Trade Kristaps Porzingis? Knicks Seem Open to Listening

Two months ago, at the end of another disappointing season, reporters gathered at the Knicks’ training facility to listen to Phil Jackson speak about the state of the team for the first time in months.

One of the questions he was asked looked ahead to this summer. Would anything be off the table for the Knicks at that point, including a possible trade of Kristaps Porzingis, the team’s most alluring asset?

“Everything has got to be possible,” Jackson responded. “We have to make sure that if people have something to say, we listen to it, we examine it.”

Jackson, it appears, was not just making an empty statement. The Knicks, according to multiple reports, are at least listening to inquiries from other clubs about the 7-foot-3-inch, 21-year-old Porzingis as Thursday night’s draft approaches.

There is no indication that the Knicks are actively shopping Porzingis, and Jackson, as the Knicks’ team president, is doing his job by hearing what other teams might have to offer.

Still, the fact that the Knicks are discussing Porzingis with other teams — as first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports — comes at a curious time.

For the Knicks, of late, seem estranged from Porzingis, who, apparently frustrated with the team’s lack of progress on the court, skipped out on his exit interview with team management at the end of the season and headed home to Latvia.

There he has remained, working on his fitness and his game, but with no meetings as of yet with Jackson or other Knicks representatives to discuss what has been bothering him.

After the reports of trade talks emerged on Tuesday, Porzingis posted on his Instagram account a photo of himself quizzically looking into the camera. His brother, Janis, an agent at ASM Sports, which represents Porzingis, was more straightforward and pointed to the misgivings that now seem to exist.

“Despite how the Knicks are treating their players, Kris wants to stay in New York,” he told ESPN.

In all likelihood, he will. He has two seasons as a Knick and two more before he can become a restricted free agent. And with Jackson still trying to persuade Carmelo Anthony to accept a trade, it is the multitalented Porzingis who would seem to be the team’s one certainty moving ahead.

Then again, the argument can be made that Jackson and the Knicks should consider all options as they try to get out of their rut.

“When you’re a lottery team, probably any team but particularly a lottery team, you should always be exploring your options and what you could do to try to improve yourself,” said Jeff Van Gundy, the former Knicks and Rockets coach who is an N.B.A. analyst for ESPN. “To me, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was traded, thus anybody is tradable.

“But do I expect it to happen?” he added, referring to a possible Porzingis trade. “Absolutely not. Because I think it would take an offer that no one else would present. I don’t think you can get enough. Do I think it’s unwise? No.”

Agreeing with that sentiment, in effect, was Fran Fraschilla, an N.B.A. draft expert for ESPN, who said Jackson might look at a Porzingis deal as a way to create multiple assets for the Knicks and speed what has been a difficult rebuilding.

And the market for Porzingis should be robust, Fraschilla said.

For all his popularity with Knicks fans, for all of the fascination he has generated with his ability to both hit 3-pointers and block shots, Porzingis has created a few concerns.

He has already had injuries, and his defense remains a work in progress. Because of the presence of Anthony, he has not had the opportunity to prove he can be the reliable go-to player in close games.

“I thought he was good this year,” Van Gundy said of Porzingis. “I didn’t think he made the leap of improvement that I was expecting. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be a star player. I think the Knicks think he can be a star player. I think Porzingis feels he can be a star player. I think the rest of the N.B.A. actually thinks he can be a star player.

“So if you’re gonna trade someone who can be a star, then you’d be trying to get a star and then maybe other pieces.”

So could the Knicks, who pick eighth on Thursday, actually get a front-line player and another first-round pick in exchange for Porzingis? Could they get another first-round pick as well in a future draft?

Van Gundy thinks there is no harm in the Knicks trying.

“They’re looking for the Herschel Walker-type trade — the Pierce/Garnett trade,” Van Gundy said. “And if they don’t get that, they’re not going to foolishly trade Porzingis.”

Van Gundy was referring to two famous trades, one in the N.F.L. and the other in the N.B.A., in which the teams that traded Walker and Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett — the Dallas Cowboys and the Boston Celtics — got a bushel of first-round picks.

The Celtics still have some of those picks, which they obtained from the Nets. Perhaps they want to offer them to the Knicks — for Porzingis.