The New York Knicks are far past the days when they feared missing the playoffs. Armed with an army of proud defenders and an offensive dynamo in team captain Jalen Brunson, they’re a balanced squad. Even with Brunson’s lieutenant —Karl-Anthony Towns –hitting a rough patch, they pose a threat to any team they face.
In spite of their upper-bound upside, the Knicks’ front office knows that they could stand to refine the roster. An additional ball-handler, one who could step up when Brunson’s on the sideline, would be ideal. Taking that into account, several lead guards have been mentioned as trade targets for New York as the Feb. 5 deadline closes in. However, one option stands above the rest.
Knicks Trade Deadline Targets Include 2-Time NBA Champion Jrue Holiday
There have been “rumbles” that the Knicks have been entertaining the concept of trading for Portland Trail Blazers guard Jrue Holiday, The Stein Line’s Marc Stein reports.
A two-time NBA champion, Holiday has redeemed himself after an off-putting 2024-25 campaign. While playing for the Boston Celtics last season, the Californian was uncharacteristically inefficient from beyond the arc, shooting 35.3% from 3. More problematic was the six-time All-Defensive selection’s defensive slippage, Holiday appearing to be one of Father Time’s latest victims.
This season, Holiday has not only got his outside efficiency back above league-average, he’s helping spearhead a top-10 3-point defense. Notably, this is an area in which New York’s defense is actually horrible, ranking in the bottom-five among 30 teams. While the Blazers only allow opponents to shoot 34.9% from 3, (eighth-best in the NBA), the Knicks’ opponents are sniping them at a 37.2% rate (26th in the NBA). Portland’s holding opponents to 12.5 3-point conversions per game (sixth-best in the NBA), and New York’s opponents are making 14.4 3-pointers per game (28th in the NBA).
For a team that’s been losing by an average margin of 10.8 points per game and winning by an average margin of 14.1 points per game in 2025-26, that may not seem important. However, just consider this. The Trail Blazers’ defense allows -5.7 fewer points from 3 than the Knicks defense. Holiday (15.3 points per game) averages +4.8 more points per game than Jordan Clarkson (9.3 points per game). Of course, Clarkson has fallen out of New York’s rotation. Nevertheless, the point differential (+10.4 points per game) is even steeper when comparing Holiday’s 2025-26 scoring average to Tyler Kolek‘s (4.9 points per game).
Improving The Knicks From The Locker Room
Basketball is more than a game of numbers, even assuming the transitive math was that simple. Even so, it’s clear that swapping Clarkson or Kolek for Holiday would make a significant difference. That’s without even factoring in the intangible aspect of adding him to the rotation.
Again, Holiday’s a two-time NBA champion, having won a ring with the Celtics in 2024 and the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. He knows what it’s going to take for the Knicks to raise another title banner more than anyone on the team. He’s also a three-time winner of the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award. To that point, with Knicks players constantly pointing the finger of blame at each other, they could probably use another locker room leader. As affable as they come, he can help New York rediscover their poise on and off the court.
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