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    The Knicks Stumbled Last Season. Here’s How They Can Recover.

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    With free agency beginning, the Knicks have several options to build on what’s working and to move on from what is not.Good news for Knicks fans: The franchise has lured one of the best free agents, a rare occurrence for the team this century.The bad news: It’s a weak free-agent class, and this top free agent — the 25-year-old point guard Jalen Brunson — has never made an All-Star team. He has agreed to sign with the Knicks for $104 million over four seasons, his agents Aaron Mintz and Sam Rose told ESPN. Rose is the son of the team’s president, Leon Rose.That’s a hefty investment to make in a player who, in his best of four seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, averaged 16.3 points and 4.8 assists per game. He has been a full-time starter for just one season. But Brunson represents a significant upgrade at point guard, a position where the Knicks have long struggled to find playmakers. In the last two decades, Knicks starting point guards have included Chris Duhon, Toney Douglas, Trey Burke and Pablo Prigioni. Brunson has an excellent floater game in the paint, he’s a reliable shooter and he can break down a defense and put pressure at the rim.Brunson’s father, Rick, who briefly played for the team in the late-1990s, also is expected to be an assistant coach on the team next season. The Knicks have not announced his hiring, but in early June multiple reports said they were nearing a deal. The team did not respond to a request for comment.With the younger Brunson running the floor, the Knicks could be a dangerous playoff team, like they were in 2020-21, or one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference, like they were last season. That’s how much variance there is with the roster as free agency signings begin Wednesday.Jalen Brunson started 61 games for the Dallas Mavericks last season, averaging 16.3 points per game for the season, the most in his career.Jed Jacobsohn/Associated PressThe conundrum facing the Knicks is that their rotation players are talented but flawed. Brunson, in essence, embodies this. He can score in bunches, but he isn’t a quality defender. He’s almost assuredly not good enough to be the best player on a contending team, and it’s not certain that his ceiling is much higher than what he showed last season.The 22-year-old RJ Barrett, who is entering his fourth season, has not shown enough consistency to be a cornerstone. He’s good at getting to the rim but not at finishing, and his jumper needs work. The other young hopes, including power forward Obi Toppin, 24, and point guard Immanuel Quickley, 23, have alternated between being solid contributors and being liabilities. Toppin cuts and runs the floor well, but he is a below-average shooter and struggles defensively. Quickley was better at running the offense during his second season in 2021-22, but he is an inefficient scorer and his size makes him an easy target on defense.Last season was — charitably — a step back for the Knicks. They seemed to be finally finding their way out of the darkness with their 2021 postseason run. They signed Julius Randle to a pricey contract extension and gave new deals to the veterans Derrick Rose, Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel. Then, they missed the playoffs last season, and the weight of those new deals felt heavier. Randle struggled last season, and the veterans didn’t play well enough to merit being part of the team long term.Mitchell Robinson, the 24-year-old center, is another good example of the team’s talented-but-flawed issue. He is an excellent rim protector and lob threat around the rim, but he has no offensive range to speak of and hasn’t improved much in four seasons. Still, the Knicks have agreed to bring him back on a four-year, $60 million deal, his agents Thad Foucher and Joe Smith told ESPN.The Knicks will need to make salary-cap space to sign Brunson, and that likely means moving on from some of the ill-fitting veterans. But beyond that, the Knicks need to add players who can help them rise out of mediocrity — the worst place to be in the N.B.A. They aren’t bad enough to receive high draft picks but aren’t not good enough to justify their biggest contracts.Quality veterans looking to chase a ring most likely would not take a pay cut to join them because the Knicks don’t have a roster that can realistically contend for a championship at the moment. If a star becomes available, say a Kevin Durant or a Kyrie Irving, the Knicks probably won’t have the best package to offer: not the best young prospects, not the highest draft picks, just a mishmash of middling pieces. It’s hard to see the ceiling for this team as anything higher than a low seed in the playoffs.But the N.B.A. is an increasingly fluid league, and there is a real reason to believe the Knicks can overcome their deficiencies