The New York Knicks lost a heartbreaker on Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden, as James Harden dropped 61 points and Houston escaped with a 114-110 win.
New York led in the final minute, only to see its lead erased by an Eric Gordon three and a Harden steal and dunk to ice it. After the game, the national conversation was about another ridiculous Harden game, as he’s averaging 49.8 points in his last six outings.
In the New York locker room, there was a decidedly different tone, particularly with regards to veteran center Enes Kanter, who caught a DNP-Coach’s Decision in the loss. Kanter told the assembled media that he was told that morning by the coaching staff that he would be starting, only to arrive at the arena to have found that plans had changed. Kanter, who will be a free agent this summer, effectively requested a trade as he asked the Knicks to either play him or let him play elsewhere.
Enes Kanter says he was told this morning by the Knicks he would start tonight vs the Rockets. He got a DNP instead.
"What they're doing to me is pretty messed up. I deserve better."
Kanter pretty much asks to be traded.
"You either play me or let me play." pic.twitter.com/EufOCAkidF— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) January 24, 2019
The frustration from Kanter’s side has been growing, and it’s understandable. He’s looking towards his future, and because it’s becoming increasingly clear that’s not in New York, he wants to get a reasonable deal from someone as a free agent this summer. It’s tough to make a case for that when you’re stuck on the bench.
From the Knicks perspective, it’s better for their long-term success to give minutes to their young players, and it might be a situation where Kanter is indeed shopped around over the next two weeks before the trade deadline. The problem with trading Kanter is it’s very hard to make the money work without the Knicks taking on long-term money, which they don’t want to do. The most valuable asset the Knicks have right now is their cap room for this summer, and they won’t really care if Kanter is upset by not being traded if the alternative is to eat into that cap room by taking back a non-expiring deal.
The business of basketball often can get ugly, and it possibly will get uglier in New York over the coming weeks. If Kanter is still on the team past the deadline and not playing much, he will not get any quieter about his frustration over his situation.
