{"id":529910,"date":"2026-01-11T17:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T17:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/529910\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T17:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T17:30:10","slug":"knicks-notes-hart-trade-deadline-shamet-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/529910\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Notes: Hart, Trade Deadline, Shamet, Towns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Knicks capably withstood injury absences to other players this season, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hartjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Josh Hart<\/a> showed how valuable he was to the team when it was forced to play without him over the past eight games, writes <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/10\/sports\/why-josh-harts-imminent-return-could-change-everything-for-knicks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stefan Bondy of The New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Hart, who is questionable to return to action on Sunday vs. Portland, has been recovering from a right ankle sprain he sustained on December 25. In addition to Hart\u2019s defense, rebounding, pace of play and secondary ball-handling, the Knicks have also missed the 30-year-old wing\u2019s ability to get into the paint and make plays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s the heart and soul of the team from an energy perspective,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcbrimi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Miles McBride<\/a> said. \u201cI bring a lot of energy, we got a lot of guys that do. But he\u2019s been doing it for so long and we\u2019ve all been able to use him as the nucleus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s more from New York:<\/p>\n<p>Will Hart\u2019s imminent return be enough to switch the team\u2019s downward momentum? <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/sports\/columnists\/steve-popper\/knicks-pngongkl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Steve Popper of Newsday<\/a> (subscriber link) explores that question, writing that the Knicks have certainly missed Hart\u2019s physicality in dropping five of their past six games. One way or another, they\u2019ll have to improve their toughness for the playoffs, according to Popper, and they have less than four weeks to decide what moves to make ahead of the February 5 trade deadline.<br \/>\nVeteran wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/shamela01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Landry Shamet<\/a>, who is on the mend from a right shoulder injury, has been cleared for contact work and has already been taking controlled contact, head coach Mike Brown said on Saturday (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SbondyNBA\/status\/2010125322851860713\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter link<\/a> via Bondy). Shamet will be out again Sunday, but the update is a positive sign that his return isn\u2019t far off.<br \/>\nBig man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/townska01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> continues to produce inconsistent offensive results in his first season playing in Brown\u2019s system, notes <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/2026\/01\/10\/karl-anthony-towns-shot-profile-growing-concern-knicks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News<\/a>. The five-time All-Star only attempted 11 shots in Friday\u2019s loss in Phoenix two games after putting up just four shots in a blowout loss at Detroit. Towns\u2019 numbers are down across the board and the Knicks need more from their highest-paid player, per Winfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks capably withstood injury absences to other players this season, but Josh Hart showed how valuable he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,327,563,4988,2715],"class_list":{"0":"post-529910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-josh-hart","10":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","11":"tag-landry-shamet","12":"tag-miles-mcbride"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115877656984917565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}