The Reason the New York Knicks are struggling to make a trade

As the clock ticks on the trade deadline, the New York Knicks have yet to make a move.

The team’s season had been teetering on “playoff hopefuls” but in recent weeks, has really crumbled into a reality where they are a bottom third team in the NBA.

Why hasn’t this team been able to make a trade?

Why the New York Knicks haven’t made a trade

It’s simple — the players they are looking to trade have minimal, or even negative value.

I’d say the players that people are clamoring to be traded are Evan Fournier, Alec Burks, Kemba Walker, and Nerlens Noel.

Fournier is a little different than those players in that he’s both locked up long-term but has also performed fairly well. The issue is, if you are going to trade Fournier, you are going to get a similar player in return.

I understand fans want to simply “Get rid of” these players, but for a trade, you’ll need to get something in return. For a team that would want to take on Fournier’s contract, it’d be a team that maybe needs wing depth, but would be giving the New York Knicks a bloated contract at another position.

When it comes to Burks/Walker/Noel, those players are all technically expiring contracts at the end of next season (Burks and Noel have 3rd-year team options). The problem is, that is all they have nothing going for them.

Burks would seem like the most valuable but he has been miscast as a point guard in recent weeks and his play has dipped. Walker and Noel’s play have fallen off of a cliff.

The only where you find a trade partner is if you find a team looking to offload a long-term contract that would match with those salaries — hence why I thought the idea of CJ McCollum wasn’t bad — you take on McCollum’s contract, get rid of those vets, and free up playing time for the younger players. However, now that we know what the Pelicans gave up for McCollum, it’s definitely best that the Knicks didn’t match that level of offer.

Maybe there are other contracts out there that the Knicks can take on in order to dump off their struggling rotation players, but the options appear to be limited and they’re only dwindling. Joe Ingles is another player who could’ve fit that mold but was just dealt somewhere else.  

Unless New York is willing to include draft picks and young players in these trades, it’s going to be hard to move any of these rotation-clogging vets.

This team is in need of some major changes, but they may not come until the offseason when their role players will be easier to ship off.