NEW ORLEANS – Tuesday’s game in Memphis wasn’t the kind of showing entering Thursday’s trade deadline that would attract teams to offer something important for Iman Shumpert.
But the Knicks are still getting plenty of interest for Shumpert, whom the Knicks have looked to peddle since November to remove a shooting-guard glut and upgrade the point-guard position because of Raymond Felton’s struggles.
Yahoo! Sports reported the Knicks have had talks with the Clippers for point guard Darren Collison that would include Shumpert and Felton, but the Clips had to add another player. The report said coach Doc Rivers thinks Shumpert can aid their playoff push, though the talks had not yet progressed to a serious stage.
Game 1 out of the break in Memphis didn’t go well for J.R. Smith or Shumpert as they combined to shoot 5-of-17. Smith is now masked and Shumpert is becoming unmasked as not a prodigy or future All-Star. One of the keys to the season’s second half was Shumpert and Smith recovering last season’s form.
The Knicks still get plenty of calls on Shumpert, but it’s hard to see him having significant trade value at Thursday’s deadline.
There were rumblings about Shumpert being packaged to the Rockets for point guard Jeremy Lin — remember him? — who next season enters his poison-pill contract year of $15 million (which would cost James Dolan $45 million when factoring in the new luxury-tax penalties). Houston GM Daryl Morey likes Shumpert. In December, the Knicks made an offer for Rockets center Omer Asik in a three-team deal with Shumpert as a major pawn.
But it’s hard to believe adding Linsanity would be part of a plan that would enthuse Carmelo Anthony. The Anthony-Lin combo didn’t play to rousing reviews.
In Memphis, Shumpert was 0-for-5 from the 3-point line as he continued to be unable to find the range. He finished 3-of-9 for six points, two rebounds, zero steals and zero assists in 20 minutes.
Perhaps he still was bothered by the hip flexor injury that forced him to miss the end of last Wednesday’s game against Sacaramento, but this was not the post-break debut Shumpert imagined.
Smith, wearing a protective mask for the first time in his career, really struggled down the stretch and his 3-point airball from the right corner with 30 seconds left all but sealed the Knicks’ fate in the 98-93 loss. Smith, in the first half, seemed to want to drive the ball at all costs like a running back with his helmet on. He definitely seemed leery of shooting jump shots. On the night, he finished 2-of-8 with one assist.
He called the mask “terrible’’ afterward, but he has four weeks to get accustomed to it. That Shumpert and Smith are showed no signs of emerging in the final 29 games may spell the Knicks’ doom. Trading the masked Smith has gone from highly unlikely to impossible.
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