Trade Landscaping

It's almost that time.

Good morning! Can the Knicks extend their newfound defensive prowess to tonight’s matchup with their nemesis from the South? We shall see…

🏙 Game Night 🏙

Who: Hawks

Where: MSG

When: 7:30 pm

Injury Report: Everyone’s healthy, but Derrick Rose and Cam Reddish remain out of the rotation according to Tom Thibodeau yesterday. As a result, Deuce McBride will probably get his shot to slow down Trae Young under the bright lights.

TV: ESPN

Halftime Zoom: Click here to enter.

Trade Landscaping

While December 15 looms as the unofficial start of trade season, as it’s the first date when most of the contracts signed last summer can be traded, there’s another impending date of note that will be here even sooner: December 9, this Friday.

Why is that important? Because it’s exactly two months before the February 9 trade deadline, which means it’s what is commonly referred to as the aggregation deadline.

In short, any team that trades for a player must wait two months before they can include that same player in another trade if they are also including other players in that later deal. For example, let’s say the Knicks trade for LeBron James tomorrow. They can turn around and flip James to another team the very next day, but only as the lone contract going out in that transaction. But if they want to package James with another player after they acquire the King, they can’t do so until two month following the initial trade. So if they traded for James on February 10, the only way they’d be able to move him before the deadline is if he was the only player going out from New York in the deal.

I think this deadline means more to the Knicks than it would for most teams because of the unique spot that they’re in. On one hand, they’re still trying to win games, and it’s reasonable to expect that they may make a win-now move. On the other hand, they’re not so good that they’re guaranteed to remain competitive through the trade deadline. As a result, they may want to retain as much flexibility as possible to flip a player later who they acquire right now. Being able to include such a player with another guy that’s already on the roster would be one such way to remain flexible.

With that as the backdrop, here are 15 teams to keep an eye on (yes, half the damn league) as we officially move into the start of trade season:

Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers went into this season nearly at the bottom of the preseason over/under win totals, much like the Knicks two years ago. And much like the 2020-21 Knicks, they’ve been the most pleasant surprise in the NBA, most recently going into Golden State and beating a healthy Warriors team despite the absence of Tyrese Haliburton and several other players.

Leon could have drafted Haliburton in 2020, but opted for Obi Toppin instead. We’ll see how the Obi story ends in New York, and whether the Knicks will ever make the necessary move(s) to unleash their backup power forward. In the meantime though, Haliburton is putting up All-Star numbers for a team in the thick of the playoff chase. Whether they stay in that race is different story.

The current Knicks, of course, are trying desperately to make the postseason, and their path would get eminently simpler if Indy would just comply and tank the rest of their season away. That New York is trailing a team that doesn’t even want to be in the race, and is doing so with a player the Knicks could have had, would make me demand some answers from Leon Rose if I were James Dolan.

But I digress. In the meantime, Indy’s approach to the rest of the season bears watching. If they don’t trade off pieces, there’s an argument that the Pacers will stay good and the Knicks could be left on the outside of the playoff race looking in, especially with Washington looking like a team who could add pieces for a playoff push.

As a potential trade partner, the Pacers are also interesting for a few reasons. Primarily, they’re slated to have three picks in the upcoming draft - their own, plus lottery protected selections belonging to Cleveland and Boston. If the Knicks are looking to get back a lottery protected first for someone like Immanuel Quickley, Indy would seem to be a natural trade partner, although my guess is that New York’s front office would be leery about adding a third first rounder (or possibly a fourth, depending on where the Wizards end up¹) in the 2023 draft. So maybe that’s a dead end.

We should also note that the Knicks had eyes for currently injured Chris Duarte in the 2021 draft. He’s due back in a few weeks, and while he was struggling from the field before his grade-2 ankle sprain, his final game before the injury saw him go off for 30 points on 15 shots. With the emergence of rookies Ben Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard, I wonder if the Pacers are more inclined to listen to offers on Duarte.

Finally, the perpetually on-the-block Myles Turner remains in Indy. He’ll be a free agent in July, and has been linked to New York in the past, although it’s worth noting that Mitchell Robinson can’t be dealt until January 15 (my fault on erroneously writing he could be traded on December 15 in a recent newsletter).