The New York Knicks reportedly shopped a package on Kristaps Porzingis to the Sacramento Kings around the 2018 NBA Draft. How could have trade have looked?
As if the Kristaps Porzingis drama was ever set to end. Per ESPN’s Zach Lowe, the New York Knicks shopped a deal around Porzingis to the Sacramento Kings around the 2018 NBA Draft. The return was De’Aaron Fox, and the Kings either needed to attach something with him or take an unwanted salary with the 7-foot-3 Latvian.
Porzingis was eventually moved to the Dallas Mavericks before the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline, with Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee, for Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews, a protected 2021 first-round pick and an unprotected 2023 first-round pick.
The Knicks seemingly had a similar goal in mind to June 2018 as they did in January: shop Porzingis to create cap space or return the most value possible. Sacramento did not become the ideal match, but the pieces were there to make a salary-shedding trade work.
Hardaway and Lee had the unappealing contracts for the Knicks at the time, with both owning guaranteed money through 2019-20 and the former having a $19 million player option through 2020-21.
Packaging at least one of them with Porzingis would have made sense. The Knicks clear cap space and take back a young point guard; that obviously dampens Frank Ntilikina‘s season long before the actual events of 2018-19 happen and the Emmanuel Mudiay revival might not happen.
Sacramento eventually had $11 million of cap space to open the season, which teams rarely have. Presuming that remained the same, they could have sent Zach Randolph or Iman Shumpert‘s expiring contract with Fox to take Lee — the smaller of the two Knicks salaries.
That breaks this down to Porzingis and Lee for Fox and Randolph or Shumpert. The Mavericks gave the Knicks draft picks, however, so do the Kings follow suit? They would not have a full season from the fourth pick of the 2015 NBA Draft, and restricted free agency will follow in July. It’s a risk, but the prospect of pairing Porzingis with Luka Doncic — identical to the Mavericks — holds appeal.
The Kings don’t have their 2019 first-round pick, so this starts to complicate. They can’t send the 2020 pick, per the Stepien Rule, unless there is a pick swap with the Knicks. Otherwise, this leads to the 2021 and 2023 picks, with at least one of them protected, but likely just one of these picks, unless Hardaway also joins the deal.
If the career trajectory stays the same, Fox blossoms into a star point guard for the Knicks and receives more spotlight than in Northern California. He has 17.5 points, 7.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore on 45.5 percent shooting and 36.8 percent on three-pointers. It trumps any point guard in New York now and ends the long-running saga of finding a ball-handler.
Lowe noted Fox’s quiet rookie season, which featured just 40.7 percent shooting for 11.6 points. It put his status as the Kings’ long-term point guard in question, but at just 20-years-old, this proved way too soon to give up on him, even with the prospect of Doncic’s arrival — another player whose success was not guaranteed immediately.
Whether it’s Randolph or Shumpert, neither have a future with the Knicks. The former can even be bought out to seek employment with a playoff-caliber team, even though he never left the bench in Sacramento this season.
Porzingis still sits out in Sacramento, who takes Doncic second overall instead of Marvin Bagley III. This may not become a team on the postseason’s cusp, but they still offer intrigue with Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic around to flank Doncic.
Lee probably plays behind Hield and Bogdanovic and provides little more than a bench presence.
A Porzingis-to-the-Kings trade provides an unexpected “what-if,” since the trade rumors had not focused on him since the 2017 NBA Draft. It’s intriguing for the New York Knicks, though, who might have solved a glaring problem and helped their free agency chances.