Will the 'Nova Knicks' be a blueprint other teams will follow?

The New York Knicks are in the midst of their best season in decades. The clear catalyst for this has been the rise of Jalen (“Born to play basketball”) Brunson, who’s having an MVP-type year. And to think that when the Knicks signed him, the deal was widely disparaged, and even called the team’s most financially costly mistake ever.

Brunson has made a lot of people look foolish, but he isn’t doing it on his own. Julius Randle was having another great season before getting injured. The addition of OG Anunoby dramatically changed things defensively. Plus, the team has barely missed a beat with Isaiah Hartenstein filling in for the hurt Mitchell Robinson.

Perhaps the biggest reason for the Knicks’ success this season has to do with the team’s excellent chemistry, and it’s possible that the groundwork for this was laid long before many of the players were even in the NBA.

From 2016-18, the Villanova Wildcats won two NCAA National Championships. Three of the players who were instrumental in this run are now on the Knicks. In addition to Brunson, this includes Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. Ryan Arcidiacono was also on the team until he was recently traded. The players know each other extremely well and – perhaps most importantly – genuinely appear to like one another.

While LeBron and company down in Miami seemed to start the “Big Three” revolution in the NBA, perhaps the league will look at the Knicks and focus more on college teammates as opposed to lumping star free agents with one another and hoping things work.

For example, three of the top 10 players in the 2019 draft – Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish – all came from Duke. Would reuniting them on one squad reignite some old collegiate magic? In the 2023 NCAA Tournament, Arkansas went on a surprising run that led them to the Sweet Sixteen. As a result, they sent three players to the NBA: Anthony Black, Nick Smith Jr. and Jordan Walsh. Maybe at some point they’ll decide they would like to get the Razorbacks band back together again.

What’s clear is that the NBA is a copycat league. If something works for one team, you can bet other teams will see if it will work for them. This could mean that it may not be long before we’re seeing NBA squads that closely resemble college teams.