The New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns briefly spoke about a trade surrounding veteran point guard Eric Bledsoe, but the asking price was far too high.
According to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders, the Suns asked for rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina and young center Willy Hernangomez in exchange for Bledsoe.
The 27-year-old Suns point guard started this trade controversy on Sunday when he seemingly made a public request for a trade on his Twitter:
I Dont wanna be here
— Eric Bledsoe (@EBled2) October 22, 2017
Shortly after his tweet, Phoenix fired head coach Earl Watson after an 0-3 start.
Bledsoe met with team officials on Monday morning and was promptly sent home, per ESPN’s Chris Haynes. He will not play in tonight’s game against the Sacramento Kings as a trade is expected in the coming hours or days.
He told the team that he was at a hair salon, which prompted his tweet, but Suns general manager Ryan McDonough wasn’t buying it, as he told reporters:
“He said he was at the hair salon,” McDonough said. “I didn’t believe that to be true. He won’t be with us going forward.
Scotto had also reported that the Denver Nuggets were in on talks with the Suns and that a deal centering around third-year point guard Emmanuel Mudiay was evaluated, though nothing has come of it yet.
Bledsoe is coming off a career year last season in which he averaged 21.1 points and 6.3 assists per game.
