Knicks will try to trade Joakim Noah after ‘heated verbal exchange.’ Good luck!

UPDATE JAN. 31: ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirms that Joakim Noah will not be asked to rejoin the Knicks before the Feb. 8 trade deadline. It remains to be seen what would happen if New York cannot trade him.

New York Knicks center Joakim Noah and head coach Jeff Hornacek were involved in a heated verbal exchange last week, which has the Knicks wishing to trade the big man, according to The Vertical’s Shams Charania. There are serious questions whether there will be suitors for the injury-plagued big man, who still has two years left on his contract worth about $38 million.

Noah has only played seven games and 40 minutes overall this season. Last year, Noah at least suited up for 46 games, averaging 22 minutes, five points, and nine rebounds, which made him a marginally effective player at best.

It seems highly unlikely that the Knicks will find anyone willing to take on that much money for a player who might not ever play a meaningful NBA role again. The four-year, $72 million contract that Noah was signed to in 2016 was universally criticized at the time, but it has aged even worse for Phil Jackson, the now-ousted Knicks president who signed Noah to that deal.

Seriously. Noah’s contract is likely one of the worst ever.

Noah left the Knicks for “personal reasons” four days ago, but we can assume that was actually the verbal argument and that he is currently not with the team. There’s no reason to bring him back. Noah can sit out the rest of this season if New York can’t find a deal.

To actually trade him, New York would probably have to include a prospect like Willy Hernangomez or even Frank Ntilikina. New York won’t, and obviously should not, do that. In all likelihood, this is an untradeable contract. The best case scenario might be taking on a similar bad contract that might be marginally better than Noah’s, and sending that suitor assets in return. (Think Ian Mahinmi in Washington, or Luol Deng in Los Angeles, but both seem unlikely.)

With so much money left on his deal, the Knicks don’t want to eat his salary by waiving him. But someone has to, and no other NBA team would be signing up for that. If Noah wants to play for another team, it’s possible they could negotiate an extremely expensive buyout where Noah lets them off the hook for a portion of the money — but it doesn’t seem like he’s inclined to do that.

Plus, it doesn’t really seem like there are teams out there clamoring for NBA free agent Joakim Noah right now. In all likelihood, New York is stuck with him.