Schmeelk: Trading For D'Angelo Russell Would Hurt Knicks' Future

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The trade deadline is Thursday at 3 p.m. It’s likely the Knicks do something in the coming days, whether that’s wisely unloading pending free agents for young players and future draft capital, or it’s trying to improve the current roster.

The Knicks thinking should be fairly simple over the coming days. They need to ask themselves one basic question when evaluating any trade: Does this move get the Knicks closer to acquiring a truly difference making player?

Right now, the Knicks lack any true difference maker, someone that can be the best, or second-best player on a good team. It’s possible RJ Barrett can develop into that kind of player, but that requires a lot of projection and will take time. Until the Knicks acquire or develop one of those players, everything else they do will be on the margins and have little true impact.

It’s exactly why trading away the veterans on the roster should be a fairly easy decision. Marcus Morris is a very good player, but only a complimentary one on an upper-echelon team. Julius Randle can help a good team with his quick scoring ability, but he doesn’t work as well as a primary option. Reggie Bullock, Elfrid Payton, Bobby Portis, Taj Gibson and Wayne Ellington are bench pieces and should be expendable for any draft return or young player with upside.

Is it likely any return for these players would directly lead to a difference making player? No, though it is not impossible to find a raw player late in the first round or early second round that can become one (see Pascal Siakam). But there are three different ways to acquire players: the draft, trade and free agency.

Any acquired picks can be packaged together in a trade for a difference-making veteran, or be put to use to move up in the draft for a targeted player. Having extra draft capital doesn’t necessarily have to mean additional teenagers added to the roster each year. Draft picks are assets and capital that can be used in a variety of ways.

There are rumors the Knicks are considering trading for some young veterans in the league to improve their roster not only for this season, but future years. Established and expensive players like Dennis Schroeder and D’Angelo Russell have been reported. Underachieving players on their rookie contracts like Malik Monk and Mohamed Bamba have also been mentioned in different reports.

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The Knicks need to be very careful acquiring players like Russell and Schroeder. Russell is currently the point guard for the Warriors, one of only three teams with a worse record than the Knicks. He has not elevated a bad Warriors roster. Dennis Schroder, meanwhile, might be labeled a point guard but averages only 4 assists per game and has a poor 17.7 assist ratio (only 17.7% of his possessions lead to assists). To acquire either would mean sending future picks or young players back in any trade.

Russell and Schroeder would help the Knicks become a better team, but would they put the team in a position to host a playoff series or acquire a difference making player? Both players, to different extents, could possibly bring the team closer to 40 wins, with a mark in the high thirties more likely. Could a team with that record be more attractive to a star free agent? Maybe, but does anyone honestly believe that Schroeder or Russell is what would convince a star to come to New York?  

A move like that would also put a lower ceiling on a roster with a lot of the payroll dedicated to either Russell or Schroeder, Randle, and Morris. Winning more games might help in the standings, but it would make it very difficult to acquire a top pick in the draft lottery, which gives the franchise the best chance to acquire a franchise cornerstone. It might help the record in the short term, but it hurts the long-term goal of finding a player to lead the franchise.

While some Knicks fans, and presumably some people that run the franchise, are anxious to stop finishing at the bottom of the standings, there are many disadvantages to finishing in NBA no-man’s land with 38-40 wins. There is no chance to make noise in the playoffs or win the lottery. There should be no desire to be the victim of a four-game sweep to the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the first round of the playoffs.

The Knicks need to keep their eye on the ultimate goal, which is to eventually become a top four seed in the conference. They should not be concerned at all with being presently mediocre. Future assets, in the form of draft picks or young players on good contracts, give franchises the best chance to get there. That needs to be the only thing on the Knicks mind with the NBA’s trade deadline approaching on Thursday.