Knicks Rumors: Hottest Trade Reports Surrounding Knicks Before 2020 Deadline

The New York Knicks have a lot of power forwards and point guards. With buzz surrounding Dennis Smith Jr., Marcus Morris and D'Angelo Russell, this could change by the NBA's trade deadline on February 6.

Rumors will always surround such a chaotic, big-market front office, but—in keeping with Knickerbocker recent history—nothing sticks out as a substantial fix to New York's issues.

The Knicks may be able to shop Dennis Smith Jr., as the New York Post's Marc Berman was told that the Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic have expressed interest in the explosive, albeit inconsistent guard. 

New York has RJ Barrett, Elfrid Payton, Dennis Smith Jr., Frank Ntilikina and Kadeem Allen on their roster. At 22 years old, and with an absurd athletic profile, DSJ is worthy of intrigue—especially for teams like the Timberwolves and Magic, who have been starting Shabazz Napier and DJ Augustin at point, respectively.

Barrett is the team's future at point guard, both Payton and Ntilikina have comfortable floors as role players while neither has incredible trade value. While Allen has minimal value, Smith Jr. actually has some given his age and ceiling. 

As a ball-dominant point who looks lost on the court, both offensively and defensively, DSJ needs playing time and coaching to reach his ceiling, let alone a respectable floor. Ntilikina is already a project, Payton is a reliable veteran and Barrett needs all of the work he can get—the Knicks do not have the resources to devote enough attention to the Smith experiment. It wouldn't be a surprise if New York downgraded its asking price to a second-rounder from Orlando or Minnesota by Thursday.

A point guard New York would have the resources for is D'Angelo Russell, who has already established a high-scoring floor and still, at 23 years old, has an incredible ceiling. Unfortunately, despite New York's interest, they seem unlikely to procure him.

SNY's Ian Begley reported that Ntilikina and Bobby Portis were discussed as assets for a D-Lo trade. When Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson return from injury, the Golden State original core will be back and Russell may not be the ideal complement. Reasonably, the Warriors could prefer trading D-Lo (and possibly their 2020 pick, if they don't want to go after James Wiseman) for role players who might help the Splash Bros get back to championship contention.

Still, the Knicks don't have the right role players and would only be able to offer assets for the Dubs to then trade away for the right pieces. At this time, it seems unlikely for president of basketball operations Bob Myers to act on that. Instead, Knicks and Warriors fans will probably need to wait until the offseason for any real activity to commence. 

Finally, Adrian Wojnarowski noted that New York is intent upon retaining Morris but could be swayed by the right offer as contenders line up for a crack at the large scorer. Morris is averaging 19.4 points on 44 percent shooting from the field and 43.8 percent from three. At 6'8", he's also an adding a comfortable 5.5 boards. 

Morris would be a definite boon to most contenders. At 30 years old and costing $15 million this season, he doesn't really fit New York's timeline while carrying a burdensome contract. Both Los Angeles teams and the Houston Rockets are likely working around the clock to figure out a way to make things work, but there's no obvious route for Morris to reach a contender right now.