Knicks Will Have to Play Dangerous Waiting Game for Goran Dragic

The New York Knicks are among the teams that Goran Dragic prefers to be traded to by Thursday’s NBA trade deadline as per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

"“After informing the Phoenix Suns that Goran Dragic won’t re-sign an extension this summer, agent Bill Duffy delivered the Phoenix Suns a list of preferred trade destinations that includes the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Miami Heat, league sources told Yahoo Sports.”"

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As exciting as this is to Knicks’ fans, New York does not have any assets to trade for Dragic, which would mean there would need to be additional teams to help facilitate this dream scenario. There is an outside chance of a team that wants to dump salary on New York and take Andrea Bargnani’s $11,500,000 expiring contract for cap relief; there is not much reason for another team to help New York. This would also go against New York’s strategy of preserving cap space for impending free agents this summer. With that said then, New York would have to a very dangerous waiting game for the prized Slovenian.

In a chain of tweets from Marc Stein of ESPN there are a few teams that believe holding Goran Dragic’s Larry Bird Rights is enough to resign him this summer.

New York has to hope and pray Dragic wants to join Carmelo Anthony and a top selection in the NBA Draft so badly, that he is willing to forgo an extra year on his contract. Which right now is difficult imagine because if the Rockets or Kings scenarios plays out, both are more interesting than New York. Houston is already a top four team in the Western Conference with a home court advantage in the First Round of the Playoffs. Can the re-acquisition of Dragic put them over the top for the Championship? Dragic would also be a good fit for Sacramento, playing alongside with DeMarcus Cousins would create a potent inside-outside combination. The Kings started off the season decently before stumbling down to the basement of the Western Conference standings when Cousins was sidelined with viral meningitis.

If the other two scenarios play out, it might work to New York’s advantage. If Phoenix decides to gamble on trying to convince Dragic to stay and he bolts instead, with New York being on his list of preferable destinations, it obviously bold well for the Knicks. If the Boston Celtics decide to trade the many MANY draft picks they have and again Dragic decides to leave, this works out well for New York.

The only thing New York can do is sit back and wait till summer rolls around, and hope that Dragic’s current team does not hold his interest. At that point New York will have to wow Dragic away from the other potential preferable destinations, Los Angeles and Miami. Which is exactly why New York signed Phil Jackson to 60 million right?