The NY Knicks are expecting to make the playoffs this season with Carmelo Anthony and Derek Fisher leading the way and heading into the season some trade options for the team include Iman Shumpert, Amar'e Stoudemire, Pablo Prigioni and Andrea Bargnani for Phil Jackson.
According to Pro Basketball Talk, the Knicks may look at a number of trade deals this season, as they would like to clear out as much space as possible heading into next summer and free agency. Stoudemire likely will get traded it Jackson can convince a team to take on his massive contract, while Shumpert could get moved if the team can't reach a contract extension by the end of October.
Shumpert is one of the top young players on the team but the Knicks want to keep as much salary-cap space free over the next two years and it would take at least four years on his extension. The next want to keep Shumpert if they can and they are confident that if he hits the market as a restricted free agent next summer they will be able to hold onto him. Shumpert has shown plenty of potential, but the Knicks will not want to give him a max deal and after trade rumors came up last season, there is a good chance those will come up again at some point.
Greg Monroe and Eric Bledsoe showed this summer that being restricted agent isn't always the fun it's cracked up to be and while Bledsoe got his money, Monroe signed a one-year deal and will be a free agent next summer again. Shumpert comes in after dropping his points numbers and shooting percentage from the season before and while he is a very good defender, the Knicks realize that he is not quite there yet as a star and they are fine with waiting him out to get him on a new deal.
Stoudemire and Prigioni have come up in trade rumors this summer as well and Stoudemire could get moved to the Sixers if they take on his massive contract. The Knicks already traded Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to the Mavericks and that made the team better, as they now have José Calderon and Samuel Dalembert. The Knicks have a number of options to use behind Anthony this season after also trading for Quincy Acy and Travis Outlaw and now Fisher has the chance to mix and match with his rotation.
Knicks are mostly terrible last season and Anthony was the only player who performed up to expectations and the team ended up missing the playoffs. The next one only three of their first 13 games and they finished with 37 wins on the season out of the playoffs in the terrible Eastern conference. The east should be better this year but so should the Knicks and they easily should be able to make one of the playoff spots in the conference. The Knicks will be better than last season and they already are a more talented roster than they were in 2013-14 before Jackson came in.
