Can Knicks Contend in East Without Donovan Mitchell Trade?

The New York Knicks currently have $340 million invested in Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett.

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All things considered, the New York Knicks have had a productive and encouraging offseason. As currently constructed, though, are the Knicks good enough to contend in the Eastern Conference during the 2022-23 season?

Whether Jalen Brunson is truly worth the four-year, $104 million contract the Knicks gave him in July has yet to be seen, but stealing him from the Dallas Mavericks was a move that will help the team regardless. Even if Brunson isn't fully capable of being the lead guard on his own team, his production will still be still be solid enough to make a positive impact on the roster.

New York also retained two key members of the 2020-21 playoff team in RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson – although Barrett, despite signing a four-year extension worth $120 million on Monday, could still technically be traded to the Utah Jazz for Donovan Mitchell before the season begins.

The Knicks have $340 million invested in the trio of Julius Randle, Brunson and Barrett. All of them are good players in their own right, but the fit with each other is questionable to say the least, considering they all like to operate from the same area of the floor. A trade for Mitchell might change things, but as of right now, the odds aren't favoring the Knicks to be much of a factor in the East.

According to a handful of Las Vegas sportsbooks, the Knicks have the eighth-best odds (+2800) to win the East. Given that both the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls are ahead of the Knicks on the odds list, but are also tied at +2500, this means New York is technically the ninth team on the list. Betting odds don't mean everything, but given the money the Knicks are paying to this current roster, being a fringe playoff team just isn't going to cut it.

Perhaps the Knicks will outperform preseason expectations even if Mitchell isn't on the roster anytime soon ... but would all of this be a little bit easier to prepare for if he was? Let's see what happens in the coming weeks.

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You can follow Dalton Trigg on Twitter at @dalton_trigg

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