players like Donovan Mitchell, mikal etc don’t necessarily improve the starting lineup in a significant way. That’s not to say I wouldn’t want them. I want bridges badly. But it’s a huge hypothetical price to pay when swapping Donte or Randle out of the lineup for bridges probably doesn’t give the starting lineup a huge spike.

So there’s an alternative version, which is to go all-in with this version of the Knicks, and essentially adding the most knick player on the market in Caruso to essentially replace Bojans rotation spot. He can back up both Donte and Brunson (and pair well with deuce.) He’s become an efficient 3pt shooter at a reasonably high volume, and is obviously an elite defender. You can play him in a ton of different lineups. A closing lineup that includes OG at PF, hart at SF and Caruso at SG may never be scored on or outworked again. It’s taking what worked in the playoffs and maximizing it.

There’s a number of ways to match his salary, so just focusing on the draft comp, what’s the max you give? 2024 #24 pick, plus the Milwaukee pick, plus 1 future unprotected pick? Is that enough ? Chicago needs to reset and should sell high on Caruso to get value back. While other teams are chasing available lower tier stars like the Atlanta or Cleveland guards, Knicks can grab a player who can have another Hart or OG-like impact to some degree. Going all-in can be many different versions. There’s only a few guys outside of the leagues best players who can add value to this group. Caruso is one of those guys. It just comes down to cost.

Nalod wrote:
Give up? He starting over DDV? We have Steph Curry "Lite" who plays defense and we looking for another josh hart?
Im cool with adding but not every year will we be beset with injuries like this year. He is on a good contract for just under 10mill for one more year.

Why wouldn't Chicago extend him now? If they can't/Won't then what will it take?
Does that Salary fit?

Bojan is a offensive player who can light it up. Caruso is not that. Off the bench with Precious, Mitch, and Josh leaves team a bit short on offense.

Bruce Brown similarly. These are Thibian types but who leaves if they are in?

Caruso wouldn’t start over Donte. He would come off the bench but becomes interchangeable with Donte/ hart etc. We learned during playoffs we can’t have enough of these multi-positional, elite role players. They work so well here with thibs and Brunson.

franco12 wrote:we need help up front and with size - we have plenty of guys in the 6' to 6'5" range.

Preach!

newyorknewyork wrote:

franco12 wrote:we need help up front and with size - we have plenty of guys in the 6' to 6'5" range.

Preach!

I agree

That sad, if we could get him at a discount, sign me up. He fits our profile

newyorknewyork wrote:

franco12 wrote:we need help up front and with size - we have plenty of guys in the 6' to 6'5" range.

Preach!

Knixkik wrote:

martin wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

Nalod wrote:
Give up? He starting over DDV? We have Steph Curry "Lite" who plays defense and we looking for another josh hart?
Im cool with adding but not every year will we be beset with injuries like this year. He is on a good contract for just under 10mill for one more year.

Why wouldn't Chicago extend him now? If they can't/Won't then what will it take?
Does that Salary fit?

Bojan is a offensive player who can light it up. Caruso is not that. Off the bench with Precious, Mitch, and Josh leaves team a bit short on offense.

Bruce Brown similarly. These are Thibian types but who leaves if they are in?

Caruso wouldn’t start over Donte. He would come off the bench but becomes interchangeable with Donte/ hart etc. We learned during playoffs we can’t have enough of these multi-positional, elite role players. They work so well here with thibs and Brunson.

I love the idea of Carus, but elite role-player like Hart is not what the Knicks need more of even if it has worked so well? They need more ball handling and offensive initiation and a guy off bench who can also double up as a center of the offense? Caruso can *cover* those aspects but that's not his forte?

His forte is being a slightly different Josh Hart?

For me he would be enhancing too much of what you are already plentiful in. This theory will never be applicable to cleavage, obviously.

Caruso can serve as a backup PG/ playmaker which is something we don’t have.

So can LeBron but no one would trade for him for those reasons. And obviously that's hyperbole to make a point, there is certainly a fine line there.

While Caruso can do backup PG and play making in a pinch, he is not a backup PG/playmaker at heart, so you are also asking him to play out of position and not play to his strengths. It's the same way with Josh Hart. In a pinch, while Randle is hurt and Deuce is still learning the PG ropes, Josh can fill in at that spot but it'll take away what he is really good at doing.

You really shouldn't overpay to trade for a player (and you will have to overpay for Caruso) that duplicates too much of what you already have while asking him to play a role he is not really suited for. That's a recipe for some kind of under performance/failure

You only do that in online arguments and not in real life.

Knixkik wrote:

ESOMKnicks wrote:I think we are very well-stocked in our backcourt positions, and would like to give the Nova squad a number of years to see everything it can do for us. So no new guards or small forwards, unless it is Mikal.
But would really like to get a tough frontcourt player with a decent 3 point shot.

I still don’t like how the offense can’t function off the bench without Brunson. I really think we need another guy who can control an offense.

someone wrote knicks move up in draft and take Rob Dillingham. Be nice to get a rookie in again!
Drafts like this are not easy which makes moving up or down easier when so many variables in place.

Brunson is going to have a short career if he needs to bring the ball up every time. You need guys to break the isolation, JB is the man but sometimes the guys are sitting around waiting, this is going to help, they need eas buckets, Indy was whipping it around.

If it’s the mid level having these contracts like DDV and Deuce keeps this team at the top.