INDIANAPOLIS — A funny thing happened to the woebegone Knicks en route to a fitting first-round playoff matchup against Donovan Mitchell, their primary target in the summer of 2022, and his new team, the Cavaliers.

Unable to obtain Mitchell from the Jazz last summer, the moves that team president Leon Rose was able to execute both last offseason and at this year’s trade deadline have helped restore the Knicks as a team on the rise in the Eastern Conference — and perhaps more importantly, a potentially desirable destination when he takes another big swing to upgrade this roster with an eye on NBA championship contention.

Before a summer that could see established, massively paid All-Stars such as Damian Lillard, Paul George, Zach LaVine and — if the 76ers are eliminated early yet again — perhaps even MVP candidate Joel Embiid on the trade market, let’s offer praise where it’s due for how the Knicks’ front office got the team back into the playoffs, one year after losing steam off of their surprising 2021 postseason appearance with a disappointing 2021-22 campaign.

There isn’t much more that can be said about the addition of Rose’s former CAA client Jalen Brunson, perhaps the best free-agent signing in team history, or at least since Allan Houston came aboard in 1996 and helped front the Knicks to their most recent NBA Finals appearance in 1999 and then to the Eastern Conference Finals the following year.