News broke today that the Kings and Denver trade that swapped Jonas Valanciunas for Dario Saric may be in danger of falling through because Valanciunas wants to leave the NBA entirely and go to play in Europe. This trade sees the Knicks step in and try to take advantage of this by trading Mitch for Saric and Peyton Watson. I included the Cam Johnson and Michael Porter Jr. trade in this so the numbers would work and I won't cover that piece of the trade as it's happened and has been well covered already.

Knicks: Mitch has seemed to be on the trade block forever. He's an incredible player when healthy, is the longest tenured Knick and is coming off a great playoff run where he was extremely effective even with his foul shooting troubles. But the Knicks are staring down the dreaded second apron and while they've made two great signings in Clarkson and Yabusuele, they still might want more depth and more wings. This trade sees them add Saric who won't add a lot tbh, but is a decent PF/C and I could see him being more of a third/fourth string player. Watson is the real prize here, he's still a bit raw but has shown some solid defense and gives the Knicks more length and depth at the wing position. It also frees up $3.1 million in cap space in addition to the $3.5 million of room they had to give them approximately $6.6 million to work with to fill out the roster. This means they could sign a veteran (maybe Ben Simmons as has been reported, or another big man for depth) and McCuellar, Diawara AND Nnaji if they wanted to. They may need to throw in a second rounder or two but this could really help them become a more balanced team.

Denver: Denver has needed a dependable backup big man for several seasons now and thought they had one in Valanciunas. This trade sees them get a big upgrade on him in Mitch although it does have the added cost of losing Watson. However, with the additions of Bruce Brown, THJ and how Braun has soaked up more minutes, he may not have seen as much run in the first place. Some extra second rounders could also help make this easier but the main thing would be having a reliable backup center so they don't crater when Jokic is off the floor as has been happening for several seasons. This allows him to rest more and raises their floor and potentially their ceiling as well.

Thoughts?