NBA Trade Deadline 2019: 5 buried veterans who could help a contender

4. Courtney Lee — G, New York Knicks

As a Knicks fan, am I including Courtney Lee on this list in the hope that the universe will hear my plea and some team will take him off New York’s hands, thus opening up $12.7 million in precious cap space for the upcoming summer? Damn skippy I am.

Does it change the fact that Lee has every right to be included in this category? Not at all.

Entering this season, Lee was a career 40 percent shooter from deep that could credibly defend the opponent’s second-best wing or guard more often than not. The Knicks are prioritizing Zio- er, their youth, and thus Lee hasn’t been given the chance to shake off the rust from an offseason neck issue, but the same guy we saw last season should still be in there.

For most of the first half of the 2016-17 season, he was arguably New York’s most consistent two-way force:

There aren’t many true contenders who have no aspirations with their cap space this July, and even those that don’t certainly know that the Knicks have every intention of making a splash. This would explain the apparently depressed market for Lee thus far. That said, the playoffs are shaping up to be a competition of who has the most wing players who don’t take anything off the table at either end. Lee fits the bill.

He’s out of New York’s rotation and eminently gettable. Let’s see if anyone bites.