The New York Knicks remain one of the most-active teams in trade talks leading up to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline. New York entered Tuesday’s action with a 24-30 record and 1.5 games out of the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference.
It’s been a season of struggles for a Knicks squad that earned a surprise playoff appearance in 2020-21. This has led to speculation that front office head Leon Rose will look to make an impactful move ahead of the deadline.
The backdrop here is a trade last month that brought wing Cam Reddish to the Big Apple. Thus far, the former Atlanta Hawks’ lottery pick is averaging nine minutes in four games. For New York, the goal is to find a trade that could help Reddish become a larger part of the team’s rotation moving forward.
In California’s capital city, the Sacramento Kings just pulled off an eye-opening blockbuster trade that sent 2020 lottery pick Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers in a six-player swap that brought back two-time All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis.
It now appears that the Knicks and Kings could work some magic within the next several hours. According to Marc Berman of the NY Post, New York has called Sacramento up about the availability of underrated forward Harrison Barnes. Berman also notes that Barnes could very well be moved following the Haliburton for Sabonis blockbuster.
“Multiple sources said, before the Haliburton trade, the Kings would be amenable to trading the 29-year-old Barnes, who played for Golden State’s superpower teams.”
NY Post’s Marc Berman on potential Harrison Barnes trade
There’s a lot of factors that go into the possibility of Barnes heading to New York City. Below, we look at a couple of them.
Related: Updated NBA trade rumors
How would a Harrison Barnes trade to the New York Knicks look?
Given their shocking acquisition of Sabonis ahead of the NBA trade deadline, this report seems rather surprising from Sacramento’s perspective.
At first glance, one might think that Kings general manager Monte McNair pulled off this deal to team Sabonis up with Barnes in the frontcourt. The struggling team cleared up some of its excess in the backcourt by moving off both Haliburton and Buddy Hield. Why not roll with a core five that includes De’Aaron Fox, Davion Mitchell, Barnes, Sabonis and Richaun Holmes?
What we do know is that the 29-year-old Barnes is vastly underrated in the grand scheme of things. He’d bring back draft pick compensation — something that lacked in the Haliburton trade for the most part.
- Harrison Barnes stats (2021-22): 16.8 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 2.5 APG, 46% shooting, 41% three-point
Barnes is also under team control through the 2022-23 season with a cap hit of $21.25 million on average. That’s a steal for the type of consistent production he’s displayed.
From the New York Knicks’ perspective, making a move for Barnes would also be interesting in that they are attempting to find more minutes for the aforementioned Reddish. Both play wing spots with Barnes potentially able to play power forward.
At issue here is the presence of struggling reigning NBA Comeback Player of the Year Julius Randle. This would also limit Reddish’ minutes as he would be forced to play behind Barnes as well as R.J. Barrett at the two-guard spot. That might fit into New York’s thinking given head coach Tom Thibodeau didn’t view Reddish as an upgrade from what the Knicks had prior to the trade with Atlanta last month.
Related: Ideal Julius Randle trade scenarios from the New York Knicks
Long story short, the Knicks might view a Barnes-Randle pairing as being better than what Reddish could provide. Though, the jury remains out on that one.
The question here becomes what the Knicks would be willing to offer up and what Sacramento will want after the trade earlier on Tuesday. The following parameters might work for both sides.
- New York Knicks get: Harrison Barnes
- Sacramento Kings get: Mitchell Robinson, Evan Fournier, first-round pick
This move would clear up some of surplus of wings in New York with Fournier being swapped for Barnes. The former has not necessarily panned out after signing a four-year, $73 million deal with the Knicks last summer. The idea would be to have Reddish back up at the two wing spots. Barnes can play the four.
- Evan Fournier stats: 14.1 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 43% shooting, 40% three-point
At 6-foot-7, Fournier can play both the two and three. He also offers Sacramento some upside. Remember, the France native averaged 17. 0 points on 38% shooting from 2016-21.
Sure Fournier’s contract and age (29) isn’t too enticing. With that said, Sacramento is able to pick up a future first-round pick in order to take on said contract. It also adds a talented young big man in Mitchell Robinson to fill out the rotation.