The New York Knicks would consider moving on from Immanuel Quickley in the right trade, according to Hoopshype’s Michael Scotto.
There are two major reasons why the Knicks would consider moving on from Quickley, last season’s Sixth Man of the Year finalist.
First, the wide gap in their extension talks this past offseason.
“As previously reported by HoopsHype, Quickley was offered around $18 million per year and was looking for closer to $25 million annually, league sources said,” Scotto wrote.
Second, Quickley wants to start, which he put on record in a Yahoo Sports story on March 23, 2023.
“I don’t want everybody to think I just want to be a microwave guy,” Quickley told Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer. “I don’t want to give that impression for my career. Because eventually, I want to be a starter down the line. You don’t work your whole life to … you know? But I’ll do whatever the team needs me to do. It’s about winning, at the end of the day.”
Given these two reasons, Scotto told Jason Jackson and Amin Elhassan on Xirius XM NBA Radio that “it behooves them [Knicks] to gauge the market and see his value and if moving him would make sense or not.”
One NBA executive told Scotto that Quickley is the Knicks’ second-best trade asset next to starting point guard Jalen Brunson.
Immanuel Quickley’s Trade Market
According to Fischer, “Quickley’s name has been virtually absent from the early rumblings around the NBA” when hundreds of front-office executives and pro scouts converged in the G League Winter Showcase in Orlando, Florida recently.
The Knicks gauged Quickley’s trade value last year, Fischer noted, before his meteoric rise into a Sixth Man of the Year runner-up.
The February 8 trade deadline is still seven weeks away. But with the Knicks losing Mitchell Robinson to a significant ankle injury that could sideline him for the rest of the season, Quickley’s name could come up in trade discussions for frontcourt help.
Quickley was also mentioned in the Donovan Mitchell trade talks between the Knicks and the Utah Jazz two summers ago.
Among the teams with large cap space next summer, the San Antonio Spurs are projected to be the biggest threat to pry Quickley away from the Knicks with a big offer sheet. The rebuilding Spurs with generational talent Victor Wembanyama is bereft of a starting point guard. They have even experimented with starting the 6-foot-8 Jeremy Sochan as their point guard.
Knicks Remain Interested in OG Anunoby
Despite their messy legal dispute with the Toronto Raptors, the Knicks are still hoping for an OG Anunoby trade.
“The Knicks also remain interested in trading for Raptors forward OG Anunoby, league sources told HoopsHype. Last season, Knicks forward RJ Barrett came up in those brief trade inquiries, but nothing substantive materialized. That’s likely to remain the case again unless New York blows Toronto away with sufficient first-round draft pick compensation and maybe another young asset,” Scotto wrote.
A career 37.5% 3-point shooter, Anunoby projects to be the perfect 3-and-D wing for the Knicks. The 26-year-old Anunoby was named to the All-NBA Second Defensive Team last season after leading the league in steals.
