New York Knicks center Willy Hernangomez has requested a trade ahead of the Feb. 8 NBA trade deadline, according to Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania. Hernangomez is a 23-year-old center who has potential, but he has mostly fallen out of the Knicks’ rotation this season.
Over the summer, Hernangomez was seen as a building block for the Knicks, along with Kristaps Porzingis, Frank Ntilikina, and Tim Hardaway Jr. But when Carmelo Anthony was traded, New York received Enes Kanter, a veteran whose game is similar to Hernangomez’s, and who has completely displaced him in the rotation.
This season, Hernangomez has only played 25 games while averaging 9.2 minutes, a sharp drop from last year’s 72 games and 18.4 minutes per game, where he scored 8.2 points and snared 4.6 rebounds per game on 53 percent field-goal shooting.
“I’m kind of excited to see what happens,” Hernangomez told Newsday’s Al Iannazzone on Saturday, referring to the trade deadline. “I just want to play. I love New York, I love my teammates. But I need to play. I love basketball so much. I need to play.”
In that interview, Hernangomez did not request a trade and talked about how he would love to stay in New York next to Porzingis, a fellow international player who he is friends with. Per Charania, Hernangomez’s representatives reached out to the Knicks later in the weekend.
Hernangomez is 23, and he came to the NBA to play basketball. Even if he loves New York, the trade request puts pressure on the Knicks. If they value him, perhaps this will be incentive to trade a player like Kyle O’Quinn, who has been a roadblock for Hernangomez to gain minutes. If not, Hernangomez could end up somewhere that does have a spot for him while New York picks up an asset.
But seriously, Hernangomez’s skillset duplicates Kanter’s to a fair degree. Even if Hernangomez reaches his peak potential, he’s probably nothing more than a low-level starter, although some Knicks fans are higher on him. New York really did refer to Hernangomez as part of their young core this summer, but perhaps that was semantics. If New York could get a high second-round pick for him, or another young prospect in a similar situation where his path to minutes are blocked, would that be worth it? (Hernangomez was the 35th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, for example.)
There shouldn’t be any rush. New York doesn’t need to trade Hernangomez by Feb. 8 — he doesn’t seem anything like the type to cause locker room drama, as long as you assure him you’ll look into trading him or clearing minutes this offseason if nothing materializes at the deadline. But don’t be surprised if something happens, either.