For months, reports have been swirling that the New York Knicks have a strong interest in dealing for New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado.
Considering his personal ties as a Big Apple native, coupled with the team's desire to add more stability to their backcourt rotation, his name being floated as an ideal target ahead of the trade deadline should come as no surprise.
Now, with less than a day remaining before February 5's 3 p.m. cut-off, ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel is reporting that the Knicks still, in fact, have an interest in pursuing the Pelicans' guard.
The only problem is, NOLA has no interest in one of New York's presumed main trade chips in such a hypothetical exchange, Guerschon Yabusele.
Lack of Guerschon Yabusele interest keeping Knicks from Alvarado deal
According to Siegel's findings, the Pelicans are open to sending Alvarado to New York but have not been willing to take Yabusele back in return for his services.
Once viewed as a steal of an offseason signing for the Knicks, as he inked a two-year, $12 million deal with the franchise this past summer following a career-best campaign with the 76ers, the power forward now finds himself branded as an untouchable mid-way through the 2025-26 campaign.
Things have gotten so bad for the 30-year-old that after posting mere averages of 2.7 points and 2.1 boards and essentially falling out of the rotation through just 41 games played in his debut season in New York, reports have started to circulate that he may be done with the NBA entirely and, instead, be heading back overseas to continue his playing career.
Simply put, this report creates a major hurdle in Leon Rose and company's chase for Alvarado, for, outside of Yabusele, they are rather void of trade assets.
Considering they're pushed right up against the second apron threshold, the Knicks are literally incapable of adding on another player without offloading one of their own at a comparable pay grade.
Sadly for them, parting ways with Jordan Clarkson isn't even an option in this scenario, as he makes roughly a million dollars less than Alvarado.
With time ticking down toward Thursday's deadline, it seems that unless they can somehow find a way to sweeten the pot to entice the Pelicans to take on the undesirable Yabusele (i.e., add in more draft capital, which is an asset New York is rather void of), the Knicks will sadly miss out on a highly affordable player they've been coveting since the start of the season.