Knicks Targeting $75 Million Guard in Potential Trade: Report

The New York Knicks are on a five game winning streak after their December 14 win over the Chicago Bulls.

At two games over .500 now, the Knicks are in firm control of the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference and it seems like they are looking to add some talent to go on a playoff run.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer, the Knicks had talks about adding Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon to the team, but those talks didn’t go far just yet.

“Eric Gordon was one of the early targets for New York, sources said, although clearly no deal came to fruition,” he wrote. “The Rockets appear to be in little rush to move their veteran swingman for whom Houston has held a steadfast asking price of a first-round pick, sources said, for several straight transaction cycles.”

Gordon has two years left on his $75.5 million deal, and with the Rockets going through a rebuild of their own, there’s little reason for them to hang onto him.

The Knicks have their share of first rounders they could offer to the Rockets, so if that’s the asking price Houston is asking for, New York has the assets.

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Gordon Would Fit Right In

With New York looking for veterans to come off the bench who can score and play a bit of a defense, it would seem like Gordon fits the bill tremendously.

Through 23 games this season with the Rockets, all starts, Gordon is averaging 12.1 points per game. He’s a career 37 percent shooter from three, so he can chip in from there as well.

Fischer reports the Knicks wanted a deal done before December 9 because they would’ve been able to flip the acquired player in another deal if it came down to it.

“New York appeared eager to find a deal before Dec. 9, sources told Yahoo Sports, the two-month deadline for teams to acquire a player via trade and still be able to aggregate that player’s salary into a future deal before the trade buzzer sounds in February,” he reported.

With Derrick Rose and Evan Fournier out of the rotation, the team is lacking veteran leadership and a lot of the young guys are playing big minutes such as Quentin Grimes and Miles McBride, but it has resulted in a winning streak. Flipping Fournier or Rose for Gordon could be a good move as it’d secure another rotation player for a run.

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Any Updates on Fournier or Rose?

With those being the veterans out of the rotation, the expectation is both of them are going to be traded at some point.

Joining them out of the rotation is Cam Reddish, and there have been talks about flipping Reddish and Fournier to the Lakers.

“The Knicks are working with Reddish’s representatives to find him a new home, and there have indeed been conversations about rerouting him and Fournier to Los Angeles, sources said,” Fischer reports.

This backs up earlier reports from The Athletic’s Shams Charania who said the same thing.

“The Lakers are prioritizing shooting in their conversations with teams, and have discussed packages including salaries and a protected first-round pick for Detroit’s Bojan Bogdanovic, league sources, who were granted anonymity so that they could speak freely, tell The Athletic,” Charania reported. “They’ve also discussed concepts involving New York’s Cam Reddish and Evan Fournier, sources said.”

That would seemingly make Reddish and Fournier as the most likely candidates to be moved, but so far there hasn’t been anything concrete on the trade front.

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