and surpass expectations.The Knicks likely will start the season with Brunson, Randle and Barrett as the primary ballhandlers. Even with their weaknesses, that’s a better-than-average group of playmakers in today’s N.B.A. Brunson’s ability to penetrate will take pressure off Randle, who could use more time not being the primary attack point on the offense. Brunson’s shooting will create more space for him and Randle to operate around the basket. If Randle has some of that pressure relieved, he can put more energy toward his other strengths, such as rebounding and passing. Maybe the Knicks will get the All-Star version of Randle back.And Brunson’s arrival should also make life easier for Barrett. He had a bigger role in the offense after the All-Star break last season and averaged 24.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. He shot only 40.1 percent from the field in those games — talented but flawed! — but he showed potential as the No. 1 option. If Barrett can bring a passable efficiency to the game, he becomes a borderline All-Star alongside Randle.To complement that core, the Knicks need consistent shooting around them. They already have someone who can help with that in Evan Fournier, who shot 38.9 percent from deep last year. Quickley didn’t shoot well last year, but in his rookie year, he also shot 38.9 percent from 3.Rose, who was injured for much of last season, also should be able to help. With the Knicks, Rose has been a surprisingly good shooter and another body to help break down defenses. At 33, and with a lengthy injury history, he likely can’t be the sixth man off the bench, but his return will be a welcome sight for the team. There is a world in which a closing lineup of Randle, Barrett, Brunson, Fournier and Rose is extremely difficult to defend.There is some light beyond this year — some being the operative word. The Knicks have a pile of first-round draft picks in coming years, including picks from Dallas, Washington and Detroit. Next year, the Knicks could have four first-round picks. Several of the picks have conditions, which lowers their value. And if the Knicks keep being OK but not great, their own draft picks most likely would fall in the mid-to-late first round, which also reduces their value.But having a stockpile of picks is better than having none, and the Knicks could use some of them in a trade instead of holding them to select intriguing prospects. The agreement to sign Brunson to a major deal suggests the Knicks are trying to win now. Leon Rose rarely speaks publicly, so the Knicks’ broader strategy is unclear.The Knicks were one of the worst teams in the league for years, but they still have the core pieces that helped them secure home-court advantage in the playoffs just two seasons ago. The Knicks are not a superteam, but in today’s N.B.A., that might be OK. More

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      The Knicks’ Struggles Go Deeper Than Kemba Walker

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      A surprising reconsideration of the lineup that pushed Walker out of the rotation could help with some of the team’s issues, but not all of them.Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau has long been known as resistant to change, particularly in the way he uses his starters. He’s often been criticized for playing them for too many minutes, rain or shine, whether or not they are performing well.So it was surprising this week, a quarter of a way through the season, when Thibodeau said that he was pulling the plug on Kemba Walker as the starting point guard in favor of Alec Burks, a reserve for most of his career and not a traditional point guard. And it wasn’t just that Walker, a four-time All-Star who signed with the Knicks in the summer, was being yanked from the lineup. Thibodeau told reporters that Walker would be out of the rotation entirely.Changing a starter this early in the season is significant, particularly when it’s one with Walker’s résumé. At 31, Walker, in theory, should still be in his athletic prime.But Thibodeau was trying to correct for an urgent, and frequent, problem: Knicks starters putting the team in a hole that the bench has to dig it out of. If playoff teams are consistently hurt by any part of their roster, it’s usually a thin bench. But for the Knicks, the starters — even beyond Walker — are the reason they are a fringe playoff team instead of near the top of the Eastern Conference standings.Tuesday night’s game against the Nets was illustrative. Down 1 point at halftime, the Nets came out of the break with a blistering 14-0 run against the Knicks’ starters minus guard RJ Barrett, who missed the second half with an unspecified illness. The starters climbed back into the game and briefly took the lead. But the Knicks lost the 112-110 thriller in Brooklyn — in part because coming out of halftime flat left the team playing the Nets (15-6) from behind for most of the second half.Julius Randle regularly draws multiple