Assets, smashets.
The New York Knicks still want Jeff Teague.
Indeed, assets matter in this case, and the Knicks have very few. But according to ESPN.com’s Ian Begley, Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst, that won’t stop them from trying to bait the Atlanta Hawks:
Members of the New York Knicks’ front office ran into a fundamental problem when they reached out to the Atlanta Hawks to gauge the club’s interest in trading Jeff Teague last month.
“They just didn’t have the pieces to make it happen,” one league source familiar with the dynamic said.
That won’t stop the Knicks from trying. New York still hopes to pry Teague from Atlanta at some point before Thursday’s trade deadline, according to a report by ESPN’s Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst.
Prying Teague out of Atlanta will be difficult for any team, let alone the Knicks. He was an All-Star last season, has improved upon his three-point stroke and is under contract through next 2016-17 on a deal that pays him just $8 million per year. The Hawks will likely want back picks and prospects for his services, and the Knicks, who don’t own a first-rounder this year, are light on both.
The best package team president Phil Jackson could reasonably offer is Arron Afflalo, Jose Calderon and Jerian Grant for Teague and Thabo Sefolosha. Kyle O’Quinn could replace Afflalo if the Hawks end up moving Al Horford; he is a pretty good playmaker and has some range to his game.
Still, unless the Hawks view Teague as someone they need to move, they have little incentive to settle for whatever the Knicks are slinging. And even then, even if they need to move him, they can probably suss out markedly better deals elsewhere.
