Public Service Announcement for the Knicks

TRADE Nate Robinson. Trade him now, before you do anything stupid like benching him again, and he loses any more value. Because last night Robinson was pretty special putting in 41 points off the bench to lead the Knicks to victory in overtime. Despite not being injured or suspended by the league, Robinson hadn’t played in a month (14 games). Now I understand you need to do what’s best for the team and discipline your players, so benching them for 1-2 games makes sense, and maybe as many as 5 games if the situation warrants it. Robinson was benched for three times that, and its not as though you can say the Knicks are a deep team.

Depending on how you rate them, Robinson is the Knicks 3rd or 4th best player, and is a such a quick and athletic scorer, you’d think he’d fit perfectly into their game plan. That is a pretty tough sale to your fans and team, to say that a player should be benched for an entire month (really don’t you want to know what he said to deserve that?). Luckily the Knicks did play pretty good basketball without him going 8-6, though who knows with Robinson they might have won another game or two during that stretch and been on firmer playoff ground.

In all honesty the Knicks should not trade Robinson right now, because despite the 41 point effort last night Robinson’s trade value is at an all-time low . What they should have done was trade him a month ago before sinking his trade value to the depths of Eddy Curry (alright maybe not that low but it’s got to be close). Now if they trade him they will get pennies on the dollar for him and be very disappointed in their return. Hopefully the Knicks will resist the urge to shoot themselves in the foot, and will play Robinson early an often in an effort to rebuild his value by the trade deadline. As for Robinson, keep your mouth shut, play hard and I’m sure you will be in a better situation come February.