Are the Knicks a legitimate championship contender? | Good Word with Goodwill

Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill is joined by Fred Katz, New York Knicks beat writer for The Athletic, to talk about how good they’ve been since trading for OG Anunoby a month ago.

00:00 - Welcome to the Good Word

01:10 - LeBron James vs. Steph Curry

09:35 - The 2023-24 New York Knicks with Fred Katz

41:30 - What will the Knicks do at the trade deadline?

On this episode of the Good Word with Goodwill, Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill is joined by Fred Katz, New York Knicks beat writer for The Athletic, to talk about how good they’ve been since trading for OG Anunoby a month ago.

But first, the guys take a few minutes to marvel at what many are calling the “game of the year” between LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers and Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors. Everyone is marveling at how great these two still are, but Vince has some real concerns about whether they can stay at this level for an entire 7-game playoff series.

Now, onto the Knicks. While the team waits to get a definitive timeline on Julius Randle’s shoulder injury, the numbers say that they’ve been maybe the best team in the entire league since trading for OG Anunoby at the end of December. Vinnie has some stats to back this up, and Fred brought some of his own that are so outlandish they are difficult to believe.

Vinnie and Fred talk about how OG Anunoby is a perfect fit for this team, and also how Jalen Brunson has ended up being a perfect fit for this team. Tom Thibodeau and the Knicks front office have worked hard to find exactly the type of players that Thibs like to coach, and we’re seeing the results in a suffocating defense for Knicks opponents.

Jalen Brunson, thought to be a stabilizing player but not a star player when he signed with the Knicks a couple years ago as a free agent, has turned into an all-star caliber player and one who continues to develop and improve his game. Fred talks about what makes Jalen special and why the people that have known him the longest believed he could be this good.

Finally, the NBA trade deadline is a little more than a week away. Fred says that the Knicks aren’t ready to push in all of their chips to get a superstar yet, but that the Randle injury could push them to make more than one trade between now and February 8th.

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