Even with their best possible offer, the Knicks don’t have enough to pry D’Angelo Russell from the Golden State Warriors.
It’s officially that time of the year where teams began to frantically make their best trade offers in hopes to take a step forward. Though the Golden State Warriors are likely to wait until the offseason to seriously consider trading D’Angelo Russell, they have been open to listening to potential deals.
One team that seems interested in gunning for Russell is the New York Knicks. The Knicks have been laughably bad for nearly 10 years and are desperate to find some resemblance of hope to latch onto.
As of now, the only glimmer of hope the franchise has is rookie RJ Barrett. The Duke sensation hasn’t quite lived up to the hype as he is averaging just 14.1 points and 39.3 percent shooting from the floor.
Meanwhile, young players such as Frank Ntlikina and Kevin Knox have yet to show any real signs of potential. Perhaps the only player on the roster to continue taking steps forward is Mitchell Robinson, a 21-year old sophomore who is averaging 1.9 blocks per game.
It has been reported that the Knicks have mentioned Ntlikina and Bobby Portis in talks with the Warriors. This embarrassingly bad trade package is far from being enough to land a budding All-Star in Russell.
Even if the Knicks decided to become extreme and offer up a majority of their young core, it’s hard to imagine the Warriors being interested in accepting a trade. To keep it simple, the Knicks do not have enough talent on their roster to entice the Dubs.
The only thing that could tip the scales in New York’s favor is the addition of draft picks. But, at that point, the Knicks would be sacrificing way too much to justify landing Russell.
There is no telling if Russell will be traded before the deadline, but we can be certain he won’t be shipped to NYC.