The Knicks have made a believer out of Kendrick Perkins.
On Thursday, the former NBA star and current ESPN analyst said he believes the Knicks are better than some of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, including the 76ers, Bucks and Cavaliers.
New York, winners in 10 of 11, bolstered its roster Thursday by trading for the Pistons’ Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic, though OG Anunoby is now expected to miss at least three weeks with an elbow injury.
While his fellow panelists on ESPN’s NBA trade deadline special didn’t agree with the surprising take, Perkins doubled down by saying he would take the Knicks in a series against Bucks after Richard Jefferson suggested that Milwaukee would have the two best players in that series.
But Perkins said he is a believer in Jalen Brunson, who is a first-time All-Star this year.
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say I know so,” Perkins said about the Knicks winning a theoretical series against the Bucks.
“The thinking about the Bucks is, the one thing about it, I can watch Jalen Brunson and tell his mindset and his mentality is to play both ends of the floor. I can’t say the same about [Damian Lillard].”
He continued: “He’s been doing a way better job than Damian Lillard and he actually takes it personal. If we turn on the film and watch the effort that Jalen Brunson is giving to get over screens, it is night and day from Damian Lillard.”
But Perkins’ take didn’t stop there on the Knicks.
When it came to the one thing that’s set New York and some of those other teams apart is that the Knicks “have a culture and an identity.”
“They have more dawgs on their team that the Milwaukee Bucks do,” Perkins said. “If you want to go down the line, I can’t name one guy on [the Knicks] that’s not a pit bull. Not one on the New York Knicks. Every single guy on the Knicks is gonna bring it night in and night out. We always look at talent. … In order to win a championship, you gotta have a team full of some dawgs.”
The entered Thursday night sitting in fourth in the Eastern Conference at 33-18.