Has Josh Hart's World Cup Solved Lingering Knicks, Julius Randle Roster Problem?
The United States' men's national basketball team may have lost at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup but the New York Knicks might've picked up a subtle victory.
Well-represented in the Asia-based competition, the Knicks certainly have plenty of film material to work with as their four-man group returns stateside. The most intriguing case of the bunch is Josh Hart, fresh off his first tour with Team USA's senior group.
The metropolitan destinies for most of the Knicks' FIBA quartet are settled: Knicks management will no doubt analyze what went right and wrong in rollercoaster affairs for RJ Barrett (Canada) and Jalen Brunson (USA) while hoping that Evan Fournier (France) showed enough in a surprisingly abbreviated trip to entice potential trade partners to pick up the phone.
Hart's participation, joining Brunson on Team USA, was an intriguing opportunity for the Knicks: the team was well aware of what he brought to the table and liked it well enough to bestow him an $81 million contract extension shortly after the tune-up exhibitions began. Hart, a trade deadline acquisition from Portland, was an obvious spark behind a late surge that wrapped up both the fifth seed on the Eastern Conference playoff bracket as well as the franchise's first postseason series victory in a decade. Including the 11-game postseason run, the Knicks went 23-13 with Hart on the roster.
Successful as it was, that's still a small sample size for a bench man getting close to nine figures over the next five years (having previously been convinced to play next season on a $12.9 million player option that came over from Oregon). From a Knicks perspective, the World Cup was a chance to study Hart and find the perfect dwelling in the New York rotation. Even in American defeat, Hart might've lived up to his end of the unspoken bargain.
Hart's performance might've solved one of the lingering issues left on the Knicks' roster by brightening the environment behind Julius Randle.
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One could argue that it's not quite ready to compete for a title just yet, but, barring a late opportunity to swing a superstar trade, the Knicks seem almost entirely satisfied with their roster, more than content to mostly run it back with last year's precedent-setting group. One notable exception is the spot behind Randle, the de facto power forward role previously occupied by Obi Toppin.
The Knicks mostly took in the offseason as spectators, with the exception of essentially swapping Toppin for Donte DiVincenzo in head coach Tom Thibodeau's nine-man rotation. Signing DiVincenzo was almost universally warmly received but trading Toppin was a more polarizing affair, even if there was an aura of necessity to it: if the Knicks truly wished to go into a legitimately hopeful period on the franchise timeline with as little drama as possible, they couldn't extend the "will he, won't he"-based Toppin drama for another year.
Now, though, the Knicks are paying the price: the return (two of Indiana's second-round picks for the eighth overall choice from 2020) was perplexing enough but there hardly seemed to be a plan behind Randle once his primary spell option moved on.
There was no one talent that was going to thrust the Knicks into the Eastern Conference penthouse (Georges Niang, Taurean Prince, and Yuta Watanabe were perhaps among the best, most affordable options). But, as it stood, the Knicks were going into this with their forward depth starring Isaiah Roby.
Formerly of Oklahoma City and San Antonio, Roby clearly has a spot in the Knicks' future blueprint, as they dished out some relative major money to have him on the roster during the final day of last regular season. But while Roby has shown flashes of value, his Summer League showing proved that he might need some time to refind his land legs after enduring an ankle injury last season. Jericho Sims also could've been an option but Thibodeau has been reluctant to use more than two pure centers on a regular basis. In New York, those spots are occupied by Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Hart, however, made a case for himself as a primary Randle rester and then some in Asia.
Originally posting a load management absence in the first exhibition, which was held in the final hours before he was extension-eligible, Hart eventually played his way into the American starting five with strong rebounding efforts. He pulled in 23 boards in the final pool play victories over Greece and Jordan, including five of the offensive variety in the former. He capped off the tournament with a USA-best 5.3 rebounds a game. During the knockout tournament stage, Hart was no exception to the Americans' defensive struggles but hit 10-of-12 from the field in the final three-game stretch.
Hart certainly left an impression on Team USA head coach Steve Kerr, who put Hart in the red, white, and blue starting five in place of his former New Orleans Pelicans teammate Brandon Ingram.
“Josh is just a winner,” Kerr said during pool play, per Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “People ask, ‘What position does he play?’ He just, he plays winner. I don’t know what position he plays, but he gets loose balls, he guards anybody."
“At one point (assistant coach and Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra) turned to me and said, ‘Some people get 50-50 balls. He gets the 30-70 balls.’ I thought that was really well said. I mean, he just makes these plays with his effort and his physicality and his toughness, but also his skill.”
Returning stateside, Hart is nearly a half-foot shorter than Toppin and he doesn't have Randle's frame. But what he did for the Americans is a sign that he can find an established, vital role in his metropolitan future.
His emergence could also give the Knicks some more confidence in resting Randle: the newly-designated "star player" under the Association's new Player Participation Policy has never been one for load management (only five players have played more games since the 2015-16 season) but since he's coming off a testy ankle injury (the one thing that kept him from perfect attendance last season), the Knicks will probably try to be careful. If they go that cautious route, Hart gives them a newfound safety blanket as they work through an increasingly dangerous East.
The Knicks have made it quite clear that they "heart" Hart, more or less sealing him up for the next five years. Hart has the perfect opportunity to share the love.
