Furthermore, of the 10 Knicks to play in the finals only Mitchell Robinson and Miles McBride were drafted by New York. Virtually everyone else was acquired through trade. Compare that to the Spurs who played 6 draft picks of their 10 players and also have 3 draft picks starting: Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell.

Going back in history:

The Thunder had 3 in 2025 - Chet, JDub, Cason Wallace
The Pacers had 2 in 2025 - Turner, Nembhard
The Celtics had 2 in 2024 - Tatum, Brown
The Mavericks had 1 in 2024 - Doncic
The Nuggets had 3 in 2023 - Jokic, Murray, MPJ
The Heat had 1 in 2023 - Bam
The Warriors had 4 in 2022 - Steph, Klay, Dray, Looney
The Celtics had 4 in 2022 - Tatum, Brown, Smart, Robert Williams
The Bucks had 1 in 2021 - Giannis
The Suns had 3 in 2021 - Booker, Ayton, Mikal Bridges
The Lakers had 0 in 2020
The Heat had 2 in 2020 - Bam, Herro
The Raptors had 1 in 2019 - Siakam
The Warriors had 4 in 2019 - Steph, Klay, Dray, Jordan Bell
The Warriors had 3 in 2018 - Steph, Klay, Dray
The Cavaliers had 2 in 2018 - Lebron, Tristan Thompson
The Warriors had 3 in 2017 - Steph, Klay, Dray
The Cavaliers had 3 in 2017 - Lebron, Kyrie, Tristan Thompson
The Warriors had 4 in 2016 - Steph, Klay, Dray, Harrison Barnes
The Cavaliers had 3 in 2016 - Lebron, Kyrie, Tristan Thompson
The Warriors had 4 in 2016 - Steph, Klay, Dray, Harrison Barnes
The Cavaliers had 3 in 2016 - Lebron, Kyrie, Tristan Thompson
The Warriors had 4 in 2015 - Steph, Klay, Dray, Harrison Barnes
The Cavaliers had 3 in 2015 - Lebron**, Kyrie, Tristan Thompson

Apologies if this was covered on the broadcast I’ve had night shifts all week and didn’t see the games live

*^(Some players counted were drafted by other teams and traded for on draft night ie Luka was technically drafted by the Hawks)
^(**Mr. James left and then came back to the team that drafted him)

Boomslang2-1 | Knicks

275 | a day ago

What zero lottery luck for 30 years does to a team.

billwest630 | Bucks

53 | a day ago

Bucks and heat both drafted their guys pretty late. It speaks more to the development of their picks.

Boomslang2-1 | Knicks

110 | a day ago

Like Mitchell Robinson, Deuce McBride, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett?

Knicks player development is solid but it can only get you so far. Saying “just turn late picks into Giannis” is crazy lmao and even then it was Jrue Holiday and Middleton that got the Bucks over the hump.

Just look at the Spurs roster. Lottery pick, lottery pick, generational superstar lottery pick.

billwest630 | Bucks

14 | a day ago

Middleton was basically a bucks development. He came after his rookie year as a second round pick and was developed by the bucks. But also yes, it’s not a lie that the Knicks have whiffed on their lottery picks.

p00chology | Bulls

18 | a day ago

Are you calling Kevin Knox a fucking bust?!

PauloDybala_10 | Heat

2 | 21 hours ago

He loved Fortnite how could he ever be a bust

Boomslang2-1 | Knicks

1 | a day ago

Bad take.

billwest630 | Bucks

2 | a day ago

Oh okay!

Kdog122025 | Warriors

38 | a day ago

Y’all had Tingus Pings at least.

KruNCHBoX | East

1 | a day ago

i heard anthony randolph is finally getting it togetee

darti_me | Mavericks

1 | 8 hours ago

Don’t google “Players drafted after the 9th in the 2018 NBA Draft”

Jcirri | Nets

-12 | a day ago

Zero lottery luck? you guys had two seasons where you finished bottom 5 and you got a top 4 pick both times.

Boomslang2-1 | Knicks

29 | a day ago

The Knicks have never moved up in the lottery even a single time since 1985. That’s literally the definition of what luck is.

