The New York Knicks still consider Willy Hernangomez part of their future despite not receiving consistent playing time, according to sources. Hernangomez is third on the depth chart at center behind Enes Kanter and Kyle O'Quinn.

“It’s been really hard for me,’’ Hernangomez said.

The Knicks also have Joakim Noah on the roster while Kristaps Porzingis' best position long-term may be center.

“I want to play. I want to play. I really want to be here. I love New York. KP is here. But I want to play," said Hernangomez.

“I’m young, it’s my second year. I have to play to get better. I’ve been working really hard every day. Everything I do I is 100 percent.”

League sources said Hernangomez still has decent trade value.

The Golden State Warriors are considering a trade of JaVale McGee.

McGee has fallen out of the Warriors' rotation with the emergence of Jordan Bell. Bell gives the Warriors a more athletic presence at the position one situation call for it instead of Zaza Pachulia. McGee filled that role last season.

David West will remain as the center of the second unit.

The Milwaukee Bucks have held talks with the Warriors for McGee and Pachulia. Pachulia previously played for the Bucks but the Warriors will be reluctant to trade him.

McGee hasn't been happy with his minutes and re-signed with the Warriors on a minimum deal.

The Warriors also have Damian Jones and Kevon Looney at center as well as Draymond Green and Kevin Durant.

The New York Knicks held earnest trade talks involving Kristaps Porzingis after he skipped his exit interview with Phil Jackson and Steve Mills.

Some portrayed the talks as Jackson trying to teach Porzingis a lesson, but multiple sources familiar with the situation claim there were members of the Knicks' organization in favor of trading Porzingis at the time.

The Knicks ultimately pulled Porzingis from the trade block and parted ways with Jackson.

Porzingis has played at an All-Star level this season.

Marc Gasol spoke with reporters for approximately 70 minutes on Monday.

The main question was whether Gasol might ask for a trade from the Memphis Grizzlies.

“If everything changes with the franchise and they say look, we want you to not play this amount of games or we want you to rest and we’re going to sit down Mike (Conley) or whatever," said Gasol. "If everything changes. Their goal right now, and what the team wants to accomplish, is that they want to win. And that hasn’t changed. My commitment to that will not change.”

Gasol is taking it upon himself to make sure this season doesn't become a lost cause.

"In my mind, my job is not allowing that to happen. My job is not allowing anyone to throw away the season. Because I’m 32, 33 next month. I don’t have the season to throw away. I don’t have the luxury. I’m not 23 or 24, where I can just say, well, next year will be better. I have a sense of urgency and a desire to win. Obviously, when your career gets past 10 years, and with the foot injury that I had a couple of years ago, you know that at any time this may be it. I hope that through the next five or six weeks, to the [All Star] break, that the situation is going to have completely changed and we are a much more consistent team going forward, because that will mean that you’re not going to ask me that question."

The New Orleans Pelicans have no intention of trading Anthony Davis, no matter the return.

Davis is under contract with the Pelicans through 2021.

The Boston Celtics have remained vigilant on the possibility of acquiring Davis, and Davis knows of their interest.

Davis even approached Dell Demps about Boston's interest last season and was told he wouldn't be moved.

Before the New Orleans Pelicans traded for DeMarcus Cousins last February, Anthony Davis approached Dell Demps about persistent trade rumors he was hearing about the Boston Celtics.

"He told me that [Boston] was calling, but nothing was going to happen," Davis said. "At the same time, though, you see how organizations treat players. Isaiah Thomas. DeMarcus [Cousins] told me that the [Kings] told him that he wasn't going to get traded, but they traded him. Isaiah took his team to the Eastern Conference finals, and they traded him.

"It makes you wonder: Does this organization really have my back? I've been loyal to this organization. I love it here. I love this team. I think we're moving in the right direction. DeMarcus, Rondo, some other players that are helping us, but people get judged on winning. And I want to win.

"It's not about the money. It's not about having fans. The most important thing to me: winning. That's what I want to do. And I want to do it here."

Anthony Davis and the Pelicans were an ascending team during the 14-15 season, reaching the playoffs before being swept by the Warriors.

"It feels like it's been 20 years," said Davis.

Since that run, there has been a new crop of future stars that have captured the imagination of NBA fans. 

"I think about that all the time," Davis said. "I hear these TV shows and see social media. They say [Kristaps] Porzingis. They say Giannis [Antetokounmpo], Joel [Embiid]. And that's fine, I'll just play basketball.