defenders.Michelle Farsi/Getty ImagesThis wasn’t an exception. In a Nov. 10 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the reigning champions, the Knicks went down double digits in the first quarter. Even against the Houston Rockets, one of the worst teams in the N.B.A., the Knicks fell behind 18-11 in the first quarter before tying the game by halftime and winning. The next night, Nov. 21, against Chicago, the Bulls raced out to a 20-8 start en route to victory.The starting lineup the Knicks (11-10) have played for much of the season — Walker, Barrett, Evan Fournier, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson — hasn’t just struggled. Its net rating — a measure of how much better or worse a team or group is than their opponents — is negative 15.7, according to the league’s tracking numbers. That places this unit among the worst starting or bench lineups in the N.B.A.The evidence was becoming undeniable. Thibodeau needed to try something else.Walker wasn’t the sole issue, but he was a big part of the problem. He’s averaging 11.7 points per game on 42.9 percent shooting from the field, and an excellent 41.3 percent from 3-point range. But Walker’s play took a nosedive in November after a hot start. In 12 games last month, Walker shot only 29.6 percent from deep. If his 3s aren’t falling, there isn’t much else he’s doing on the court.Because of chronic knee issues in recent years, Walker has lost his explosive first step, so he’s not able to get to the rim as effectively. And because of his height — Walker is listed at 6 feet tall — and slower foot speed, Walker was targeted on defense. The only way to justify keeping him on the court would be if he spread the floor with his shooting, and he is no longer doing that.Inserting Burks into the starting lineup for Walker makes some things easier for the Knicks. He’s bigger — listed at 6-foot-6 — which makes him a more versatile defender. On Tuesday night, he was just as likely to guard the 6-foot-5 James Harden as the quick rookie guard Cameron Thomas, who is 6-foot-3. Early in the third quarter, Burks blocked a Patty Mills 3-pointer — easier for him than for Walker.“You’re able to switch 1 through 4,” Derrick Rose, the Knicks reserve guard, said of Burks’s insertion into the lineup. “You’re more versatile. I mean, A.B. is a hell of a player. A playmaker. A great shooter.”But Burks doesn’t fully solve a starting lineup problem that led Thibodeau to increasingly rely on the bench late in games. The Knicks don’t have much of a fast-break offense and often depend on isolations to get their points — which would be fine if their shooters did more work on their own to get open rather than just standing still. The team is near the top of the league in contested shots and toward the bottom in wide-open ones.Fournier’s stats dipped in November like Walker’s did, causing Thibodeau to barely use him in key moments late in games. Thibodeau did call his number on Tuesday night against the Nets, and Fournier rewarded him by hitting a game-tying 3-pointer with 18 seconds left. But overall, Fournier shot 5 for 12 for 13 points in 22 minutes, with no rebounds or assists. Like with Walker, if Fournier isn’t consistently a 3-point threat, there’s little reason for him to be on the floor.Randle, the team’s best player, has faced an onslaught of double teams without reliable shooting around him, and he has struggled. Randle is shooting only 41.7 percent from the field and 32.5 percent from 3 — all below his career averages. All of Barrett’s numbers have declined from last year as well. Barrett has improved his finishing around the rim, but his shooting has always been his biggest question mark, one he appeared to answer last year when he shot 40.1 percent from deep. Now he’s at 32.1 percent. (For his part, Barrett also started slowly last year, only to pick it up in the second half of the season.)Thibodeau was not in the mood to discuss the lineup change after Tuesday’s loss. Asked about it, Thibodeau expressed anger at the game’s officiating and then left the news conference after just one question.The saving grace for the Knicks has been their bench trio of Rose, Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley. The team is third in the N.B.A. in bench scoring. Toppin is a sorely needed threat at the rim and in transition and does something the Knicks generally don’t do well: cut. Quickley and Rose have provided quality shooting, especially late in games, and Rose has been one of the few Knicks effective at getting to the rim.Swapping Walker for Burks swap has already paid dividends. He scored 25 and 23 points in the last two games, his only two starts of the season. And the Knicks may need to make more adjustments. More lineup changes mean the increased potential for hurt feelings among veteran players, but as Thibodeau said before the game on Tuesday: “You have to put winning first.” More

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      Why Are the Knicks Struggling on Defense?

