New York Knicks: Five reasons Kristaps Porzingis shouldn’t be traded for Kyrie Irving

The Cleveland Cavaliers want Kristaps Porzingis in a potential Kyrie Irving trade. Here are five reasons the New York Knicks should avoid making that deal.

The New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers are in the midst of an offseason of significant change. Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving has requested a trade, and the Knicks could part ways with Carmelo Anthony, Phil Jackson, and Kristaps Porzingis by summer’s end.

While Jackson is out as team president and Anthony is on the trading block, Porzingis should be labeled as a genuine untouchable.

Porzingis was dangled in trade rumors during Jackson’s final weeks as team president. With Jackson now out of office, however, the Knicks have seemingly rescinded the interest in trading Porzingis—or so it seems.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Cavaliers want Porzingis for Irving, but the Knicks won’t even consider the trade unless Joakim Noah’s contract is included.

"Porzingis has emerged as a primary Cleveland target, but that’s a conversation that can occur only with Cleveland’s willingness to unburden the Knicks of the three years and $55 million left on Joakim Noah’s contract. For now, the conversation is a nonstarter for the Knicks, league sources said."

New York would only begin to consider trading Porzingis if Noah’s contract were included, but even that shouldn’t be enough.

Getting rid of a bad contract is a good decision—99.9 percent of the time. This falls into that rare fraction of a percentile, however, as giving up a bad contract isn’t worth also giving up the future face of the franchise.

Here are five reasons why the New York Knicks shouldn’t even consider trading Kristaps Porzingis before the 2017-18 season.