NBA Trade Rumors: New York Knicks Eye Rajon Rondo in Iman Shumpert Deal
Nov 16, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks shooting guard Iman Shumpert (21) drives the ball during the third quarter against the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden. Atlanta Hawks won 110-90. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Over the last week or so there have been a plethora of Iman Shumpert trade rumors tied to the New York Knicks. The initial prospective deal involved Kenneth Faried who has seemingly found himself in the doghouse of new head coach Brian Shaw. It was reported that the deal was actually rejected by the Nuggets according to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski.
Well now the Boston Celtics are in on the fun. According to Frank Isola of the New York Post, the Knicks have been trying to create a package deal for Rondo that includes Shumpert, Raymond Felton and Amar’e Stoudamire.
"Of course, the Knicks primary target is Rondo, Boston’s All Star point guard who is currently recovering from knee surgery. The Knicks have been trying to trade Shumpert, Raymond Felton and Amar’e Stoudemire in a complicated deal for Rondo but the rebuilding Celtics has yet to show much interest.Unless the Celtics are blown away with an offer it’s hard to imagine Celtics GM Danny Ainge trading his best player, Rondo, to the rival Knicks. When Isiah Thomas was in charge of the Knicks he tried for months to acquire Kevin Garnett from Minnesota only to have then Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale trade Garnett to Ainge, McHale’s former Celtics teammates."
If you gave the Celtics a call two years ago, that may have been an enticing deal. However, with Iman Shumpert having another offseason knee surgery, there’s absolutely no way that the Celtics would ever bite. Rondo is their best player and the Knicks would be giving two players with knee troubles and a point guard that is going into the latter part of his career.
There’s no doubt that there would need to be picks involved in the deal, but the Knicks don’t have too many of those that would be enticing for the Celtics at this point–not for Rondo, anyway.
Even if the Knicks weren’t looking for Rondo here, I don’t think anyone would bite. Again, Shumpert seems to have knee issues and that could be something that hampers his career. Amar’e Stoudamire experienced some of the same issues as he was progressing through his career–now he’s just a shell of himself.
It also is very telling that the Knicks have been so eager to deal Shumpert–a player that they were very high on initially. And he’s a very good complimentary player, as I highlighted in this post. He’s been one of the most versatile defenders in the league.
If the Knicks are eager to deal him, it makes it seem as if there has to be something else going on behind the scenes here. They’d have to extend him in the offseason of 2014-15 and may fear that he might ask for an overpriced deal. They also may not see him as the promising player that they once did because of the consecutive knee surgeries. There’s a definite red flag here and all buyers should beware.
I doubt that the Knicks get too much for him from anyone, but the clock is ticking for them. He’s clearly been annoyed by the entire situation and the constant dangling of him as an asset could backfire on the Knicks.