Major in-season trades don’t happen too often in the NBA, and it’s telling that both the Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers would pull the trigger on the one from last night –- According to ESPN's Kevin Pelton, the Knicks will save approximately $20 million from this deal and will have about $27 million in cap space at the end of the year. While on the surface giving up Iman Shumpert for pretty much a second-round pick seems silly when they were just offered a first-rounder for him last year, but money talks. A first-rounder is valuable, but it isn’t twenty-million-dollars valuable.

A quick glance at their remaining roster hurts the eyes, but the Knicks are fine with that the rest of this year it seems. Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire aren’t in any rush to play heavy minutes for a bad team, and they’re definitely in future-mode after last night. They have their first-round pick this year – and it will likely be a good one – and as noted above, significant cap space. Things might be ugly for the rest of the year in New York, but they’ve put themselves in a situation to have their fortune change in just a couple of months.