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      One of the N.B.A.’s best defenses last season, the Knicks now are one of the worst at stopping 3-point shooters. Opposing guards are having career nights.Derrick Rose, the Knicks’ speedy reserve guard, poked loose what should have been a routine end-of-the-quarter possession by the Milwaukee Bucks, then dashed the other way with the ball for a last-second layup.Rose’s crafty defensive play cut the Milwaukee lead to 16 at the end of the third quarter on Wednesday, and spurred the Knicks’ bench to begin swarming the Bucks on every possession. Soon, the Knicks were in the midst of a rousing comeback, tying the game in the fourth quarter after being 24 points down in the third.Rose’s steal was emblematic of last year’s Knicks team: high-energy, displaying active hands and making nothing easy for the opposing team.Except the Knicks couldn’t stop the 3-point shooting of Bucks guard Pat Connaughton, who hit four 3-pointers in the final quarter to keep the Knicks at bay. It was emblematic of this year’s Knicks team: unable to sustain defensive effort and punished from the perimeter by a hot-shooting guard.The Knicks have made a habit of giving up big offensive nights to guards this season. On Wednesday, Connaughton hit seven 3s off the bench for 23 points, the most he’d scored in a game since Oct. 18, 2017. In the Knicks’ season opener last month, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics went off for a career-high 46 points. The most surprising opponent performance of the year has been from Ricky Rubio, the backup point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who scored 37 points off the bench on Sunday. Rubio hit eight of his nine 3s — this after being a poor shooter for most of his career. There was also the 36-point explosion from Toronto’s OG Anunoby earlier this month. Brown, Rubio and Anunoby’s performances were all career highs.Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ricky Rubio hit 8 of 9 3-pointers against the Knicks, despite averaging less than one make per game over his career.Noah K. Murray/Associated PressAfter a fast 5-1 start, the Knicks have come back down to earth, going 2-4 in their last six games. The slide has been primarily because of their defense. It’s the opposite problem of last year: They’ve scored at least 100 points in all but one game, and they are ranked fifth in the N.B.A. in offense. After Wednesday’s loss to the Bucks, the Knicks were the league’s 26th best team on defense — also known as its fifth worst. It’s a stark change from last year, when the Knicks were the fourth best defensive team.The biggest shift has been in guarding the 3-point shot. Last season, the Knicks led the league in opponent 3-point percentage, meaning there was no team against whom it was more difficult to score from outside the perimeter. Now the Knicks are 26th.The Knicks are also surrendering 41.7 deep shots a game — the most in the league. Last year, they were below league average, in the bottom 10. So the team is giving up more shots from 3 and has become worse at defending them, much to the chagrin of Coach Tom Thibodeau. The Bucks made 26 3-pointers against the Knicks, the most ever made against the team in franchise history.When asked Wednesday about the kinds of 3-point shots that opposing offenses are getting against his team, Thibodeau was brusque: “Well, we don’t want to give up any shots.”Thibodeau’s irritation is understandable. In a decades-long coaching career, Thibodeau’s defensive acumen has become his signature. During the 2007-8 season, he was the architect of the Celtics defense that won a championship. The defense was so good that Celtics power forward Kevin Garnett won the Defensive Player of the Year Award that season. In Thibodeau’s five seasons as head coach of the Chicago Bulls, the team led the league in defense twice and never finished lower than 11th. But in Minnesota, where Thibodeau spent two and a half seasons, the Timberwolves were one of the worst defensive teams in the league each season.What’s odd about this current defensive spell is that the Knicks brought back most of their players from last year, when they were strong defensively. Plus, Mitchell Robinson, one of the league’s best rim protectors, missed most of last season but is healthy and starting.The biggest change in the lineup has been the new starting backcourt of Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier, who are not known for their defense but have added some much-needed shooting punch.Opposing guards are finding it easier to get by the Knicks’ starting guards and into the paint, especially off screen-and-rolls. This forces the Knicks’ interior defenders, like Robinson and Julius Randle, or Knicks guards to rotate over and help, allowing for open shots on the perimeter. Rubio, in particular, took advantage of this. When help wouldn’t come fast enough, he would take an open 3. If it did come, he used his foot speed to get around the defense and find easy looks for others.Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday and Giannis Antetokounmpo often were able to break down the Knicks’ perimeter defenses.