The Knicks just had a great win to get the NBA Cup last night but I don't think they should wait before making their next move. I have to acknowledge first that in my last trade, I included Jordan Clarkson who then went on to have a great game last night, and one that was key to the Knicks winning. So I've decided to scrap including him in trades and focus on looking at the Knicks forward depth. Team by team below.

Pelicans: Saddiq Bey has been have a good season for the Pelicans amidst a terrible one for the team. The Pelicans are an odd team because they're not tanking and don't have any incentive to do so since they don't own their own 2026 FRP. But their team currently is greatly underachieving and it would make sense to gain more assets, whether for future drafts or for future trades. Bey is having a great season but he's only on a 2-year contract and it's unclear if he'll want to stay after his contract is up. So why not take advantage of his high value now? Similarly, Peavy is a young player on a 4 year contract and was a second round pick in the 2025 draft. He's had some good games and is solid on defense. But I'm not sure what his ceiling is or what the Pelicans would value him as. I'm mainly including him in this trade due to the Knicks salary considerations (more on that below). The Pelicans get Yabu and Dadiet. Yabu is not playing anywhere near as good as Bey (and it was telling that he didn't get any playing time last night) but he had a good season last year and is motivated to play well as he has a player option for next season. Basically, he wants to get an even better contract and would play hard in order to get one, so that doesn't necessarily hurt their chances of winning (obviously if he continues to play poorly it will though). And Dadiet is essentially the replacement for Peavy and is mainly here for salary reasons. He's only 20 and is under contract for 3 seasons so the Pelicans will hope he can at least fill Peavy's shoes. But the main value for them is the protected Washington FRP and the 2028 pick swap. The Washington pick is almost certainly going to be 2 second round picks but they'll both likely be pick 31 which has pretty good value. Given the new cap rules, if there's a team that ends up losing their FRP due to exceeding the second apron for too long, they may essentially be the 30th pick in the draft. And the 2028 pick swap does see Brooklyn get first choice but the Pelicans can at least maximize their draft pick that year. Also, while this does increase their payroll, they are still not in the tax which the Pelicans always avoid paying, and would avoid even more in a losing year.

Knicks: The Yabu experience has officially not worked and as I noted above, it was notable that he didn't get on the court at all during the NBA Cup Final. And Dadiet is even further back in the rotation as Diawara has moved ahead of him on the depth chart. Bey is the real prize here, and would instantly provide a backup to Anunoby and be a real impact player on offense and defense. He can defend, score and shoot well from 3, and would be able to soak up a lot more minutes. And Peavy has looked solid on defense this year and even had a couple of good outings on offense. Losing the picks does hurt, but the Knicks are all in on this year and it doesn't make sense to underpay at this point. Plus, both Bey and Peavy are under contract for next season (in Peavy's case even further) so it should pay off for next season as well. The Knicks do actually decrease their payroll and would have room for the 15th roster spot (although I'm not exactly sure when they could sign the player, it would probably be around January/February). So the Knicks could decide which is more important: more PG and C depth. If it's PG depth, Chris Paul may end up getting bought out and could be an interesting addition.

Depth chart

PG: Brunson, Kolek

SG: Bridges, Deuce, Clarkson

SF: Hart, Shamet, Peavy

PF: Anunoby, Bey, Diawara

C: KAT, Mitch, Hukporti