Trade Deadline Morning Update

We might be done for the day.

Good morning! I hope everyone isn’t sick of me after yesterday’s five newsletter day (I think that’s a record?) and is good for a few more missives this week. Like I said yesterday, if the Knicks do anything else, I’ll have a breaking news edition to inboxes ASAP. Otherwise, I’ll see you again tomorrow morning.

Trade Deadline Morning Update

I slept on the Sims for Wright trade and thought about it some more. Upon reflection, I’m going to double down on what I wrote last night and what I said in my reaction video: this was about doing a solid for a guy who has been a positive part of your organization more than anything else.

That isn’t to downplay the possibility that Wright sees time. I actually think he will at some point, probably if a rotation player is out (I’d suggest he might get some run now with OG out, but that seems a little too soon). Wright brings good size (6'5") and has real defensive chops, but the Knicks are suddenly a little overstocked with non-spacing perimeter players between Josh Hart, Precious Achiuwa and Ariel Hukporti (or Mitch, when he returns). Even when OG comes back, I suspect we may see more minutes with KAT and Huk (or Mitch) together, and that’s how they get back to a nine-man rotation.

My guess is that this is it for the Knicks before 3pm. Is that OK? I wrote about this extensively yesterday and won’t rehash what I said then, but in short, I don’t know how many options were realistically available to them.

They’re not moving any one of their top six. Mitch has negative trade value at the moment, and moving him would arguably be poor asset management. When you factor in that he could be exactly what they need if and when he returns, I get why they’re going to sit tight.

Given what he’s providing for them (35 minutes of strong play the last two games), Precious at $6 million is probably better value than anything they could get for Achiuwa on the open market, even if you combine him with a minimum.

On that note, they don’t even really have the minimum deals that normally grease the skids on bigger trades. Cam Payne is an important rotation piece. Landry Shamet isn’t trade eligible. After them, it’s the three rookies, all of whom I presume the organization is still high on. If there was an opportunity to package, say, Mitch, Dadiet and the 2030 pick swap for someone, whoever they got back would need to be good - good enough to command 7th/8th man minutes immediately. I don’t think that player is out there, and if they are, I’m not sure the Knicks have the right money to make the deal work or the assets to entice another team.

We’ll see. Maybe everything I just wrote blows up in my face and you’ll be getting an emergency newsletter in your inboxes later today.

But if you don’t, just don’t be surprised.

Now let’s get to the rest of the NBA…