"But it goes back to the winning thing, too, and well, what have they won? They're in the same boat as me. I just try to go out and play and not to worry much about it.

"... But it is personal. For sure, it's personal. When I play those games, they're talking about [Karl-Anthony] Towns, and they're talking about Porzingis and Giannis, and they're talking about me. Who is going to win this matchup? Who's going to win this game? I absolutely take it more personally."

Davis realizes that winning is what matters most in terms of how his career is defined.

"Winning. That's it. That's how you're judged," he said. "You can score, you can dominate. You can do whatever. But they calculate everything off winning. You know that. I know that. Everybody in the league knows that. I hear it all the time: 'Anthony is a good player, but he hasn't won anything. He's not a winner. He hasn't been to the playoffs in two years.'

"It bothers me. You know you're doing everything in your power to try and win. Playing through injuries, playing a ton of minutes, diving on the floor, but you just can't come up with enough wins to go to the playoffs. And it isn't enough just going to the playoffs. You want to make noise. You want to be a threat.

"People judge you. For DeMarcus and me, this is the time. The time is now." 

Davis is in the second season of a five-year, $127 million contract that expires in 2021. Davis has been patient with the Pelicans and is comfortable with its market-size, but he also realizes they lack the depth and developing young talent to compete at a title level.

"You look at the Warriors, Cleveland, Boston," he said. "They lose Gordon [Hayward], they're still playing well. KD-Steph-Draymond-Klay. They play so well with each other. They move the basketball. They don't care who scores. Steph and Draymond are out, and they still won. KD is out. They still win.

"That's the way the league is now. I don't see anyone winning without three or four All-Stars. ... I was in the [MVP] conversation in my third year, and we didn't win. We went to the playoffs, got swept, and I dropped out of all that so fast. It's about winning. You can have all the numbers in the world, but you better win. That's what it is. This whole league, everything is about winning. Every award. Everything. It's all about winning."

Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder have shown no impulse to entertain trade discussions on Paul George, according to a source.

George can become a free agent this offseason and his incorporation into the Thunder lineup has been a struggle at times.

The same source also says the Thunder were under no delusions that George would commit to them beyond the current season when they traded for him in June.

According to multiple media reports, George has remained closely linked with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have disappointed so far during the first season with Paul George.

"With the talent we have, we don't want to just be getting by," George said. "We want to start building towards being a dominant team."

"It's a three-man circus," a Western Conference executive told Bleacher Report. "They don't play well together. There's no ball movement, no chemistry. You can tell by watching them play, it's out of sync. There's no rhyme or rhythm to how they play."

George was asked if he may give the Thunder a heads-up on his free agency the way he did with the Pacers.

"Well, I think this is a different scenario because it's our only year together as far as we're on one-year contracts," George told Bleacher Report. "I want to put everything into this and see where that takes us. I'm not giving up; I'm not giving in. I want to give this thing everything I have and we'll see where it goes."

Westbrook signed an extension in September but sources say the Thunder are under no delusions that George would commit to anything beyond the current season.

"We all enjoy playing with one another," George told B/R. "This could possibly be me being here for multiple years. But ... I'm not going to just throw it in and be like, 'No, I'm done with this.' We've got a long, long, long season ahead of us. And I'm committed to that."

George remains optimistic about Oklahoma City's odds this season.

"We're going to turn this season around and we're going to start playing the right way," he told B/R. "I'm sure late in the season, in April and May, we'll be happy where we're at."

Jerry West made a serious push to acquire the draft rights to Tracy McGrady one year after he acquired Kobe Bryant.

McGrady had an even more impressive workout for the Lakers than Bryant did.

“I don’t think anybody can look at an 18-year-old and say he’s a Hall of Famer,” Del Harris said. “You couldn’t even do that with Jordan. And Kobe was a young 18 in his first season. He was still in a pretty normal teenage body, compared to when LeBron James came in and had a man’s body.

“McGrady came in the next year with a more mature body and worked out so well that Jerry kind of tooled around with the idea that maybe we should just go ahead and make a deal for whatever it took to get this guy — even though it’d be a step back in the short term — to have two guys like this on the same team.”

The Lakers could have had a Big 3 of Bryant, McGrady and Shaquille O'Neal, though there's no way to know how those three players would have developed with each other, let alone exist off the court.

Jerry Buss shot down the idea of trading for McGrady as the fear was that it would take them out of title contention as they would have likely had to trade Eddie Jones. The Lakers eventually traded Jones for Glen Rice.