LA Clippers: One trade with every team – New York Knicks

We suggest one trade the LA Clippers could make with the New York Knicks.

We close out this week of suggested trades for the LA Clippers and put the cap on the Atlantic Division by exploring a hypothetical swap with the New York Knicks.

To put it lightly, the Knicks need all the help they can get. The team currently sits in 12th place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 21-45. Their eye is on the future as their season will not resume when 22 teams make the trip to Orlando to complete the remainder of the 2019-20 NBA season in July.

The Clippers already acquired one of the Knicks’ former assets earlier this year when they sent Maurice Harkless and future draft picks to New York in exchange for their current starting power forward Marcus Morris. What’s left in New York is a mix of a few young, promising players in RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, Kevin Knox, and Mitchell Robinson, a group of young players looking to prove themselves in Bobby Portis, Elfrid Payton, Frank Ntilikina, Dennis Smith Jr., and Alonzo Trier, and a handful of veterans and young players hanging out, collecting paychecks.

We take a look at the Knicks roster and ask if there is anything the Clippers need…and frankly, the answer is no. Mitchell Robinson is a nice player but we don’t think New York would part with the young big man for anything the Clippers could realistically offer. There are most likely a few players the Knicks would like to part ways with to clear salary-cap room, but none of these options really make sense as additional pieces to the Clippers already deep roster.

So, we wanted to take a swing. To work up a trade for a recent Knicks first-round draft pick that hasn’t panned out to their liking, who has stiff competition from an array of young players at his position, and who is young and could benefit and blossom from a change in scenery.

Why we suggest this trade for the LA Clippers:

Frank Ntilikina is a young player with a lot of promise that may not ever be fulfilled in New York. The Knicks have added young guards RJ Barrett, Dennis Smith Jr. and Alonzo Trier who all might overtake the six-foot-four inch point guards place on the depth chart.

Ntilikina is already a very skilled defensive player and would be an asset to the Clippers second-unit team as a lockdown guard defender. He could learn and develop playing with the likes of Patrick Beverley, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George and would hopefully also blossom his offensive skills as well.

Would the Knicks do it?

JaMychal Green doesn’t really fit in with the Knicks’ current or future plans, so the Clippers would most likely have to sweeten the deal with some second-round draft assets to make it work.

This was a difficult team to find a good trade for, and we had to dig deep to find a reason why either team would want any of the other’s pieces after already making a trade with each other earlier this year. You can squarely file this suggestion under the “well, we had to come up with something” group for this project.

You can’t say we didn’t try.

Read the rest of our “One Trade with every Team” series here:

Pacific Division: Lakers, Warriors, Kings, Suns
Northwest Division: Nuggets, Jazz, Thunder, Blazers, Timberwolves
Southwest Division: Rockets, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Pelicans, Spurs
Atlantic Division: Raptors, Celtics, 76ers, Nets, Knicks
Central Division: Bucks, Pacers, Bulls, Pistons, Cavaliers
Southeast Division: Heat, Magic, Wizards, Hornets, Hawks