What moves could the Knicks make before Thursday's trade deadline?
Knicks forward Cam Reddish looks on against the Thunder in the second half of an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 13, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
First things first — as the Knicks make their way to Thursday's trade deadline, they won’t be putting together a package for Kyrie Irving.
One source jokingly said the media would like the activity of covering Irving, but the media — as well as the Knicks — seem intent on avoiding that headache.
If the Knicks aren’t desperate enough to reach for Irving, an elite talent but one who has added drama and a lack of reliability to his tenure in Brooklyn — and Boston and Cleveland — they do find themselves in a strange place right now in the final days before the deadline.
The Knicks entered Saturday in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, having shown that they can play with almost any team when they are on top of their game and that they can lose to any team when they aren’t. But after a 37-45 disappointment last season, they are above .500 and in the playoff — or at least play-in — picture.
So how desperate are they for change right now? That remains to be seen, but despite the rumors that they are involved in some of the high-level players being shopped, it seems as if they are going to hold tight right now. According to a league source, the most likely ending to the drama is that the Knicks find a taker for Cam Reddish and get nothing else done.
The return won’t even be the conditional first-round pick the Knicks spent last season to obtain Reddish from Atlanta (the Knicks sent out Kevin Knox along with the pick). League sources say the price likely will be a second-round pick, with the Knicks trying to find a player on a rookie deal as a return.
The Knicks did attempt to make a major move in the summer when they thought they could put together a package to obtain Donovan Mitchell but didn't like the Jazz's asking price. Utah called their bluff and sent him to Cleveland, where he has earned an All-Star starting role.
At the time the Knicks were willing to send out some of their accumulated draft assets and include RJ Barrett in the deal. For Mitchell, who Is headed to the All-Star Game for a fourth straight year, that might have made sense. For OG Anunoby, that might not make sense.
And even if the Knicks want to put a similar package together, they basically cannot include Barrett in any deal. When their Mitchell chase failed, they signed Barrett to an extension that doesn’t kick in until next season. That leaves a poison-pill provision that makes his outgoing salary in a deal $10.9 million while the team bringing him in would have to welcome him at $26.2 million in any deal before July 1.
While Barrett has not played at the level he seemed bound for after last season, the 22-year-old former No. 3 overall pick's value remains higher than a giveaway. So just take him out of consideration for any deal.
So what could the Knicks be including in a deal before Thursday’s deadline?
The picks already were on the table in the summer, so for the right deal, the Knicks clearly are willing to move the future assets for help right now. Reddish has been openly shopped. So here are the players the Knicks could move — even if Reddish is likely the only one to move, barring some last-minute shift:
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
