Knicks Fan Vote Reveals MVP, Future Stars and the Team's Most Chaotic Personalities
We asked, you answered, and now, we can officially reveal the results for the New York Knicks' batch of year-end awards!
Shout-out to everyone who participated. You played a pivotal role in helping us dole out invaluable hardware. From the Knicks' MVP and most underrated player to their best trash-talker and zombie apocalypse savior, you covered all the most important bases.
So, who won each category? Let's get to the big reveals.
Stats accurate as of Sunday, April 12. Contract data via Spotrac.
Who Is the Most Valuable Player?
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Winner: Jalen Brunson
Jalen Brunson's reign went unchallenged. The Knicks do not have another shot-creator or -maker anywhere near his caliber. They often find ways to carve out offense when he catches a breather, but you start to feel the gap between him and everyone else in crunch time, during the playoffs and when facing highly aggressive defenses.
If you want to galaxy-brain this, you can make the case OG Anunoby is tougher to replace. Seven percent of you apparently did.
Offensive engines are technically more common than every-position defenders who don't take away anything at the glitzier end of the floor, but still. JB is the only answer here.
Who Is Most Underrated?
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Winner: Landry Shamet
Landry Shamet winning with just 35 percent of the vote is a testament to New York's roster optionality. Having staked his claim to the unofficial "Most Impactful Minimum Signing from Last Summer" award, he's also the right answer. Between his three-point volume and efficiency and defensive effort, New York's fate is more tightly wound to his health than it ever could have predicted.
Deuce McBride (22 percent) checks many of the same boxes. He's cheap, tackles exceedingly tough defensive assignments and gets off triples at a rate the Knicks need. Mohamed Diawara (13 percent) cracking the rotation as a rookie drafted in the 50s on a might-be contender is pretty incredible.
Josh Hart (27 percent) catches a lot of crap for all he can't do, and how easily defenses can upend New York's half-court offense by guarding him with bigs or not defending him at all. But he's a box-score filler, the team's second-best playmaker and consistently the hardest-working guy on the floor.
Who Is the Best Athlete?
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Winner: OG Anunoby
OG Anunoby's athleticism rears its head more on the defensive end than anything. He can keep up with any player, of any size, on or off the ball—primary creators, power wings, traditional bigs, you name it. He has some bounce to him on offense as well, but it's more like a party trick relative to his role.
As you can tell by OG getting 67 percent of votes, the Knicks don't have a ton of other viable options. Mikal Bridges has the power to change that despite his infinitesimal 8 percent share.
His fading-away addiction is so frustrating precisely because he has the on- and off-ball thrust to put more pressure on the basket. Whether it's concern for his games-played streak, slender frame or a combination of both, his pop only makes cameos on special occasions.
Mohamed Diawara's athleticism is following Anunoby's script for the time being. There is a more forceful driver and dunker in there somewhere, but mostly, he showcases circular mobility across his defensive assignments. Mitchell Robinson's athleticism has waned, particularly on offense. But he's treating us to more displays of explosive defense this side of the New Year. That's enough for 16 percent of the vote—and second place overall.
Who Is Most Likely To Be a 1st-Time All-Star In the Next 5 Years?
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Winner: OG Anunoby
Without many tantalizing prospects of which to speak, this category is predicated on high-end role players catching lightning in a bottle at some point over the next two, maybe three, years. That covers OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges.
Apparently, after getting 78 percent of the vote, it really only covers OG.
Beyond him, you can cling to Mohamed Diawara's 100th-percentile outcome being something like "What if OG Anunoby could attack off the dribble more often and with more directionality?" Actualizing that player archetype likely shoehorns him into All-Star discussions.
Who Has the Best Contract?
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Winner: Jalen Brunson
Jalen Brunson is about to earn his third straight All-NBA selection and barely has a top-50 salary. That will not be changing next year.
Or even the year after that.
He was what I believed to be the only option. Yet, 55 percent of the vote is hardly a dominant victory.
Blame Deuce McBride. Earning under $4 million next season (2.4 percent of the cap) is highway robbery.
Who Has the Worst Contract?
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Winner: Karl-Anthony Towns
Karl-Anthony Towns will eat up more than 34 percent of the salary cap in each of the next two years. That pay grade is supposed to be for megastars. He has yet to prove he can consistently be the Knicks second, or even third, option.
To that end, KAT should be the runaway victory. But with 45 percent of the vote, he barely inched past Mikal Bridges, who ended up with 38 percent of first-place selections.
This feels like a failure to separate Bridges' level of play from what New York gave up to get him is a must. He will never be a top-50 player under the four-year, $150 million extension that kicks in next season. That's reasonable money for the third- or fourth-best player on a contender. The problem, of course, is Bridges struggles to be even that on a regular basis.
Who Is the Best Trash-Talker?
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Winner: Josh Hart
If you voted for anyone other than Jose Alvarado (45 percent) or Josh Hart (49 percent), you were in the underwhelming minority (6 percent).
Hart's lack of a filter might not be quintessential trash talk, but you can tell he's a Chatty Chad if you watch him for even a half-game. Also: Squirting water on other players counts.
Alvarado's entire on-court persona falls apart if he's not an elite trash-talker. He also held this crown while with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Who Is Most Likely To Have a Burner Account?
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Winner: Josh Hart
Mitchell Robinson has the personality of someone who'd run a burner account. But his social media activity suggests he doesn't need a secret identity to say what he's thinking. A 32 percent share of the vote represents a hedge against that honesty. He finishes second.
Hart takes the cake with 43 percent of the vote. That fits. The NBA Cup celebration confirmed what we all suspected: He's got NSFW burners coming out the wazoo.
Congratulations to the 22 percent of you who stumbled upon anonymous accounts waxing poetic about the importance of Cameron Payne to last year's Knicks success. You found Karl-Anthony Towns' burner.
Who Are You Taking With You Into the Zombie Apocalypse?
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Winner: OG Anunonby
OG Anunoby cleans up so many messes on the defensive end. That mindset and utility has to translate to a zombie apocalypse…right? Picking him is akin to proving you take this category extremely seriously, as 30 percent of you did.
What Jose Alvarado (25 percent) lacks in sheer size he makes up for with burst and unapologetic feistiness. Zombies beware.
Josh Hart (29 percent) would win awards for playing his ass off if such hardware existed. That approach to basketball and life at large should come in handy against zomboids.
Who Is Most Likely To Be Playing Overseas In 2 Seasons?
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Winner: Pacome Dadiet
Would Pacome Dadiet even be on the Knicks if he weren't willing to sign for 80 percent of the rookie scale back in 2024? Who's to say, really? Except for everyone. The answer is no.
Whispers of his standout practice performances have dissipated. Mike Brown doesn't seem any closer to having Dadiet's name in his vocabulary than he did before joining the organization. None of us should root for any kids to recede out of the NBA. But it'll be a real shocker if Dadiet sticks around.
Cases can be made for any of the two-way-contract guys. Ditto for Jeremy Sochan, who finishes second overall with 26 percent of the vote. That seems extreme with guys like Trey Jemison (17 percent) and Dillon Jones (16 percent) as options. Then again, Sochan has failed insert himself into the rotation over Mohamed Diawara.
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