New York Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni has Nate Robinson(notes) riding the bench while getting paid $4 million for the season. (Not a bad gig, if you can get it.) Now folks are speculating that Robinson, who has been in the doghouse for some time, is on the trading block, according to the New York Times. Of course, no other team went after Robinson in the summer months when he was a restricted free agent so it seems doubtful there are any teams out there right now that strongly desire his services.
The paper points out that it might be worth keeping Robinson around as an insurance policy in case anyone gets hurt since he is currently playing on a one-year deal that (a) will give the Knicks salary flexibility next summer when the team wants to go after all the free agents with the biggest names (LeBron James(notes), Chris Bosh(notes), Dwyane Wade(notes), Amare' Stoudemire, etc.) and (b) Robinson can put the kibosh on any trade that he isn't interested in since he is playing with just a one-year contract.
It is highly unlikely that D'Antoni will force Robinson out of the locker room as he did with Stephon Marbury(notes) last year. Marbury was openly attempting to derail the team and his teammates while Robinson is still a perfectly nice guy to have in the locker room.
