Report: Knicks potentially interested in Eric Gordon

Eric Gordon has been having a great season for the Houston Rockets. Despite a dud in his last game, he’s been having one the best years of his career from an efficiency standpoint, and it’s well-known that the veteran is on the market with the Rockets rebuilding.

Step in the New York Knicks — who ironically were the team Gordon was last terrible against — who according to Marc Berman of the NY Post, have had internal discussions about potentially acquiring Gordon from the Rockets in a deal.

Berman said:

“Gordon is on a long list of potentially available players the Knicks have talked about internally, according to a source.”

Berman goes on to mention Gordon’s AAU connection with Derrick Rose (hey, did you know they played AAU ball together?) and that Rose tried to recruit Gordon to the Knicks back in 2016.

So what would the Knicks have to potentially offer? There it gets a little tricky. They have draft capital the Rockets would certainly be interested in, still owning first round picks in all of the next several years (I checked up to 2028) and a multitude of second rounders as well.

The trick is that the Knicks are hard capped, meaning they would have to send back matching salary to the Rockets. Gordon is owed $18 million, $19 million, and $21 million over the next three years respectively, though his 2023-2024 salary is not guaranteed. The Knicks would be eager to move Kemba Walker, but they’d have to include something else to match salaries. Walker and Alec Burks get it done, but would New York be willing to give up the draft capital on top of that in order to appease the Rockets?

Walker, Obi Toppin, and Taj Gibson works in the ol’ NBA Trade Machine, with the 23-year-old Toppin the only piece of that deal that Houston would find useful. Again, what does draft capital look like if the Knicks are already giving up three players?

A three-team deal could be more palatable to both squads, but I’m not going to get into those endless possibilities.

Anyway, expect the rumors on Gordon to keep heating up, especially if he continues to shoot 43 percent from deep and 47 percent from the field on the year. Those are certainly numbers that could potentially give a contender the push that they need.