“I really can’t put a finger it,” Rose said. “I think it came from us not making shots on the other end then them putting pressure on us by using Giannis and Jrue in pick-and-roll to swing the ball to the corners. I think they hit like three straight 3s in the corner. They were just trying to expose us in different ways to make us help or over-help and spray out for 3s.”In one sequence, RJ Barrett missed a layup and the Bucks immediately rebounded and ran the other way. Walker did not pick up Bucks guard Grayson Allen fast enough in transition. Allen didn’t have to work hard to get open and hit a 3 with Walker at least three feet away from him. Walker didn’t put a hand up.On the Bucks’ next score, Fournier was swallowed up by an Antetokounmpo screen, forcing Robinson to come help, leaving Bucks forward Bobby Portis open for 3.Toronto’s OG Anunoby went off against the Knicks for 36 points, hitting 48.1 percent of his shots, including four 3-pointers.Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThese aren’t aberrations. There are other defensive issues for the Knicks that go beyond giving up jumpers. They have been below league average in giving up fast-break points. Last year, they were second. This is particularly problematic because the Knicks are playing at a slightly faster pace than they were last year, creating more opportunities for opponents to get out and run.When the Celtics came to town, Brown routinely picked on Fournier, either in transition or when getting easily by him off screens. Often, Fournier would concede Brown’s shots rather than aggressively defend him, especially beyond the arc. Brown hit eight 3s in that game.To add to their woes, the Knicks are taking more 3s than last season, but hitting them at a lower percentage. Missed jumpers often lead to long rebounds and make it easier for teams to start fast breaks.The Knicks’ bench also has been defending better than the starters, generally, judging by defensive rating — a measure of how many points a team gives up per 100 possessions with those players on the court.The good news is that this is all reversible. A team doesn’t forget how to play defense over one off-season and 12 games aren’t much to go on. And as the Knicks showed in the fourth quarter on Wednesday night, the team is capable of playing the stifling defense that became its identity last year. The chief problems the team has to solve are how to handle screeners and how to more aggressively chase open shooters. More effort will help, as Thibodeau has said.But Thibodeau wants to solve the problem immediately, even if some may think the Knicks have played too few games to fret just yet.“When it’s 10 games, you say you need 20. And when you get to 20, you say 30. And then once you get to 30, you say 40. And then before you know it, the season’s over,” Thibodeau said, referring to the concept with an unprintable word. More

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      The Knicks May Not Be Dreaming Big Enough

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      The Knicks had a good season — but good enough to just run it back? It doesn’t seem like it, and yet that appears to be their strategy.Imagine you own a brand-name company with a beloved product. For decades, because of poor design decisions, the company has released versions of the product that have gone over poorly with customers — think Coca-Cola Bacon. But you put a new leadership team in place. More

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      The N.B.A. Trades That Did, and Did Not, Happen

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      Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball are staying put (for now), but Victor Oladipo, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and others are on the move. Here’s what you need to know.Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry was heavily pursued by three of the N.B.A.’s presumed title contenders — Philadelphia, Miami and the Los Angeles Lakers — before Thursday’s trade deadline. Yet Lowry, on his 35th birthday, did not get traded.The Raptors’ decision to hold firm and keep Lowry, even though he will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, was perhaps the biggest surprise of a frantic trade deadline day in which 16 reported deals were struck.After Toronto ultimately decided that none of the three primary bidders had met its demands for a trade package for Lowry, the league’s two Florida teams — Miami and Orlando — and the Denver Nuggets emerged from the deadline having made the most significant moves.A breakdown of Thursday’s most notable business:Why Kyle Lowry Is Still a RaptorLowry, widely regarded as the only player who both was likely to be traded this week and had the ability to affect the championship chase, acknowledged after the Raptors’ win Wednesday over the Nuggets that he might have played his last game with the franchise he helped win a title in 2018-19.Amid all of Thursday’s activity, Lowry’s fate remained the greatest source of intrigue. The Raptors appeared to be clearing roster space to take the Lowry offer they found most palatable by agreeing to three trades to send Matt Thomas to Utah, Terence Davis to Sacramento and the much-coveted Norman Powell to Portland for Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood.Then the deadline passed with no trade. The Heat were unwilling to include the highly rated guard Tyler Herro in their offers for Lowry, while the Lakers refused to include the blossoming scorer Talen Horton-Tucker, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. Other factors contributed to the nontrade: Any team trading for Lowry naturally wanted to be sure it could re-sign him this summer, and Raptors officials went into the deadline pledging to send Lowry only to a destination he approved.