New York wants Rudy Fernandez and Fernandez wants the Knicks according to Alan Hahn for Newsday. For that reason, the Portland Trail Blazers would probably like nothing more than to not trade Fernandez to the Knicks or any other team he likes. To bad, his agent spilled the beans on an over the top demand from his 3rd year pro client.
The Knicks maintain a strong interest in Fernandez, who would solve their issue at the 2, but it’ll be up to the Blazers to make it happen. From what I’m hearing, the Blazer hierarchy is none too pleased with Rudy and his agent, Andy Miller, who have gone public with their trade preferences. So several NBA insiders have suggested to me that Portland will exhaust all other options before they’d even consider doing Rudy a favor and sending him exactly where he wants to go, especially if the Knicks aren’t offering anything they really want. And what they want is a first round pick. The Knicks could give them one, but not until 2014.
Tough break, if Rudy played it quiet, had a good World Championship showing — which he’s doing. Everything would have been smooth like buttah on Linda Richman’s table in Rip City for Spanish Fly and those rotation minutes that dried on him in 2009-2010 would have sprung new life. The Blazers can lose in the second round of the playoffs on their own without his services so at this point. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t leave the NBA for at least a season. But can the Knicks work this one out is the real question.
