NBA trade rumors: Knicks, Blazers talking draft picks
By Nam Tran
The Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks are currently discussing a trade for Portland’s first-round picks.
According to ESPN’s Ian Begley, the Portland Trail Blazers are open to dealing their 2017 NBA draft picks and are in talks with the New York Knicks.
The Knicks currently have the No. 8 overall pick, but they are looking to add another first-round pick to their pocket for draft night. The Trail Blazers, who have the 15th, 20th, and 26th overall picks, are looking to ease their tax burden by trading away their first-round picks and possibly one of their players.
The talks between the two teams are not serious yet, but according to ESPN, there has been discussions about Portland sending forward and former St. John’s star Moe Harkless back to Gotham as part of the deal.
According to Sporting News, the Trail Blazers are projected to be $12 million over the league’s luxury-tax threshold, and they are looking for potential trades to erase some financial problems.
Considering how bad the Knicks have been over the past 15 years, getting younger might be the only way to ever esacpe their doldrums. New York has won just one playoff series over that span and tried to reload last summer with a trio of veterans including Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Courtney Lee. To the surprise of nobody outside of Madison Square Garden, it resulted in abject failure as New York plodded to another lottery pick.
At least this time the Knicks get to keep it, unlike other years in the past.
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New York is in rebuild mode for the umpteenth time, but if the Knicks can acquire another pick or two and hit on these selections, there is hope with Kristaps Porzingis looming.