Coach Mike Woodson and Iman Shumpert barked at each other on the Garden court Thursday during the Knicks 109-106 loss to Houston at the Garden.
After the exchange, Shumpert walked away from the coach with noticeable disgust and sat on the bench. If their suspect relationship is improving, it wasn’t apparent during the back-and-forth.
Shumpert is on the trading block, and Woodson hasn’t exactly eased the combo guard’s nerves — even after their meeting when the Knicks played in Atlanta on Wednesday. The Knicks face the Hawks again on Saturday at the Garden.
Carmelo Anthony, who is Shumpert’s locker mates at the Garden, said he’s worried the trade chatter will distract Shumpert. Anthony also talked to him about the situation, admitting, “It can get to you.’’
“I have to, I have to,’’ Anthony said about communicating with Shumpert. “We were all in that situation before. Names will always come up. People will always try to figure out what’s the best thing. It’s going to happen. For me I have to be there and have his back and be there for him.
“I know it’s kind of hard for me, or him to listen to that,’’ Anthony added during his foundation’s event in which he distributed food boxes at the Boys Club in The Bronx. “Especially when you hear your name in trade reports and trade rumors. I have to tell him, just focus on basketball, everything else will take care of itself.
“I think when you are a talent like that everyone wants you. That just goes to show you what kind of player he is — for everybody to want you, to be on everybody’s radar.”
After the loss to Houston, Shumpert said there’s “nothing I can do about it’’ regarding trade talk and said he’s trying to “limit the distractions.’’
Anthony, who has been subjected to trade and free-agency talk throughout his career, said he knows it can be stressful.
“It can get to you, it can get to you,’’ Anthony said. “When you’re hearing your name in trade rumors, you can take it two ways, you can take it that people really want you or people don’t appreciate you.’’
According to sources, Knicks president Steve Mills is shopping Shumpert to see if there’s frontcourt help he can add while also removing a shooting-guard glut. Because rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. is playing well, there could be a minutes crunch. Woodson wants J.R. Smith to remain as a starter.
During last February’s trade deadline, a report surfaced the Suns asked about Shumpert in an exchange for Jared Dudley. The Knicks nixed it and Woodson said at the time Shumpert was “a big piece of the future.’’
Woodson has not repeated that line the past few days, only that trade rumors are “part of the business’’ and he still has to play hard while “still in a Knick uniform.’’
On his ESPN radio show Friday night, Woodson said, “I can’t tell any player they are not going to be traded. I’m not in position to do that.”
Woodson has had a problem with Shumpert’s cocksure attitude for some time, and according to a source, some of his superiors view the Georgia Tech product as “a head case’’ because he always doesn’t take coaching well. Shumpert’s decision to play just one summer-league game in Las Vegas also didn’t sit well with the organization.
The Suns still could be interested in Shumpert. The Lakers, led by former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, aren’t a bad candidate either.
D’Antoni is one of Shumpert’s biggest supporters and reprimanded NBA assistant coaches for not naming him to the Rookie-Sophomore game in his first season. Shumpert wound up on the First-Team All Rookie Team in 2012.
Houston’s power forward Omar Asik is on the trading block, too, but the Knicks would have to add salary to a Shumpert package that makes it a difficult exchange. Plus, the Knicks have no first-round picks to deal.
The Pacers also aren’t about to help out the Knicks with a trade, but Indiana adviser and former Knicks president Donnie Walsh still is a fan. Walsh drafted Shumpert in 2011 with the 17th pick in the draft over Denver’s Kenneth Faried, whom the Knicks were attempting to acquire, to no avail.
“Iman had all the ingredients to be a very good NBA guard, a very good athlete,’’ Walsh told The Post after the Pacers knocked out the Knicks last season. “[He’s got] great body intelligence, confidence and ambition. He was a great defender already and will get better with experience. His shooting was not broken but needed work. He obviously did it and has become a very dependable shooter. He will have a terrific career.’’
But the Knicks may not think so.