The New York Knicks have found a way to convince Carmelo Anthony to re-sign with the team and now that Phil Jackson has pulled off that miracle — as anticlimactic as it was — the next move is to start shedding bad contracts from the roster to free up cap space to try and fit another top free agent on the books to help Melo.
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Jackson sold Melo on keeping his legacy in New York and building a title-worthy team around him which means he needs to work fast to make good on his word this season. Melo is signed for the next five years, but he’ll want to start competing within the first two, and Jackson is willing to go to extreme measures to rid himself of baggage players.
According to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, the Knicks are willing to offer top guard Iman Shumpert in trade packages that sees New York rid itself of the likes of J.R. Smith, Amare Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani.
"There are also holdovers Amare Stoudemire, Andrea Bargnani and J.R. Smith, any of whom can be had in a trade for a satchel of magic beans and a wink. Jackson is said to be willing to include Iman Shumpert in any deal that would rid him of his roster baggage."
This is something we’ve been hearing fr about a week now and it makes some sense. Shumpert isn’t a guy the Knicks will give away, as they need him as their top guard but have Tim Hardaway Jr quickly rising in the ranks to take over that role. Losing Shumpert is something the Knicks might not want to do but they’ve shopped him in the past to get a first-round pick and ridding themselves of roster baggage is another good reason to shop Shumpert if it’s for th greater good.
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