The NBA 2020 Trade Deadline is almost two weeks away and there is a lot of speculation for what the Knicks should do. There is a lot to wonder about how the Knicks should approach the trade deadline this season as there are still a lot of question marks and holes to fill with this team, and there is only one man to solve these questions. Me, obviously. With this current team, I am in the mindsight of trading everyone who is not young and try and get valuable draft picks.
I don’t want someone like Andre Drummond because he does not fit the mold of this young team. We will have to give up valuable players/draft picks for a star player and how much will a star player like Drummond impact this team. He’s a good player and all but what’s the difference between 20 wins and 25 wins, just a worst chance at the #1 pick. So the Knicks should look to move players for draft picks that can impact this team. The next part of this blog will go in and discuss who the Knicks should keep and who the Knicks should look to trade as February 6th arrives.
Untouchables: R.J. Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Frank Ntilikina, Kevin Knox
Obviously, players like R.J. Barrett and Mitchell Robinson should NOT be traded. There is no hot take there as they are our two best young players. They do have a lot to improve on but so does every other rookie. Now for Frank Ntilikina and Kevin Knox, I have to make a case for why these two should absolutely not be traded. Let’s start off with Frank Ntilikina, whos had a bumpy road to the start of his NBA career. Never really trusted by either Jeff Hornacek or Dave Fizdale the two really tried to kill any development for Frank, and it is shown in this tweet.
https://twitter.com/goknickstape/status/1217986537322958852
It’s crazy how the Knicks would never want to help their young, newly drafted, point guard and instead use players like Jarrett Jack or Emmanuel Mudiay. Even though he was being mismanaged, Ntilikina has started to show signs of his improvement in his third season. If it was not for Elfrid Payton or Dennis Smith Jr. not playing at the start of the season who knows where Frank would be at right now. He is showing he can be aggressive on the offensive side of the ball and I love the combination of Mitch and Frank off the bench.
Now for Kevin Knox, it’s going to be a little hard to make a case for why the Knicks should not trade him. First off he’s only in his second season of the NBA. He shows signs of what he can be and we saw that against when Knox had 17 points and shot 6/8 and 2/4 from three. So let the player develop, especially with a coach like Mike Miller who knows how to work with young players.
Only Trade for the Right Price: Julius Randle, Taj Gibson, Allonzo Trier, Damyean Dotson, Reggie Bullock, Ignas Brazdeikis
I have been one of the few Julius Randle supporters throughout the season and kept on telling people it’s not his fault. The way the Knicks were using Julius Randle and a point forward was stupid and one of the many reasons I wanted Fizdale gone. Since Mike Miller was named as the interim head coach you can see how much Randle has improved. I even decided to do the math on Google Sheets just to see how much better Randle had played and it’s very glaring how much has changed since the firing of Fizdale.
Randle with David Fizdale (22 Games)
16.8 PPG
8 RPG
3.5 APG
3.3 TPG
43.6% Shooting
Randle with Mike Miller (18 Games)
23.9 PPG
9.7 RPG
2.9 APG
2.2 TPG
45.5%
Randle has shown much improvement since Mike Miller has taken over and the numbers show it and the reason why I don’t want Randle gone is that he will be a good veteran (I know he’s only 25) to help improve our young players. And I feel this way about Gibson and Bullock. Gibson isn’t any value anyway so why not keep him and use him to help Mitchell Robinson. And for Bullock, we still need 14 players on the roster.
Now for Allonzo Trier, Damyean Dotson, and Ignas Brazdeikis, these three players have not seen a lot of playing time this season but they should be kept. Trier had a season no one saw coming last year, but for some reason, we stopped using him. Dotson is a good three and D player and I want to see more out of him as the season progresses. And for Iggy, hopefully, he sees some playing time because the Knicks have done nothing with him this season. Hopefully, more playing time will be available for these three players after the trade deadline. But as I said, if we can get a good trade package, aka a first-round pick for any of these players then trade away.
Players That Need to be Traded, but will be Missed: Marcus Morris Sr, Bobby Portis, Elfrid Payton
These three players, in my opinion, have the highest trade value for players that are not untouchable. Marcus Morris was being discussed that he could be traded for a first-round pick during mid-December.
SNY’s Ian Begley spoke to a few team executives about what it would take to land Morris in a trade, and they believed a first-round pick would be in order depending on certain factors. They include whether or not a team belives Morris is the missing piece to a potential championship roster or if the team does not see the back end of the NBA Draft being too deep.
I’m a big fan of Morris, have been since his days on the Suns, but it would make zero sense for the Knicks to keep him, especially if a first-round pick is available. Now for Bobby Portis and Elfrid Payton, the two have been valuable assets for the team this season, but the Knicks should move on from them. They are playing good basketball, but they do take minutes away from young players like Frank Ntlikina or Allonzo Trier, and I would like to see Kenny Wooten get some playing time as the season winds down.
Players who can get the Fuck off my Team: Dennis Smith Jr.
Sorry Dennis, it isn’t me, it’s you. This relationship never worked out and it was always going to be a failure. You were apart of one of the worst NBA trades in a long time as the Knicks traded a franchise player, who will remain nameless, for 3 players and a couple draft picks. We have not been able to use those picks yet, but as of now it was a shitty trade and we should finish it off and trade Smith. I don’t care what we get for him at this point, just someone who will play better then he will.
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