How Knicks can emulate the 2022-23 Nuggets model to become a contender

The Nuggets just accomplished a franchise first, winning the NBA championship after 47 years of falling short of the league’s ultimate prize. The Knicks, having accomplished this goal twice but now suffering through an even longer drought than Denver’s, should look to the current champs for inspiration in their own journey.

This title was over a decade in the making, with trades from 2011 dictating draft picks years later that became the team we saw in these playoffs. Ever since Nikola Jokic’s 2016 rookie season, Denver underwent a lengthy, step-by-step build-up of a contender.

How did they do it? First, they drafted and developed talent they believed in.

The core of this Nuggets team is Jokic and Jamal Murray, both drafted by the team seven-plus years ago. They had ample opportunities to move on from them, but decided otherwise.

Jokic was drafted into a position battle with Jusuf Nurkic, another talented center prospect, a year ahead of him. Denver was set on trading one of them, opting for Nurkic, despite Jokic’s stardom not yet surfacing.

Murray wasn’t a sure thing until his breakout postseason performance in 2020, and even then, an ACL tear took the next two potential title runs out of the picture for Denver. 

The Nuggets could have moved on for a more conventional star, but stuck with Murray and his chemistry with Jokic.

Piece by piece, they began building a cohesive team around them. They took a big swing with the 14th pick in the 2018 Draft by selecting Michael Porter Jr., adding shooting and size to the lineup.

Seeking out the perfect compliment, Denver traded for Aaron Gordon in 2021, moving key assets in hopes they could transition a failing number one option into their version of Draymond Green. A year later they filled out the roster with tough veterans in Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and drafted a collegiate winner in Christian Braun who came up big in the playoffs.

This was a lengthy, drawn out team build where it oftentimes felt like their ceiling wouldn’t be met, but it finally was. They maintained what they believed was a winning core and slowly built around it, never straying from the vision despite some bumps along the road.

The Knicks can take much away from this, and are already emulating this track to some degree under Leon Rose. He’s been patiently building onto essentially the same team he adopted three years ago, and was validated this spring with the team's first series victory in a decade.

Julius Randle, RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson have been starting for the Knicks for years, and while not every question is answered, it’s now clear there’s something there. Randle is an All-NBA talent, Barrett just played the best ball of his career and turned 23, and Robinson is one of the elite rebounding and defensive centers in the league.

What was clear in 2021’s postseason loss and 2022’s flameout was the Knicks needed a true alpha, which they got this past summer in Jalen Brunson. He’s become their leader and was one of the postseason’s best scorers.

New York has even done an excellent job filling out some of the reserve gaps, similarly through the draft. 

Immanuel Quickley is one of the best bench players in the league and Quentin Grimes is shaping up to be a reliable complimentary wing. Josh Hart is likely to re-sign, Isaiah Hartenstein is a reliable backup five and Obi Toppin is no slouch either. 

While seemingly every star in the league is on the Knicks' radar to trade many of these pieces for, maybe they’re doing just fine without that big move.

Most of these guys are either entering or before their primes, and if they continue developing at the rate they have, will take New York to the next level without intervention. Maybe the move to be made is a Gordon-type trade that provides the glue guy that brings it all together.

It could be OG Anunoby, or another low-level All-Star, or nobody at all. Patience has gotten this Knicks team this far, it got the Nuggets a chip, why wouldn’t it work going forward?

Obviously, the Knicks don’t have a Jokic. He’s a once in a generation talent that can’t be replicated.

That said, they have their own key talent to build around. Brunson is undeniable, and despite their flaws, Randle and Barrett are high-level contributors on the upswing.

While this summer is sure to be filled with a million reports on what star the Knicks might pursue, the demeanor in the front office may be different. They can look to Denver’s successes and see themselves applying the same model effectively.