Overreaction blah blah blah I should wait until this series ends, but idc. Either way I find this trade fascinating.

Knicks keep thibs and resort to a defensive mentality with an incredibly deep team. Bane is a near 50-40-90 guy who can handle secondary creation better than anyone else on the Knicks rn(avg over 5 apg last 2 years). He’s also a solid defender, and would a lot into the starting 2-3 spot moving hart to the bench. Kennard is effectively what boogdanavic was for us last year but more efficient. Like, insane efficiency. Goga is one of my favorite center prospects(Knicks also showed interest last off season) and I think he’d start over Robinson. He’s got better offensive tools while still being very very good defensively and on the glass. Knicks also get 2 firsts back from Memphis for giving up an all nba player for a maybe all star.

Memphis does this to keep up on the west. They just caught a sad but massive break w jjj missing out on dpoy and all nba, meaning his possible extension went from like 350 mil to like 200 mil. This gives a lot more flexibility to take on a contract like Kat. Kat and jjj would work very well next to each other and allow ja to absolutely cook in pnp with either of them. Player wise they just give up bane and huff(who is fully replaced by Kat) and s&t kennard. The picks r a little harder to swallow but this is certainly an upgrade for them, and they still retain some draft capital with a great history of drafting well in later spots.

Magic do it for salary cutting reasons. Franz and Suggs r locked up for 40 mil a year a piece. Kcp is gonna require the magic adding a pick to get off. They just signed wcj and JI to longer term deals. Goga is a prime option to get off of as a guy who barely plays 20 mpg and as a guy they can get decent value back for. Here they get back 2 seconds and a legit shooting center to play next to their wings. Idk how effective huff can be, but it’s worth a gamble to see if he can do well. And they save 6 mil to clear some room to sign Paulo.

Potential Knicks rotation: Brunson, bane, mikal, og, goga McBride, kennard, hart, Mitch Extras: kolek, pacome, mccullar, hukporti, vet min signings(Larry nance??)