It was recently reported that the Knicks are very unlikely to furnish any trade deals with draft picks. Which, if you are a Knick fan, you love to hear, especially with the "stacked" 2020 draft full of point guards, play callers and difference makers.
The last 4 seasons has been the official start of the Knicks rebuild. You can see that with the early round draft picks that have donned the Knicks orange and blue.
Kristaps Porzingis ------> Dennis Smith Jr.
Frank Ntilikina
Kevin Knox
RJ Barrett
Moving forward in this post with the obvious omission of KP since he is no longer with the team and even though Dennis Smith Jr is currently not playing we will assume his role in the youth movement / rebuild since he is still with the team... for now.
This rebuild through the draft seems to be the only thing helping Steve Mills keep his job, albeit a futile attempt, I'm sure.
Should the Knicks have the opportunity to package some of the 1 year vets to bring in someone like a Chris Paul or Andre Drummond (even though I would rather the Knicks live and die with Mitchell Robinson and his foul trouble- a nice way to show your development skills if you are an assistant coach) I say pull the trigger. It's unlikely Drummond stays past this season since he will stat-pad like crazy and get a huge payday from a team needing a big man for the playoffs to compete with the likes of the LA teams and Giannis.
In that type of situation, you would likely only see the 1 player come back likely while giving up at least 2 players. This will also open up a roster spot for the legend of Kenny Wooten to make the jump to the big club and show that he can replicate what he is doing down in the G-League. The athleticism will surely transfer, we just hope the skills and instinct adjust to the speed of the game as well.
Lots of speculation upcoming since the trade deadline is Feb 6th but one thing is for sure (or definitely maybe not at all for sure) the Knicks will not give up any draft picks in any deal that gets made!
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