NBA Rumors: New York Knicks unlikely to trade J.R. Smith
By Josh Hill
The New York Knicks are looking at what they can do to improve this roster and while their main focus seems to be getting Carmelo Anthony back next season and beyond that, there are other players on the team that need to be attended to moving forward.
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J.R. Smith is one of those players that the Knicks are looking at in terms of how he fits on this roster moving forward and it appears that they may not be so hot to let him go as it maybe seemed last year. According to NBA scribe Chuck Myron, the New York Knicks may have gotten fed up with J.R. Smith’s antics in the past but his talents are something that they’re going to want to hang onto — mainly because his trade value is non-existent.
Smith is a talented player, there’s no doubting that as he won the Sixth Man of the Year Award last season, but his antics have gotten him in trouble and has tainted his basketball brand. That’s the main problem with Smith, and that’s really why his trade value is so low. But that’s not why the Knicks won’t be trading him as he may have a place on this team.
How long he lasts on this team is yet to be seen but he at least will be given a chance to fit in with the Knicks and that might be the first good decision that Phil Jackson has made in his tenure as the president of the Knicks.