Getty Jae Crowder of the Phoenix Suns dribbles the ball against Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks.
With just under a month to go until their October 19 tip-off in Memphis, the 2022-23 season plans for this New York Knicks team are still rather unknown.
Equipped with several high-potential youngsters still on their rookie-scale contracts, some are of the belief that the ball club should look to lean into a youth movement in the Big Apple and focus a sizable amount of effort on developing their talents of the future.
However, Tom Thibodeau has never been known as a developmental head coach but, rather, a win-now one which, in turn, has many believing that the Knicks will be setting their sights on playoff contention by any means necessary during this upcoming campaign.
Should the latter wind up being the case and New York focuses heavily on a postseason push, when it comes to the team’s in-season transactions, they could be invested in bringing on extra veteran players to help with such an endeavor, and, perhaps, they may even consider parting ways with some of their younger assets to make a move like this happen.
Though an unpopular course of action in the eyes of the team’s fanbase, Brett Siegel of Sports Illustrated discussed in a September 19 piece the idea of the Knicks pursuing 11-year journeyman forward, Jae Crowder.
Knicks Swap Potential for Established Veteran
According to recent reports by ESPN Insider Brian Windhorst, the Phoenix Suns are actively working toward trading away veteran wing Jae Crowder, and Siegel seems to believe that the New York Knicks could consider getting involved.
“The New York Knicks are nowhere close to being a playoff contending team, which is likely why Jae Crowder would not be open to a trade here. However, the Knicks believe internally that they have what it takes to get to the playoffs and be competitive, which is why a defensive-minded veteran on the open market is someone that could intrigue them,” Siegel wrote.
The article would continue by suggesting that Leon Rose and company could opt to include Cam Reddish as the focal point of an outbound package, citing the former lottery pick’s reported desire for a “change of scenery” and Phoenix’s desire for more “two-way potential” within their arsenal as major reasons for why.
“As for the Suns, they will likely look to move Crowder with the intention of getting back another “win-now” type of talent like Bojan Bogdanovic from the Utah Jazz, but Cam Reddish is only 23-years-old and has shown flashes of his two-way potential early on in his career.
“Whether it is in Phoenix or somewhere else, Reddish can contribute right now and be a key scoring talent coming off-the-bench. Making $5.9 million in the final year of his contract, Reddish can be moved for Crowder’s salary, which is why this trade makes sense financially.”
Despite being selected tenth overall by the Atlanta Hawks back in the 2019 NBA Draft, Reddish has struggled mightily since entering the league.
While Siegel is correct that the wing has shown flashes at times, particularly during his final 34 games played with the Hawks, since being acquired by the New York Knicks back on January 13 of last season, his stock has plummeted considerably, as he went on to put up mediocre averages of just 6.1 points and 1.4 rebounds during his 15 games played.
Perhaps a change of scenery would do the youngster some good, though even Siegel doubts that this move would entice Phoenix enough to pull the trigger.
Knicks a Realistic Landing Spot for Irving
Among the many hypothetical trade scenarios that have been tossed around of late regarding the Knicks, recently an anonymous NBA general manager came up with the perhaps the wildest proposal of them all, as they told Heavy.com’s Sean Deveney that New York could be a logical trade destination for star point guard Kyrie Irving.
“The Nets have spent so much time trying to separate themselves from the Knicks that you wonder if the two teams would be willing to make a major trade but if the Nets are getting the sense that they’re going to lose Kyrie Irving, sending him to the Knicks makes some sense,” the executive told Deveney.
“The Knicks would have a chance to re-sign him — that’s one of the big fears about dealing for Irving, that he is not going to stick around after the season, he is a rental player.”
The executive would continue by stating that though Irving may be an established superstar talent, due to his off-the-floor issues coupled with his expiring contract New York may be able to offer up the best package to Brooklyn should they shop Irving, with Evan Fournier, Derrick Rose, and a future pick serving as the framework of a possible outbound deal.