As covered here earlier in the week, sources close to the process say that no Iman Shumpert deal is imminent.

However ...

More and more folks around the league see some sort of Shumpert deal materializing sooner rather than later, given that he’s New York’s only real asset of value to make an in-season move and with the Knicks increasingly confident that they’ve got enough at the position to handle Shumpert’s exit now that J.R. Smith is back and with rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. looking good early.

Word is that the Nuggets do have a level interest -- just not if the Knicks keep asking them to part with Kenneth Faried in exchange -- while Sacramento is also said to be gauging how Shumpert might fit in.

The reality, though, is that the Knicks had no chance of getting the Nuggets interested in a Shumpert-for-Faried swap without picks to send Denver, too. And the Knicks are essentially bereft of tradeable picks for years.

Yes, plural.

They don’t have an available first-rounder to sweeten a trade until (yikes) 2018. And the best fully unencumbered second-rounder they can put on the table is also in 2018.