New York Knicks big man Enes Kanter is not enthralled with his current situation in the Big Apple. His playing time has been cut, and his role is not what he thought it would be when he decided to exercise his player option for the 2018-19 campaign.
As a result, the Knicks will likely considering trading Kanter by the deadline, which is something they would have probably tried to do anyway even if Kanter wasn't unhappy. New York is not exactly trying to win this year, so trading an impending free agent whom the team surely had little to no intention of re-signing seems like something that was going to happen regardless.
But just how much value does a traditional center in the final year of his deal really have?
Therein lies the problem for the Knicks.
They can desire to trade Kanter as much as they want, but are they actually going to get anything in return? Better yet, can they actually get anything in return?
It might actually be very difficult for New York to swing a deal to send Kanter elsewhere without taking back some salary beyond this season in return, and that is something you would have to imagine the Knicks would be vehemently against.
Kanter is making $18.6 million this season, which is not exactly a cheap salary. Had his salary been closer to $10 million, New York would likely be able to find a capable trading partner, but that is unfortunately not the case.
Let's just look at Kanter in a vacuum first.
He is good at scoring in the low post and rebounding, and he is actually a very good free-throw shooter. But that is where it starts and ends. He has no range on his jump shot, he isn't the best passer and he is one of the worst defensive big men in the league.
So, basically, Kanter is the exact opposite if what you want in your center in 2019.
That's not to say he doesn't have a place in the league, as he can be effective in spot minutes, but his overall value is low, and that intrinsic value does not match his salary.
There will be some teams who will likely be interested in Kanter. The New Orleans Pelicans immediately jump to mind, as they are a club that desperately needs bench scoring and has pieces like Jahlil Okafor and Wesley Johnson to send back in a trade…but where is the other salary coming from? The Pelicans have Solomon Hill, but his contract does not expire until 2020.
With the Knicks potentially preparing a run at Kevin Durant this summer (not to mention the fact that they will need to re-sign Kristaps Porzingis), they are going to want to keep their books as empty as possible and not have guys like Hill taking up precious cap space.
Let's be real here: even in a perfect world, the most New York could expect in return for Kanter is a second-round draft pick and salary filler. No team is going to give up anything of real value for the 26-year-old. You can forget getting any real young talent in exchange for his services; that is not going to happen.
So, even in the most ideal scenario for the Knicks, they are only going to receive minimal assets in a Kanter trade.
That makes you wonder: will New York trade Kanter at all? It's not that the Knicks don't want to move Kanter because, believe me; they do. This is not a team trying to contend this season. If anything, they want to lose as many games as possible to have a shot at Zion Williamson in the draft.
It's that there just does not appear to be any realistic scenarios where New York can trade the big man without taking back something detrimental in return.
I will say this: for the first time in a long while, the Knicks are actually headed in a positive direction. They have their franchise player in Porzingis (if he can just get healthy and stay healthy) plus other nice young pieces like Kevin Knox, Allonzo Trier, Mitchell Robinson, Frank Ntilikina and even Tim Hardaway Jr.
New York legitimately has a nice stable of young talent. Plus, it actually has all of its draft picks for a change and will have the necessary cap room to make a big move this coming summer.
Taking that into consideration, being unable to move a lumbering big man in the final year of his deal would not be the worst thing in the world. At worst, Kanter will walk over the summer and the Knicks will open up some cap space.
For once, New York is not in a situation where it needs to make a move in order to get out from the basement.
The Knicks are actually in a spot where they can remain patient, because in a couple of years, they might actually be a force in the Eastern Conference, even if they don't trade Kanter for five first-round draft picks by next month.
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