“We owe him that respect as a person,” Masai Ujiri, Toronto’s president of basketball operations, said Thursday night.The Toronto Raptors did trade a guard on Thursday, but it was Norman Powell, right, not Kyle Lowry, left.Kim Klement/USA Today Sports, via ReutersToronto ultimately decided to take its chances with letting Lowry finish the season as a Raptor, with the hope that it can either sign him to a new deal in the summer or construct a sign-and-trade deal that prevents the Raptors from losing perhaps the most popular player in team history without compensation.Miami Pivots to Victor OladipoAfter its best Lowry offer was rebuffed by the Raptors, Miami turned instead to Houston to make a deal for Victor Oladipo, a two-time All-Star guard and another soon-to-be free agent, according to a person with knowledge of the trade who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The Heat also agreed to a trade with Sacramento for the versatile forward Nemanja Bjelica after acquiring the veteran swingman Trevor Ariza last week.As the deadline neared, Miami signaled it was out of the Lowry hunt by packaging the veterans Kelly Olynyk and Avery Bradley for Oladipo, as well as granting Houston the right to swap a 2022 first-round pick with Miami.After just two months as a Rocket, and still recovering from the serious leg injury that sidelined him for more than a year in Indiana, Oladipo did not generate nearly as much trade interest as Houston had hoped when it acquired him from the Pacers in January as part of the four-team blockbuster trade that sent James Harden to the Nets.Orlando Blows It All UpRavaged by injuries this season after a promising 4-0 start, Orlando broke from its reputation for operating in a measured fashion by aggressively embracing a rebuilding posture and trading away three players it has relied on heavily for years: center Nikola Vucevic, forward Aaron Gordon and guard Evan Fournier. Vucevic, the only 2021 All-Star dealt on Thursday, was traded to the Chicago Bulls. Gordon is bound for Denver, and Fournier is on his way to Boston.Nikola Vucevic to ChicagoAfter weeks of pessimism in rival front offices that Vucevic would be made available, Orlando gave deadline day an early jolt by packaging Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu to the Bulls for Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr. and two future first-round picks. Chicago is eager to team Vucevic with Zach LaVine, another 2021 All-Star.Nikola Vucevic is headed to the Chicago Bulls.John Raoux/Associated PressAaron Gordon is headed to the Denver Nuggets.Julio Aguilar/Getty ImagesAaron Gordon to DenverDenver, coming off a trip to the Western Conference finals, fortified its roster for another playoff run by outbidding the Boston Celtics to strike a deal with the Magic for Gordon. The Nuggets, who also agreed to acquire the veteran center JaVale McGee from Cleveland in a separate deal, are sending the veteran swingman Gary Harris, the rookie guard R.J. Hampton and a future first-round pick to the Magic for Gordon and Gary Clark, according to a person with knowledge of the trades who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.Evan Fournier to BostonDespite missing out on Gordon, Boston made good on its vows to shake up its roster in the midst of a disappointing 21-23 season by sending two future second-round picks and the veteran guard Jeff Teague to Orlando for Fournier, according to a person with knowledge of the trade. The Celtics were better positioned than the Knicks and other interested teams to absorb Fournier’s $17 million salary because of a $28.5 million trade exception they created in a sign-and-trade deal to send Gordon Hayward to Charlotte in November. Such trade exceptions allow teams to take in extra salary in trades rather than adhere to the league’s usual salary-matching rules.The Hawks and Clippers Swap GuardsThe Los Angeles Clippers, who had interest in higher-profile point guards like Lowry and Lonzo Ball of the New Orleans Pelicans, addressed their need for more playmaking by striking a deal with the Atlanta Hawks to acquire the four-time All-Star Rajon Rondo.The Clippers had coveted Rondo in free agency last fall but lost out when Rondo signed a two-year, $15 million deal with the Hawks. The trade calls for the Clippers to send the high-scoring veteran guard Lou Williams and two future