Duzcek | Knicks

6 | 14 hours ago

The Knicks have only ever had 1 first overall pick in the entire history of the draft lottery despite more than a decade of mediocrity and that got us Patrick Ewing. Compare that to the Spurs, who’ve had way more historical success, that’ve gotten first overall 3 times, and they got David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and now Victor Wembanyama.

terry-tea | Celtics

143 | a day ago

Thanks, I was running out of arguments, the “Knicks bought their way to a ring” agenda starts now

RiceOnTheRun | Knicks

56 | a day ago

The Knicks thrifted their way to a ring, sure.

Jalen Brunson? $100m/4years? Overpay. Why didn’t they get KD or Kyrie?

Josh Hart? The guy who was dumped to New Orleans and Portland?

Mikal Bridges? He ain’t worth 5 picks.

OG Anunoby? Dude can’t stay healthy, how’s he supposed to be worth $50m/yr?

KAT? After all that? Soft af, can’t play defense.

(ik your comment wasn’t that serious, but fr they worked the nba bargain bin)

Valiant_Boss | Knicks

29 | 21 hours ago

Damn when you put it like that… The Knicks front office ability to see the potential of current players is kind of insane

flabua

10 | a day ago

Mikal is worth at least 9 first round picks

bkk_startups | Knicks

37 | a day ago

Damn, finally one you’ll win.

Time to reopen the Brunson investigation. In fact, the OG trade needs a look also. No picks in that trade? 🤔

MddlingAges | Knicks

5 | a day ago

We haven’t won anything yet, come on guys.

kendrickplace | Knicks

3 | 21 hours ago

Yeah well you guys wear green

yiwang1 | Knicks

111 | a day ago

I mean we never moved up in the lottery. Our high lottery picks were Porzingis and Barrett. The lineage of Towns and OG on the Knicks can be traced back to these two picks. (Porzingis is more indirect; we used the cap space cleared by trading him to sign Randle)

Ambitious-Visual207 | Pistons

101 | a day ago

Why don’t you guys simply move up every year in the lottery like the Spurs?

zeezee2k | Knicks

38 | a day ago

Because David Stern is dead

MrStrabo

5 | a day ago

Can’t do that frozen envelope anymore.

Ophelia_Of_The_Abyss | Knicks

1 | 12 hours ago

If only, then maybe Leon Rose would be seen as a good GM

Then_Device_5363 | Knicks

33 | a day ago

And we repeatedly shot ourselves in the foot with bad drafting. Knox, Frank, Obi didn’t live up to their draft position with multiple high impact players going behind them

clownus | Knicks

16 | a day ago

Frank killed any chance of doing anything with Porzingus. Can’t have back to back high picks and miss on one.

Knox was also just a dead pick.

Obi got meaningful minutes on the Pacers run. He would have been okay for the Knicks if we had a decent team prior.

It just shows how hard it is to draft your way into a championship. OKC best player is a trade and the rest of the roster required a ton of consecutive picks. Their three best role players are also not homegrown talent.

tushshtup | Knicks

3 | 21 hours ago

Obi just had no room to play with Randall ahead of him on a decent knicks team

Ill-Enthusiasm-5530

1 | 9 hours ago

He also just wasn’t very good

Either_Imagination_9 | Knicks

72 | a day ago

Leon Rose is really good at his job

jawndell

27 | a day ago

That scene with him crying when they made it to the finals was heartwarming

Altruistic-Drawing25

6 | a day ago

I too rejoice at the tears of my foes

Yoshinobu_YamaGOATo

35 | a day ago

That’s a lot more impressive than how the Spurs/Adam Silver built their team. Anyone can draft a consensus #1 generational superstar, another consensus franchise player at #2 in the most loaded draft of the decade, and then another piece at #4. Knicks had to take pretty big risks to build their current squad.

Alarming-Ask4196 | Knicks

21 | a day ago

#4 was also a consensus pick too lol

ExaltedOvergrowth | Spurs

0 | a day ago

The #1 pick from that year is riding the bench looking like he’s about to get cut, the number 2 is still a question mark thanks to the tank & the number 3 is not as good as Castle but Sheppard could grow the gap closer.

