In ESPN’s most recent NBA Power Rankings, NBA Insider Chris Herring suggested the New York Knicks target Washington Wizards center Jonas Valanciunas at the trade deadline.
A team with Karl-Anthony Towns can be a force (see his work in the fourth quarter against the Bulls on Saturday night). A team without him is a middling playoff team at best (see the Minnesota Timberwolves, holding a tenuous grip on the eighth seed in the West, not to mention the Knicks’ effort against the Magic sans KAT on Monday night).
Let’s be honest: the Knicks front office must be forced into moving forward as though Mitchell Robinson will be a non-entity with the team. Thirty-seven games into the season, Robinson has yet to make an appearance.
In his six full NBA seasons, he has only played in sixty games or more in three of them (in his defense, he played in 59 contests in 2022-2023), and his last true action on the hardwood came in Game 6 of the first-round series against Philadelphia … on May 2 (he struggled through fewer than 12 minutes of play in Game 1 against Indiana in the next round, still hobbled from an ankle injury incurred by Joel Embiid, which demanded the surgery that still keeps him out).
When healthy, Robinson uses his athleticism to provide much-needed rim protection and offensive rebounding, abilities that rendered Cleveland ineffectual in the 2022-2023 playoffs. His defensive work on Embiid was also a deciding factor in the Knicks’ advancing past Philly in the 2023-2024 playoffs.
Unfortunately, “good health” is a phrase not often used to describe Mitch.
With Chet Holmgren out, the Oklahoma City Thunder are humming to the tune of a franchise record 15-game winning streak that ended at the hands of the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers, 129-122, on Wednesday night, partially due to the tenacity Isaiah Hartenstein once brought to the Knicks.
In 21 games this season, Hartenstein is averaging 12.2 points, 12.1 rebounds (fifth in the NBA), and 4.2 assists a game (fifth in the league among all centers).
A player like him would be vital to the Knicks’ success as championship material.
Enter Jonas Valanciunas.
Though James Edwards III of The Athletic reports that “his gut tells him” that New York will use the remainder of this season and time through the trade deadline as “an evaluation period,” and does not anticipate a big trade until the summer “at the earliest,” the Knicks would be foolish to stand pat and not at least inquire about Valanciunas. Attractively, the big man’s contract is supremely affordable (through 2026-2027, his highest AAV, in 2025-2026, is $10.395 million). Valanciunas’s PER of 21.83 is eleventh in the NBA amongst centers, whereby he is averaging 11.9 PPG and 8.1 RPG.
Precious Achiuwa has performed admirably in spelling OG Anunoby off the bench at power forward, though Jericho Sims, despite his per-36-minute rebounding rate (11.0 per game), is not fit to man the center position for long spells.
Quite frankly, the Knicks’ lack of rim protection and frontcourt options will be their undoing come playoff time.
Last season, the Minnesota Timberwolves used size to restrict the defending champion Denver Nuggets, amounting to a hard-fought Western Conference finals berth, and any minutes-balance of KAT, Valanciunas, and Robinson between the power forward and center positions could determine a similar outcome. The formidable lineup would provide matchup nightmares for Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Orlando, and Atlanta in the East, not to mention OKC in the West, should the Knicks even get that far.
Even with Mitch gone, a Twin Towers feature of KAT and Valanciunas dramatically improves the Knicks as the season progresses.
The Knicks have seen firsthand what Valanciunas can do: his 22 points and 9 rebounds led Washington despite an eventual 126-106 loss to New York on Dec. 30.
In spite of Nikola Jokic’s career-high 56 points against Washington on Dec. 7, Valanciunas’s side prevailed, thanks to his monster effort: he managed 20 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 blocks, a 122-113 victory that stands as their best win of the season.
A “wait and see” approach hurt the Knicks when waiting on a Julius Randle return from a dislocated shoulder that never happened last season.
Leon Rose waiting for Mitchell Robinson at the expense of another team landing Jonas Valanciunas at the deadline could just as emphatically harm the New York Knicks’ title hopes.