second-round picks to Atlanta for Rondo, who has missed games because of injury and made minimal impact as a Hawk.Lou Williams will bring some much-needed scoring to the Atlanta Hawks.Brandon Dill/Associated PressDeals, and No DealUnwilling to go overboard in its Lowry pursuit, Philadelphia found a different path to fortifying its backcourt by assembling a three-team trade with Oklahoma City and the Knicks to acquire George Hill of the Thunder. The trade cost the 76ers two future second-round picks to each team and will also route the Knicks’ Austin Rivers to the Thunder.Cleveland and San Antonio, as expected, were unable to find palatable trades for two former All-Stars with large contracts, Andre Drummond ($28.75 million) and LaMarcus Aldridge ($24 million). San Antonio immediately agreed to a contract buyout with Aldridge that will make him an unrestricted free agent if he clears waivers, with Drummond widely expected to follow the same path.The Nets did not find a trade for the injured Spencer Dinwiddie. Despite a likely season-ending knee injury, Dinwiddie is expected to decline his $12.3 million player option for next season and become a free agent, which had the Nets looking for a potential deal to add to their depth and to avoid losing Dinwiddie for nothing.It was the N.B.A.’s fourth consecutive deadline day to generate a double-digit number of trades. The frenzy hushed fears that the deadline would be quieter than usual in part because of the league’s new playoff format, which gives 10 teams a shot at the postseason instead of the longstanding norm of eight.Entering Thursday’s play, only four of the league’s 30 teams were more than four games out of contention for the No. 10 spot in each conference: Orlando, Detroit, Houston and Minnesota. Numerous league executives have said that, in past years, teams more naturally fell into place as buyers or sellers with fewer clubs in playoff contention. More

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      N.B.A. Hopes for ‘as Close to a Normal Season as Possible’

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesThe Latest Vaccine InformationU.S. Deaths Surpass 300,000F.A.Q.AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storymarc stein on basketballN.B.A. Hopes for ‘as Close to a Normal Season as Possible’The league is embarking on a season with restrictions but no bubble: Yes to trips to Whole Foods. No to crowded elevators and the hotel gift shop.The N.B.A. is back, but it’s clear it’s not the same — and no one can be sure when it will be closer to what it was before the pandemic.Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesDec. 16, 2020, 4:38 p.m. ETThe first team to take up residence at the N.B.A. bubble in July was one of the first to be assigned a road trip last week. The Orlando Magic on Thursday afternoon boarded a team flight for the first time since March and made the short journey to Atlanta to jump-start a season like no other.Upon arrival, Orlando’s 47-passenger contingent — including two coronavirus testers — was divided up and ushered onto four separate buses to maximize social distancing. Players were reminded to avoid the hotel gift shop and crowded elevators and were instructed to stay on the hotel property, apart from visits to a nearby Whole Foods Market.“I don’t know if it’s going to be like that all season long,” Orlando’s Evan Fournier said in a phone interview. “I still don’t know what I’m really allowed to do. I guess that’s what the preseason is for.”Dress rehearsals, for a league adjusting to new realities, are indeed underway. Tuesday marked Day 5 for the N.B.A.’s rapid-fire exhibition schedule — with a countdown clock in the bottom left-hand corner of NBA TV, the league’s official channel, offering repeated reminders that next Tuesday’s opening night for the 2020-21 season is fast approaching.As Fournier noted, N.B.A. teams are trying to make road life as restrictive as possible, hoping to keep their traveling parties safe with the coronavirus still surging across the country. It’s way too soon to say the league’s measures are working, when leaguewide travel has just begun, but Fournier sounded refreshingly hopeful when we spoke, saying he feels safe given the players’ daily testing, combined with as many old bubble practices as teams are able to replicate now that they’re on the move.The French guard joked Saturday on Twitter, in his native language, that he was getting sick of himself after three days in the same Atlanta hotel room, but Fournier left little doubt in our chat that he was “super happy” to be back on the court for two games against the Hawks.“It’s so much better than just being in the bubble, in my opinion, because we actually get to travel and play in real arenas,” Fournier said.You can understand the sentiment. Everyone who plays and works in the league knows that the restricted-access village erected by the N.B.A. at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., was by far the safest way to conduct business and finish the 2019-20 season, but no one wanted to do it again because of the mental-health toll exacted by long stays behind Disney’s gates, cut off from the outside world.Orlando’s Evan Fournier, right, said playing in arenas, even without fans, is still better than playing inside the bubble.Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesSo the N.B.A. will try to do it this way, with nearly 160 pages of safety guidelines for teams to follow to try to keep the coronavirus from infiltrating practices and mostly fan-less arenas, even as the increasing (and at times farcical) ineffectiveness of college football and basketball in combating the virus suggests that major disruptions are looming. The N.F.L., without a bubble, has likewise had countless troubles.A month ago, as the draft and free agency approached, I wrote about how strange it was to see and hear so little public concern about the daunting challenges that the N.B.A. would face this winter, when medical experts were rightly predicting an alarming spike in Covid-19 cases. Not much has changed in the weeks since — James Harden’s uncertain future in Houston gets far more coverage from the basketball media than health issues — but I do get it. The virus has been a constant in our lives for nine months. Many have grown weary of worrying.It was thus so tempting, starting Friday night, to get swept up in the basketball as the preseason began. Training camps landed a little later on the calendar than usual, but this, after all, is the time of year for just that — for all teams and their fans to dream before the games start counting.John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins have looked healthier and livelier than the Houston Rockets, who are otherwise soaked in the drama of the disgruntled Harden, could have hoped. Golden State’s Stephen Curry returned from his own injury woes with a new trick shot that he flung from the empty stands at Chase Center during pregame warm-ups and that may have topped every past trick shot in a career full of them. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had majestic moments together in their long-delayed debut as Nets teammates. Talen Horton-Tucker, who turned 20 on Nov. 25, looked as dangerous as Los Angeles Lakers insiders have whispered for months he would be when he got a chance to play real minutes. Zion Williamson, too, was back to his wrecking-ball best Monday night in the New Orleans Pelicans’ exhibition opener.Thursday’s Minnesota at Dallas preseason game is the first I will have the chance to attend in person. Members of the news media are not allowed to get anywhere near the floor or the two teams, as we used to, but I don’t think I will be able to stay home after getting Fournier’s description of the State Farm Arena scene for the Magic’s 116-112 victory over the Hawks in the teams’ Friday exhibition.“It was really fun, actually,” Fournier said. “I didn’t really pay attention to the empty seats. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s just because I was so happy to be out there.”Teams like the Los Angeles Lakers spent months in the bubble this summer, which took a mental toll. Some elements of the bubble environment, like sideline masks, remain as the league goes forward in fan-less arenas.Credit…Kyusung Gong/Associated PressWhere I live, in the same city as one of the game’s loudest optimists, talk about the coming season tends to be even more bullish, in contrast to my typical fear-the-worst anxiety, which I am once again struggling to stifle. Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks’ owner, is a self-professed vaccines “geek” who has been reading everything he can as a mass vaccination campaign begins to roll out nationwide. Last week on SiriusXM NBA Radio, Cuban said it was “my personal belief” that there would be a “huge snap back” in March or April “where most of the people in the country will have had access” to coronavirus vaccination “if they wanted it.”Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, has predicted that most people will be able to get the vaccine by late spring or early summer, and that those with no underlying conditions could be vaccinated by the end of March or beginning of April. Seemingly taking his cue from such projections, Cuban told SiriusXM that he thinks “things are going to get really fun” in N.B.A. arenas in the second half of the season, provided that the league’s rush to start before Christmas to satisfy its television partners proceeds into the spring with no serious setbacks.When I reached Cuban on Tuesday, he insisted that the Mavericks’ mantra is “safety first, safety second and safety third.” He also confirmed that he would be at American Airlines Center on Thursday night, which will be Cuban’s first opportunity to watch his team in person since the viral clip of his stunned in-game reaction to news of the season’s suspension on March 11.“So far, so good,” Cuban said. “The most important aspect is that the players and staff that are traveling are treating each game as a self-imposed bubble. We won’t be able to eliminate cases and outbreaks, but if we can minimize them, then hopefully it can be as close to a normal season as possible.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More