The NBA trade today confirms rumors that the New York Knicks have indeed given up on the season. While J.R. Smith has been questionable, he is still a rotation player and giving up Iman Shumpert reinforces the tanking allegation.

The Knicks side of the trade from Yahoo Sports:

"Oklahoma City will give the Cavaliers a protected future first-round draft pick and send guard Lance Thomas to the Knicks, league sources said. As part of the trade, the Cavaliers will send rookie center Alex Kirk, forward Lou Amundson and a 2019 second-round pick to the Knicks, sources said."

That's a very meager haul when you consider that Shumpert is a promising player on a rookie deal (one of the rare 'good' contracts in New York). But the objective was achieved:

"For New York, the deal is a salary dump to clear cap space. The Knicks unload the $6.4 million owed to Smith next season."

While some fans may be up in arms, basketball experts see this as an official white flag of surrender by the Knicks. They are giving up this season for a better chance to rebuild this summer. Taken in that context, it might actually be a good trade.

The trade was evaluated by ESPN's experts and the conclusion: "Great trade for the Knicks. They created $7 million in salary cap space in this trade and rid themselves of a guy who had been a square peg in the triangle offense Jackson and Fisher have been trying to teach. Yes, they lose Shumpert, a good young player they had interest in retaining this summer. But the Knicks could have lost him via restricted free agency anyway, and they had to give up something to get rid of Smith and his contract without taking back a bad contract in return."

The final confirmation of the Knicks tanking effort would be the rumored shutdown of Carmelo Anthony. Their franchise player has been playing with a sore knee and team management has suggested the idea of resting him for the season. Their continued losses will give them a high pick in this year's Draft.