It might have been consensus, but it ended up being the consensus of the blind.

Alarming-Ask4196 | Knicks

6 | a day ago

Right, I think that proves my point? The Spurs “shouldn’t” have gotten Castle. They were not picking anyone else there once he dropped, but he shouldn’t have fallen to them. That makes them even MORE lucky.

ExaltedOvergrowth | Spurs

5 | a day ago

How is everyone else doing something stupid on our luck & not on the front office having good scouting?

The rest of our roster is often made up of rejects or in house picks like KJ, Vassell, & Champaigne. It’s not like we get to choose which pick we get, we just don’t waste the ones we got, and San Antonio has historically had a fantastic development team that most teams envy.

It’s not really fair to say Castle would be this good developing anywhere else, at some point the luck of talent stops and the work of development is what’s important.

Alarming-Ask4196 | Knicks

4 | 21 hours ago

No one is saying you don’t have a good front office, you obviously do. Tier 1 org top to bottom. And you may have a point re: development + scouting, but like pretty much any champion you need a good bit of luck / things not really “in your control”. Spurs have gotten a huge excess of that luck recently in terms of young talent acquisition AND worked to maximize that talent effectively. Scouting had basically no bearing on Castle / Wemby / Harper from your team’s perspective.

openslot

25 | a day ago

They were very lucky getting KAT for so little

MddlingAges | Knicks

18 | a day ago

Nah it’s got to be fair when podcasts relitigated the trade so many times in different directions. Randles value goes up and down more than bitcoin.

TBlueshirtsV22 | Knicks

3 | 18 hours ago

Part of that is trying to evaluate the trade too early.

Randle looked great last year and in the playoffs and like shit this year. Of course his value is going to change.

(Always going to root for Ju though, once a Knick always a Knick)

flabua

7 | a day ago

I was told it was a win win trade for both teams, same as the OG trade

Sparrow_Wilson | Knicks

16 | a day ago

We’re a good advert for anti-tanking. The only guys we drafted in the rotation (McBride & Robinson) were both picked 36th

fisheggsoup | Jazz

1 | 11 hours ago

I mean, not really. Decades of mediocrity with or without tanking shows that you need a competent front office, which the Knicks now have.

vss2014 | Wizards

1 | 42 minutes ago

Yes, why doesn’t every tanking team not simply be the largest market and most desirable city to live in in the country? Are they stupid?

Sparrow_Wilson | Knicks

1 | 24 minutes ago

This is a weak argument. The only guys in the rotation we got from free agency and who actually picked us are Brunson and Shamet and no one else even wanted them when we signed them.

CMYGQZ | Grizzlies

13 | a day ago

why don’t they just always move up like the Spurs did? Are they stupid?

binhpac

8 | a day ago

People here complaining about lottery luck, but NY had some decent picks

#5 2015

#8 2017

#9 2018

#3 2019

#8 2020

they also picked badly.

Alarming-Ask4196 | Knicks

28 | a day ago

Considering how bad they were, those are terrible draft slots. They literally only dropped in the lottery. Doesn’t change that they drafted like shit though

RiceOnTheRun | Knicks

7 | a day ago

That front office is no longer with us

asosem | Knicks

7 | 21 hours ago

But compare that to the spurs

#9 2022

#1 2023

#4 2024

#2 2025

Jcirri | Nets

4 | a day ago

Porzingus was the #4 in 2015 not 5

flabua

4 | a day ago

Porzingis, RJ, and Toppin are 3 of those five picks. It’s really not as bad as you make it seem.

ontheru171 | Knicks

2 | 6 hours ago

2015 dropped from 2 to 4
2017 dropped from 7 to 8
2018 stayed at 9
2019 dropped from 1 to 3
2020 dropped from 6 to 8

HenrikCrown | Pelicans

9 | a day ago

“If you’re not born in New York, you’re not a New Yorker”

action_nick | Knicks

24 | a day ago

I know it’s a joke, but FWIW real NYCers don’t think like that. We are a city of immigrants.

I will say we could do without the rich kids, you guys move to Miami where you belong.

