That’s especially true in the case of a team that has suddenly become mediocre but may only reasonably be one or two pieces away from winning a championship.
Yes, the Knicks may be that close.
Shumpert is not James Harden. Shumpert is not Lillard. Heck, Shumpert is not even Eric Bledsoe, whose Clippers beat up on the Knicks in a Sunday afternoon matinee at Madison Square Garden, 102-84.
Earlier this season, the Knicks won a lot of games mainly because they were getting exceptional floor spacing from Ronnie Brewer, Jason Kidd and Steve Novak taking and making a lot of threes.
Back on Dec. 6, for example, the Knicks downed the Miami Heat without Carmelo Anthony. As a team, they shot 18-of-44 from 3-point land.
That above all, is what the Knicks need to best the Heat in the playoffs.
With Sunday’s loss to the Clippers, the Knicks have lost two of their last three. They still lead the Brooklyn Nets by four games in the Atlantic Division, but the main problem with these Knicks is their lack of a reliable two-way, catch-and-shooter on the wing. J.R. Smith can fill that role, but he’s been inconsistent. The Knicks need another option.
Brewer is considered a plus defender, but he’s played a combined total of 23 minutes since Shumpert made his return to the lineup back on Jan. 17. Brewer hasn’t played in the Knicks last three games and it’s because he’s slowly become a player who is woefully ineffective on one end of the court.
In some ways, he’s the opposite of Steve Novak—a player who is capable of providing some offensive firepower for Woodson’s team, but not one who is going to help get critical stops in late game situations.
As good as the Knicks have been this season, there is a lot of room for improvement. The defense is nowhere near where it was earlier this season and the floor-spacing and drive and kicks that made the team successful during the first quadrant of the season has slowly become the ‘Melo show once again.
On Sunday, Anthony turned in a 42-point effort and Raymond Felton chipped in 20. The duo combined for 62 points on 23-of-44 shooting from the field.
The rest of the team combined to score just 26 points. Even worse? They were just 2-of-10 from 3-point territory.
Raymond Felton’s importance to this team can’t be understated. Aside from Anthony, he’s the only player on the Knicks that consistently takes opponents off the dribble and gets into the paint. The Knicks could certainly use another one of those.
The major issue with the triad of Shumpert, Brewer and Novak is that none of the three are two-ways players. Anytime any of those three are on the floor, the Knicks are sacrificing something. The team could certainly use a two-way wing player who can help keep the floor spaced.
Jared Dudley is 27-year old, 6’7″ wing who is a career 40 percent 3-pointer shooter. He’s no turnstile on the defensive end and has steadily improved since he began his career as a member of the Charlotte Bobcats back in 2007. His 11.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists is nothing to sneeze at.
Understandably, like many Knicks fans, many within the organization are reluctant to part with Shumpert, who the Suns have the hots for. The Suns were prepared to accept Shumpert as the main cog in a sign-and-trade deal for Steve Nash last summer before Nash, at the 11th hour, ultimately decided that he would be better served by taking his talents to Los Angeles.
Trading Shumpert for Dudley, straight up, is not something the Knicks would be wise to do.
But for Dudley, Sebastian Telfair and an unprotected first-round draft pick?
That’s something that the Knicks should consider, even if it means inserting Novak or Marcus Camby in the trade in order to make the salaries work.
The Knicks were a fine defensive team without Shumpert, and even with him, the team won’t defensive stop their way to a series victory over the Derrick Rose-led Chicago Bulls or the Miami Heat.
Beating either of those teams is going to require the Knicks to in an old-fashioned shoot-out, like it or not.
Another player that could help the Knicks is Randy Foye of the Utah Jazz. Foye is a 29-year old guard who may be too old for the rebuilding Jazz to keep around past this season. He’s shooting a career-high 43 percent from behind the 3-point line and is a capable defender at either backcourt position.
It would be easy for the Knicks to match his $2.5 million salary this season and easy to see the Jazz being willing to part with him. He is, after all, in the final year of his contract.
Unlike the Dudley trade, a Foye deal currently has no legs. Foye, though, could probably be had for less than what it would take to pry Dudley—a fan favorite—away from the Suns.
The Knicks are close, but the team needs at least one more piece. As good as Shumpert may be, the Knicks may simply not have the time to wait for him to fulfill his potential.
Most moves that the franchise has made since signing Amar’e Stoudemire have been second guessed. At this point, though, at 32-17, Glen Grunwald and the franchise may deserve the benefit of the doubt.
The best thing that Knicks fans can do is count down the days until Feb. 21 and hope that the team is better equipped to make a long playoff run thereafter.
And if that means Shumpert finds himself with a new address, it will just be another day in the NBA. In fact, it will be business as normal for the New York Knicks.
Moke Hamilton is a Senior NBA Columnist for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MokeHamilton
The only way the Knicks should consider trading Iman is if they can get a player who can create his own shot and score consistently. Buying low on someone like a Tyreke Evans makes a hell of a lot more sense.
The Dudley deal only makes any degree of sense if the Suns are actually stupid enough to throw in an unprotected 1st. For a team as terrible as they are thats an Isiah Thomas type trade.
I tend to agree, although i agree with the comments here, too. Guys like DeShawn Stevenson are rarely given the credit they deserve. For Dallas stevenson was sensational. An absolute crucial part of that championship. Shumpert isnt that level of defender.NOt yet anyway. Im not sure he has the attitude to be that kind of defender. It takes a certain toughness, mentally and physically, to play that role. Tony Allen does it for Memphis. Bowen did it too. The problem for the knicks is that this is a long season and the older players start to show signs of tired legs. You shoot from the floor up……..and you can see how exhausted Kidd looks now, and Sheed is probably gone, and the rest were never going to keep it up anyway. Foye I would argue is NOT a good defender. He can shoot, but he’s almost a liability on defense. Personally Id keep Shump right now because i dont see you can get enough in return for him to make a difference. But new york isnt a serious contender anyway. For a variety of reasons having nothing to do with shumpert.
Look, the Knicks were never going to shoot the ridiculous percentage from 3 for the season, the way they did those first 20 games. Eventually, they were going cool off and other teams would refine their defenses to deal with the Knicks style. It was ridiculous that so many experts were claiming the Knicks were championship contenders. How many times do teams need to start hot the first quarter of the season and then trail off as the season goes on before basketball media stops overhyping them? There’s an example pretty much every season.
What the Knicks need now is improved defense. After Chandler, Shumpert is clearly their best defender. Trading him would not make them any better at the things they need to be better at in order to improve their winning %, in my opinion!
I think part of the problem is that although Shumpert is healed, his reaction ability is still hampered and probably will be for the rest of the season. He just does not have the explosiveness he had last year and that’s to be expected coming off this type of injury.
In addition, Woodson rarely has him handling on the ball defense, and instead he seems to be spending his time fighting through screens. I don’t know if Woodson is trying to protect him because he is slower than we know or whether this is how he wants to run the defense. In either case, it further reduces Shumpert’s defensive effectiveness.
Given the above and that the Knicks realistically have a 2 year window at most, if the Knicks can get another perimeter shooter who is a threat from outside and can reasonably defend the wing, I think Shumpert becomes expendable. I hate to say it because I am so tired of the Knicks giving up their future for the present, but there has been too big an investment made into the Chandler, Melo, Amare triumvirate to worry overly about Shumpert’s future ceiling. Let’s face it, if in 3 years, if there has been no title (or close to a title) the current team will be dismantled and Shumpert, as good as he is, is not the person you rebuild a franchise around.