How the Knicks and the playoff rival Pistons helped build each other

To get past the first round, the Knicks or Pistons must kill what they helped create.

Since Leon Rose took over the Knicks’ front office in 2020, he has completed four big trades with the Pistons — three more than with any other team counting deals when players, not just draft picks, were involved. For further context, the last Knicks-Pistons swap before Rose was in 1987, when Sidney Green, the Brooklynnite, joined the Knicks and underwhelmed.

So it took 34 years for the franchises to reengage. Then the floodgates opened.

The deals over the past four years have shaped both franchises, providing the Knicks the pathway to signing Jalen Brunson and giving the Pistons two current starters.

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