RiceOnTheRun | Knicks

0 | a day ago

Honestly immigrants > transplants 😂

action_nick | Knicks

6 | 21 hours ago

Not all transplants are created equal. There are people that move here from other places in America that make it their home and care about the community. The people that move here and just take, give back nothing, spend their 20s and early 30s here and fuck around on their parents dime are the real scourge.

jawndell

10 | a day ago

JLo who hasn’t lived in NYC in decades and lives in LA. JLo who visited her “block” acting like everyone knows her, and the person who now lives in her house was like who the f are you?

MddlingAges | Knicks

3 | a day ago

Well it happened to Jesus. That’s no indictment.

big_bear_mountain

3 | 20 hours ago

The guy living at Jesus’ house was also like “who’s JLo?”

fisheggsoup | Jazz

1 | 11 hours ago

Exactly, Jesús Lopez.

IAteQuarters

2 | a day ago

New York Gentrifiers

Any_Cartographer2066

8 | a day ago

we have absolutely dog shit draft luck it honestly wasn’t an option for us

fisheggsoup | Jazz

1 | 11 hours ago

I mean, y’all also drafted terribly when you did secure high picks.

Leon Rose leading the front office has turned your franchise around.

Any_Cartographer2066

1 | 3 hours ago

eh only top 5 pick we got was rj and that wasn’t a bad pick he was consensus 3rd

Zintai1

8 | a day ago

This is the result of Brunsons contract taking a massive paycut for the team

MddlingAges | Knicks

3 | a day ago

Yes, this has been too low key. He’s the Brady of basketball in some ways. Cut rate player, underrated and tons of aura.

Resident_Chip_5598 | NBA

5 | a day ago

damn, warriors did do some helluva drafting, curry klay dray started for 6 finals

PAN--

2 | a day ago

Put some respect on Branden Carlson’s name

CabbageStockExchange | Lakers

2 | a day ago

Villanova gang

russlandbot | Nuggets

2 | a day ago

Just world class roster construction, going all in with a group that has great chemistry. The only criticism I would have is all the first round picks for Bridges, but if they win it all who cares.

No_Neighborhood5456

2 | a day ago

Magic of Leone fucking rose

KenTrotts | Magic

2 | a day ago

I could have sworn that 2020 Lakers team had Kuzma or somebody they drafted themselves.

Altruistic-Drawing25

3 | a day ago

Came off the bench, their starters were Lebron, KCP, Danny Green, AD and Dwight Howard.

brnccnt7

2 | a day ago

This is illegal, break up their team to make it fair!

tm16scud | Knicks

2 | a day ago

RJ walked so Jalen could run

Impossible-Luck4802 | Rockets

1 | a day ago

NIL is out of control

pichukirby | Knicks

1 | a day ago

We suck at drafting, that’s why FRPs are useless to us

Beautiful_Ninja | Nets

1 | a day ago

Why risk drafting a bad player in the first round when you can just trade first round picks for known commodities?

pithynotpithy | Timberwolves

1 | 21 hours ago

Did Lively not start in the Finals?

Altruistic-Drawing25

1 | 17 hours ago

Gafford and PJ Washington were the bigs

tman37

1 | an hour ago

I think this will become a trend. Teams are drafting kids at 18 or 19, paying millions of dollars and expecting them to have elite performance against the best grown men on the planet before they are 22. If they don’t people write them off and trade them for an established player or picks to start the whole thing over again.

Teams dont have the patience to develop players and given the dollars rather CBA forces them to pay, I don’t blame them. Every other sport who drafts kids that young have development programs they can used to bring them a long without wasting a roster spot of them. The G league isn’t the answer because you don’t own the rights to all the players like you do in baseball or hockey.

DMking | Wizards

1 | an hour ago

They still did have a bit of good fortune with the 2nd Apron forcing the Wolves to trade KAT.

Forsaken-Income-3632

0 | a day ago

Knicks and Lakers, big market luxuries

hothoneyoldbay | 76ers

-1 | a day ago

Mikal Bridges was acquired in a draft night trade with Philadelphia

Of the 5 Knicks players to start in the finals NONE were drafted by New York. The only team to do this in the last 10 years was the 2020 Lakers.