Don't Expect New York Knicks to Trade Amar'e Stoudemire This Season

Not only would trading Amar'e Stoudemire not work to the detriment of the New York Knicks' long-term goals, it won't help in the short term, either.

With a transitioning team like the Knicks, beginning an aspirational, multi-year path to high-level competitiveness, any immediate ramifications of a STAT transaction will be judged based on how they affect the team not in 2013-14, but thereafter.

So here's a basic reality: There is a 0.0 percent chance the Knickerbockers can hope to receive anything of future value for Amar'e.

With his decimated knees and bloated price tag, Stoudemire, now in the final year of a deal signed back in the summer of 2010, has only now become even remotely movable. And even then, any interested trade partner would have to be able to afford the $23.4 million remaining on his expiring contract, per ShamSports.

Unsurprisingly, the financial circumstances pare down the list of potential suitors quite a bit. Absent from that list would be anyone willing to part with a prospect, a draft pick or a veteran with any established talent and a reasonable contract.

What's left are cash-rich teams willing to absorb Amar'e onto their books, giving New York some financial flexibility for other trades, and franchises looking to swap contractual albatrosses and stick the Knicks with another similarly expensive player (or players).

When you think of teams with money to burn and a willingness to facilitate an expiring-salary dump for a nominal fee, the Philadelphia 76ers have to come to mind immediately.

Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

During the offseason, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders floated the idea of Philly acquiring STAT in order to clear the salary floor.

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What’s far more likely is that the long rumored Amar’e Stoudemire to Philadelphia deal gets done at the deadline. The Sixers take on Stoudemire’s $23 million salary cap number, which pushes them way over the minimum. They would only owe him roughly 30 percent of his remaining contract, so they’d end up paying him $7 million in cash and likely extract a draft pick or a rookie scale player for their troubles.

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There are a few problems with a deal like this from the Knicks' end.

Kyler presents "a draft pick or a rookie scale player" as a mere cost-of-doing-business throw-in. However, New York has precious few assets like that.

The Knicks don't own a second-round pick until 2018, when they have already given away rights to swap second-rounders to...Philadelphia, according to ESPN's Marc Stein. As for cheap young'uns, that would mean a Cleanthony Early or a Travis Wear, both of whom are especially valuable to the Knicks precisely for their youth and modest salaries.

New York's upshot in this trade would be falling back below the luxury-tax line ($76.8 million, per a league press release), giving them greater flexibility to acquire salary in a trade this season, so long as they don't top that threshold again in doing so.

That said, with $66.7 million still committed after STAT's departure—minus a few hundred thousand for an Early/Wear type—the Knicks would still be over the $63.1 million cap. They would still be able to take back 150 percent of outgoing salary in another trade, plus $100,000, but that's just a slight improvement on the 125 percent plus $100,000 they can receive as taxpayers.

It's not enough of a benefit for New York to parlay a Stoudemire trade into a separate deal for substantial long-term gain, making the loss of a rookie-scale guy a needless sacrifice.

On top of that, Amar'e is actually standing tall and talented rather than tall and decrepit so far this season.

He's not quite his super-springy younger self anymore, but in 23.9 minutes per game, he's putting up 11.3 points on 50 percent shooting. On top of that solid scoring, he's wrangling 8.5 rebounds per game. In 32.9 career minutes per game, he has averaged only 8.3 boards.

Obviously eight games is a small sample size, but it looks like what Stoudemire has lost in bounce and pick-and-roll havoc-wreaking, he has gained in low-post commitment.

He's more willing to throw around his 6'10", 245-pound frame in pursuit of boards, and while he's still a minus defender often caught out of position, lately he has more effectively used his strength to shut down opposing bigs when he has one in front of him.

That's still not enough to get a prospect or a pick for Amar'e via trade—not when his knees remain uninsurable, and not when his contract is too high for any hopeful contender to acquire without the headache of sending back $23.4 million in assets.

So if New York can't make a future-facing STAT deal, what about one with winning now in mind? After all, succeeding sooner in the triangle offense could pay dividends, extending the title window by stemming the growing pains.

Enter Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, and a fantastical, persistent hypothetical:

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What will Bryant think in January, when the losses are piled up and his 36-year old body is feeling the weight of having to carry the offensive burden nightly? What will he think if Phil Jackson casually suggests that a change of scenery might be good for him? A reunion between Bryant and Jackson in New York makes sense on several levels. The Knicks get a second star (which Bryant, at this point, needs to be) with a deep understanding of the triangle offense. The Lakers could poach one of the Knicks' big expiring contracts, a young piece (Iman Shumpert?) and a future protected pick.

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ShamSports reports Kobe Bryant's salary at $23.5 million in 2014-15, meaning the Los Angeles Lakers can swap him straight for Amar'e.

Matt York/Associated Press

Regardless of Kobe's feelings (and his no-trade clause, which makes this a veritable nonstarter), L.A. would not part with a franchise legend without getting something to assist in its rebuild. $25 million, Kobe's 2015-16 cap hit, off the books certainly helps, but as Mannix suggests, the Knicks would still be the ones sending out young guys and draft picks.

But let's keep running with the pipe dream, for the sake of argument: What would the Knicks look like if they dealt Stoudemire and, say, Tim Hardaway Jr. for Kobe Bean?

You have to imagine Bryant's 26.5 points per game thus far would drop some playing next to Carmelo Anthony, while Kobe's sub-40 shooting percentage would rise back toward respectability. Let's assume he'd be a true second scoring threat next to Melo.

While he might help Derek Fisher teach his players the triangle, 36-year-old Kobe is more limited defensively than any of New York's wings. As a high-usage scorer, Bryant won't improve the offense's efficiency enough with his play to make the losses on the other end worthwhile; at that point, his triangle tutelage would be the difference-maker.

Kobe Bryant would be making $49 million over the next two years to be a glorified assistant coach, an on-court equivalent of a Kurt Rambis. No matter how well Bryant could help the Knicks master their system, he doesn't offer enough of an upgrade in 2014-15 to warrant parting with future value—let alone taking such an enormous chunk out of the 2015-16 coffers, currently earmarked for chasing stars in free agency.

The best way for New York to prepare for the upcoming open market would be to simply let Stoudemire's deal expire. He might even play his way into another Knicks contract—a seven-digit one rather than eight—if he keeps his rejuvenated play going.

All his positive production is basically gravy to the Knicks, though. Paramount is the cleared cap space available next summer. The best way for New York to look long-term with Amar'e is to change nothing with him at all, and keep him right where he is for the time he has left there.

All stats via NBA.com.

Josh Cohen writes about the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @arealjoshcohen.