anyone an insider that can post this? it had the picture of tmac on the slideshow, so i thought it should go here
Never too soon to look far, far ahead. And so … With Friday marking Major League Baseball's non-waiver trade deadline, it means we're nearing the point at which we hit the six-month countdown to the NBA trade deadline. Yes, there are still 100 or so free agents out there waiting to find out where they'll be playing basketball next season. And yes, we're at that annual point of the year when teams can become somewhat delusional about their most recent acquisitions (witness Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni at Team USA minicamp in Las Vegas last week, chatting up reporters and making the argument that if this Darko Milicic works out, that deal is going to go down as a steal. Vaguely recall Joe Dumars, Otis Smith and Chris Wallace saying similar things.). If you asked him, Don Nelson would assure you that Devean George (just acquired for Marco Belinelli) will end up being the missing link for Golden State. And, similarly, Larry Brown could promise you he's going to fix Tyson Chandler's free-throw shooting, Otis Smith would say he'd prefer the ball in Vince Carter's hands rather than Hedo Turkoglu's late in games, and Sen. Herb Kohl could make a rational argument that the giveaway of Richard Jefferson makes perfect sense from an economic standpoint (even though it'll probably cost the Milwaukee Bucks more in lost ticket revenue and fan ill will than it'll make up for in cost containment). Just about everybody in the NBA is an optimist when July turns into August, but as certain as it is that Ron Artest will do something mind-blowing before the exhibition season even ends, it is a sound premise that reality will catch up to half of the NBA six months from now, and the final fire sale before the Summer of LeBron will commence. The Knicks will likely still need to clear cap room. The Raptors will need another thug to complement Reggie Evans as they go all-in on Building to Keep Bosh, and the Nets will be dumping bodies like the Sopranos as the possible Bruce Ratner/Mikhail Prokhorov partnership's cost-cutting mode goes into hyperdrive, along with the odds on their next home address shifting from Brooklyn toward San Jose, Anaheim, Kansas City and/or Seattle. Yes, we're getting ahead of ourselves here, but basketball's silly season needn't be so silly if we take a serious look at who might be on the move before the Feb. 18 deadline. So here's an early Top 10 Most Likely to be Traded List as we slog through the summer of David Lee's Personal Economic Recession: McGrady 1. Tracy McGrady, Rockets Remember last February how the Portland Trail Blazers were describing Raef LaFrentz's expiring deal as a "super-expiring" contract, because not only was it coming off the books; insurance was paying the tab. The Blazers ended up valuing it too high and were unable to move it for Vince Carter or Richard Jefferson, so it'll be interesting to see how much value Rockets GM Daryl Morey will place on McGrady's expiring deal. (Currently, Houston's front office is calling it a "super-duper expiring contract.") McGrady's $23.2 million salary will come off the books in the summer of '10, and McGrady (don't laugh here) could make the difference for a legit title contender (OK, we take that back, history permits you to laugh) if he's back from microfracture surgery by January and can show something in the weeks leading up to the deadline. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Curry 2. Eddy Curry, Knicks Donnie Walsh will be in uber-desperation mode by the trade deadline, and he'll give the chubby kid away for a bag of basketballs if he's able to take back expiring contracts that'll enable him to go after a second max-level free agent next July. The chubby part will be key, however, because although Curry reportedly showed up 30 pounds lighter when he checked in with the Knicks in Vegas, he declined their request to play in summer league games. Team insiders say he has another 20 pounds to go -- at a minimum -- before he's down near his listed weight of 285. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Richardson 3. Quentin Richardson, Timberwolves This, of course, assumes that Richardson has not been dealt elsewhere by February -- which we should probably expect to happen given the fact that the guy has been traded three times already this summer, all the deals involving some of the league's most downtrodden teams and biggest busts of the past decade. To quote Bill Simmons' most recent and super-entertaining NBA column, "Basically, you can tie every single bad thing that happened in the NBA this past decade to Richardson with 10 or fewer words [and Simmons references Darko Milicic, Zach Randolph, the Knicks-Nuggets brawl, Anucha Browne Sanders, Ruben Patterson, Donald Sterling, Robert Sarver and more in backing up that statement]. Call it Two Degrees of Quentin Richardson." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas 4. Kenny Thomas, Kings The Knicks were checking up on him earlier this summer while second-guessing themselves for not acquiring him last January when they could have had his 2010 expiring contract in exchange for Nate Robinson (not D-Antoni's favorite all-time player) and Jared Jeffries, who, along with his cap-killing sidekick, Curry, combine to take up nearly 40 percent of the Knicks' 2010-11 cap. If I am Geoff Petrie, by February the price of acquiring Thomas in a Jeffries dump will have escalated, and I'll be asking for Jordan Hill in the package, too. I'd also ask for the Knicks' upcoming No.1 pick, but that lottery-bound prize is long gone, Isiah Thomas having sent it to Phoenix in the Stephon Marbury deal. If Walsh ever dangles his '12 pick, maybe he can get someone to take Curry/Jeffries. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Johnson 5. Anthony Johnson, Magic Back in 2000, Johnson was the only player to be dealt on trade deadline day, going from Atlanta to Orlando for a conditional future second-round draft pick. Stan Van Gundy had no use for him in the Finals after AJ had been a rock for the Magic through the first three rounds of the playoffs (Yes, Stan had to play Jameer Nelson. But couldn't AJ have gotten a sniff when Rafer Alston was struggling?), and somebody in contention and playing on tilt will want some veteran insurance at the point (that could be you, Bryan Colangelo, when you look down your bench and take a long, hard gaze at Roko Ukic. Just be prepared to throw in a healthy chunk of cash to help Magic owner Rich DeVos tackle his luxury-tax tab). We also should note here that the Miami Heat have a $4.26 million trade exception (Marcus Banks) that expires next Feb. 15, and Portland has a $2.9 million exception (Ike Diogu) that expires Feb 18. