BOSTON -- Dealing with trade rumors is no big deal at all, according to three Knicks who might not be Knicks for long.
Even if it means possibly being traded to a rebuilding team such as the Raptors, it is not a problem for Metta World Peace, who lately has bounced out of the Knicks' rotation and into the middle of speculation about a trade for Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry.
"Whatever team I'm on is never rebuilding. When you get Metta World, you're officially [in] a championship mentality," World Peace said before Friday night's game against the Celtics at TD Garden.
It was a pertinent subject, what with reports of trade talks surfacing Thursday and with Sunday being the first day teams can deal players signed in the offseason as free agents, as World Peace was.
He says he is keeping in shape, staying ready for anything and seeing it as part of a challenge. Yes, he signed with the Knicks because he wanted to win a ring in New York, his hometown. But a deal could be part of the adventure.
"All the teams that called me last year -- I wanted something different: China, the Knicks and arena football. That was it," he said.
Raymond Felton was at the heart of the Lowry rumor on Thursday, the same day the Knicks announced he will be out two to three weeks with a strained hamstring.
"That trade stuff I don't talk about," he said Friday. "I've been in the league nine years now. That's going to happen. It happens even when you're having a good season. There were trade rumors last year and we had a great year last year. That stuff I don't even discuss. I have nothing to do with it. I don't deal with it. That's why we have general managers and all that."
Iman Shumpert, who played Friday night after suffering a bruised knee Wednesday, said of having his name mentioned: "This is part of being a professional. I've just got to learn to deal with it."
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