During talks with some teams about transactions involving Hield, Sacramento had sought compensation on the bill, SNY learned. The Knicks have a significant amount of draft capital in the upcoming drafts. But it is not known whether New York would have an interest in a) trading for Hield or b) including future draft picks in a Hield transaction.
Sending Julius Randle’s salary into a deal for Hield would work by trade rules.
Earlier this week, no Knicks trade with the Kings or any other team was forthcoming.
The Knicks enter training camp with 16 players under contract and need to lose a player with an NBA contract before the regular season begins. They have $ 18 million of space left over. At the end of last month, teams were under the impression that the Knicks were open to using that cap’s space to take on an unwanted contract from another team.
New York completed a similar off-season transaction. The club acquired and swapped Ed Davis in two separate transactions, acquiring three picks in the second round, Omari Spellman and Jacob Evans in the deal.
There was some unfounded speculation about New York, including Frank Ntilikina in an exchange because he had removed the Knicks from his bio on a social media account. Ntilikina was asked about this on Friday and said he focused solely on being a Knick.