The New York Knicks and Enes Kanter seem destined for a divorce, but the trade offers on Kanter at this point are underwhelming.
Enes Kanter isn’t happy with his current situation. That’s no secret. The New York Knicks are focusing on player development while Kanter would rather focus on winning.
The logical move would be for the Knicks to find a suitable trading partner for Kanter. Unfortunately, this isn’t proving to be easy. Chris Sheridan of Get More Sports is reporting that the Knicks are underwhelmed by the current offers for Kanter. Sheridan writes:
“As always, it is a buyer’s market when it comes to a player that the entire NBA knows is on the trading block, so the Knicks are not exactly being overwhelmed with great offers. Also, New York is taking the public posture that none of the young talent on the team is available, nor will any future draft picks be included.”
The Knicks should avoid including any young players in the deal. Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, Allonzo Trier, Luke Kornet, Frank Ntilikina, and Damyean Dotson should be completely off limits. Those are guys the Knicks will want to develop for the future.
While the Knicks should be protective of their young talent, attaching a second-round pick to Kanter to sweeten the pot shouldn’t be off limits. The Knicks have a number or second-round picks stashed after trading away Willy Hernangomez to the Charlotte Hornets last season.
Of course, first round picks should be off limits, but that goes without saying. The Knicks should have a premium pick in this year’s draft. Who knows, they could even take that premium pick and a group of young players and package them in a deal for a superstar. Anthony Davis’ future with the New Orleans Pelicans is relatively uncertain at this point. Perhaps the Knicks could figure out how to put together an enticing package of players and premium picks. Davis is a pipe dream to a certain extent.
But dreams aside, the Knicks must be careful with their assets. As A result, they should avoid dealing away long-term assets for a short-term gain. There’s no reason to rush him out of town just to keep a potential malcontent from causing a problem in the locker room.