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battie 6. Tony Battie, Nets As we approach the midpoint of the Summer of Gortat, let us all pause for a minute to recall how Marcin Gortat was such an offensive liability in the Twin Towers alignment Stan Van Gundy used in the Finals that he instead turned to Battie, who was jettisoned in the Vince Carter trade. Battie has an expiring $6.3 million deal, and there will be interest from undersized legit contenders (the Lakers post-Odom?) willing to toss $3 million in cash the Nets' way. (On a related and half-serious note, by mid-February we also expect the layoff-happy Nets to have fewer total front-office employees than roster spots). Battie can still bang, and he can still knock down the 19-footer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dampier 7. Erick Dampier, Mavericks Mark Cuban has been dying to get rid of him since not long after the fateful summer of 2004 in which he ended up with the 7-footer as his consolation prize after refusing to match what the Phoenix Suns were offering Steve Nash. Dampier's $13.1 million salary for 2010-11 is non-guaranteed, so teams seeking to clear cap space should be willing to pay a premium to acquire an expiring deal of this size. (Remember, the Nets had to toss in building block Ryan Anderson to get Orlando to take Carter's contract off their hands.) This, of course, assumes that Cuban's Core of Geriatrics hasn't broken down by mid-February. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chandler 8. Wilson Chandler, Knicks Hate to keep getting back to all these Knicks possibilities, but unless and until Donnie Walsh refocuses his sights on the summer of '11, he will be diligent in his efforts to clear cap space for a second heavy hitter in the summer of '10. In late June, New York could have had Jeffries and Chandler off its '10-11 cap in exchange for the No. 5 pick (which became Ricky Rubio) and Etan Thomas, but Washington bailed when the Knicks tried to make it a bigger deal. Of the six players Walsh has under contract for '10-11 (Curry, Jeffries, Chandler, Jordan Hill, Toney Douglas and Danilo Gallinari), only the Italian kid is considered untouchable. Chandler has some actual value, and to a lesser degree so do Chris Duhon (expiring $6.03 contract) and the insurance-covered expiring deal belonging to Cuttino Mobley ($9.5 million). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mohammed 9. Nazr Mohammed, Bobcats At some point in February, Larry Brown should hit the 90 percent mark in terms of turning over his entire roster since coming aboard last fall. It remains to be seen whether owner Bob Johnson, who is selling the franchise, will ante up enough coin later this summer to sign Raymond Felton to an extension (the talks are currently described as "stalemated"), so he could be in play, too, by the time February rolls around. But Mohammed seems a better bet to be dealt, with the market for backup big men always a bit more robust when contenders believe they are only one spare 7-footer away from a championship. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alston 10. Rafer Alston, Nets He has an expiring $5.25 million deal, and he'll be as available as he was in Houston last January should some contending team lose its point guard to an injury, After all, plugging in Skip worked for the Magic last season, and you'd imagine at some point next season one of the title contenders is going to have a key injury hole to fill before the playoffs. New Jersey also has Bobby Simmons ($10.6 million), Trenton Hassell ($4.3 million) and Sean Williams ($1.6 million) on expiring deals.
My stance on Tracy has been teh same since he first went for surgery. Only trade the contract if we get something better than what we could acquire through Free Agency.
Precisely, If a deal is on the table that would add future pieces and the team at the trade deadline is going no where then They should try to retool by using his expiring contract. However, if by some miracle He comes back strong and the team is in the thick of the playoff race then keep him and retool by next summer. Only time will tell.
My understanding is that they won't have enough cap space to sign anyone good anyway. They would still have to get rid of a bunch of other guys to have any significant cap space. Then you have the fact that most max free agents don't change teams.
This board is funny. Trade everyone else because even if they make the playoffs they won't get far they'd be better off tanking for the lottery. However, if McGrady is healthy, forget about tanking. Besides the fact, he's the only non-rookie Rocket, that hasn't been past the 1st round.
My thoughts exactly, but would Morey be willing to take back the garbage the Knicks are gonna lay on the table to get Chandler. Plus who knows if it was D'Antoni's system or Chandler himself that made him look like such a good player. He'd solve our 2 guard problem, so, eh, not thinkin that'll happen....
Would you do a Tracy McGrady for Eddy Curry, Wilson Chandler, Jared Jeffries, Jordan Hill and NY's unprotected 2012 pick?
That's the problem with TMacs contract, it's so big that it has to be multi-player trade probably involving multiple teams to absorb the players involved. There would be serious rebalancing of the roster if we took on 4 new players to replace TMac. Odds are we won't be able to trade him and his contract just expires.
Good point but it would really be a waste not to get something in return if they are indeed trading him.
Exactly. That would be a fantastic trade Possum but how many players can we recieve with only giving up Tracy? Tiger0330 is right we need to have a multi team trade which I'm betting will happen if he comes back before the trade deadline. Especially if he, as he's said, comes back to "elite status". I have a feeling something may be able to get done with NO when it's all said and done. They may have gottne worse with the Chandler/Okafor trade, they had a good thing going with the CP3 to Chandler punch. And the chemistry looks like it could be getting worse. Could we be in the running for Chris Paul???
