Rockets to acquire Kevin Martin (UPDATE: 3-Way Deal Reached)

Duh!!! It is the Rockets choice and option not the Knicks. If we have the #1 pick, we sure as hell aren't going to use the option to switch. I hope we are picking 32nd and New york is top 5 and We drop them to the back of the bus. That would be classic Morey striking from the grave

 

I know.if RA is not on this team i don't see this trade happening.

 

Agreed. Sacramento is well under the cap, and it's not like Jeffries is a completely useless player.

The only thinking I can imagine is they have Spencer Hawes, Jason Thompson, and Carl Landry already, and seem to be playing Casspi/Greene as 3/4s as well. Maybe the appeal of another big like Hill wasn't worth it to them?

 

How can we be picking 32nd in 1st round?

 

Have you ever been to Sacramento? The place is a total dump. Other than a a satellite Intel location and some state government offices, there isn't a damn thing going on there. It's probably the worst destination in the NBA. I usually pass through that craphole on the way to Tahoe, and it is a miserable place.

 

MOREY!!!

 

It's mostly about money.

 

Looks like the Rockets got Hill and Jeffries from NY. Hmm.

 

sorry if its been posted

espn insider hollinger ranks the trade

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insi...ades-100218&addata=2009_insdr_mod_nba_xxx_xxx


Rockets: I see this as two trades, both of which benefit Houston. First, the Rockets basically extracted two first-rounders from New York for taking on Jeffries (Hill and the 2012 pick), plus a potential lottery ticket in 2011.

The trade costs Houston its salary cap space this summer, which now will be spent paying Jeffries to sit at the end of the bench. But since the Rockets didn't have enough room for a max deal and every other team will be flush with cash, I don't think this costs them much. Additionally, Houston should still be able to re-sign Kyle Lowry and Luis Scola without going over the luxury tax.

The deal comes with the added plus of getting the Rockets under the luxury tax for the current season. Unlike every other team scrambling to get under the tax line, Houston managed to do it while adding assets instead of subtracting them. Well played.

With Sacramento, Houston swapped two of the league's most underrated players. Landry is about as good as Martin, but the deal makes so much sense for the Rockets because it gives them a more productive roster. Houston was desperate for a wing who could get his own shot and space the floor. Martin answers both challenges.

The stat-savvy Rockets have undoubtedly noticed Martin's astronomic True Shooting Percentages (over 60 in four of the past five seasons). He gets his points without dominating the ball and should thrive from open looks when Yao Ming returns to health next season. He's also familiar with Rick Adelman's system, having played for him in Sacramento.

Losing Landry hurts, but the Rockets managed to rebuild their front line in one shot by acquiring Hill to backup Scola at power forward. The Rockets can also play small with Shane Battier at the 4 and Martin and Trevor Ariza at the wings, something they've rarely done this season because of a shortage of wing talent.

All told, it reshapes their roster to be far more potent a season from now when Yao comes back. In the meantime, the Rockets haven't hurt themselves at all for this season. They got under the luxury tax and grabbed a couple of assets from New York on the exchange. Martin has been injury-prone and his contract (three years after this one for $36 million) is potentially toxic if he underperforms. But this is about as good a trade as a team can make now that Isiah Thomas and Kevin McHale are out of the league. Grade: A-



Kings: We've been hearing for a while that the Kings weren't looking to trade Martin, but that belied the on-court reality that he and Tyreke Evans go to together like peanut butter and onions. And once they pulled the trigger, the Kings got exactly what they were looking for: cap relief and a young, productive, inexpensive power forward in Landry.

Landry makes only $3 million next year but his low-post scoring ability should provide a nice staple for Sacramento, especially since the Kings' other young bigs, Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes, have trouble scoring on the block.

The Kings actually took on some salary in this deal ($3.6 million), but may be able to get some savings by buying out Hughes, who likely has no interest in playing eight minutes a game for a lottery team.

More importantly, the deal positions Sacramento (stop me if you've heard this before) to be a major player in the free-agent market. As a result of deals in the past 48 hours, the Kings, Clippers, Wizards and Bulls have all positioned themselves to offer a maximum free-agent contract, while the Knicks can now offer two maximum deals. In the Kings' case, they'll probably take a more piecemeal approach -- LeBron ain't coming to Sacto, folks. But if they can add a young point guard to build around with Evans, Omri Casspi, Landry, Thompson and Hawes, they should be in good position to turn things around. Grade: B+



Knicks: It's all or nothing this summer for the Knicks, who set themselves up for their dream scenario -- being able to offer two maximum free-agent contracts -- but did so at considerable cost. By finally ridding themselves of their obligation to Jeffries next year, New York now projects to have about $32 million in cap space, which theoretically positions them to sign Dwyane Wade and LeBron, or one of those two and Chris Bosh.

However, New York gave up a lot of assets in order to make this deal work. The Knicks sent out two young pieces: their 2012 first-round pick (Top-5 protected) and young forward Jordan Hill. With no 2010 first-rounder, whomever they entice to take their money will be playing with Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Toney Douglas, Eddy Curry, Bill Walker and six guys making the minimum. (No, not David Lee -- he's an unrestricted free agent).

Rodriguez could also stay in the mix if the cap number comes in higher than anticipated, or if New York can trade Douglas on draft day. This is a great situation for Rodriguez to thrive in since D'Antoni's system is so dependent on creative point guards, so we'll see if he makes good on his promise as a drive-and-kick guy.

New York should be able to trade Curry for another fat contract (no pun intended) next year, but it remains to be seen if the lure of the Big Apple is enough to overcome what looks to be a limited supporting cast.

Meanwhile, consider the other scenario. If those A-List free agents stay with their original teams the Knicks are pretty much hosed -- they'd be left to re-sign Lee, overpay some other second-tier free agent and go 32-50 for the next half-decade. This is a high-risk strategy forced upon them by the misery of the Isiah Thomas era, and it remains unclear how well it will pan out.

Finally, a lot of Knicks fans are asking me about McGrady. Basketball-wise he's totally irrelevant to this deal -- New York can't make the playoffs no matter what McGrady does, and the Knicks won't be in a position to keep T-Mac if he plays well. Grade: C

 

Well... worked out better than I orginally expected.... lol.

 

These are NBA players we are talking about. They will take the most money, living in Sacto isn't that bad. Just build yourself a nice house, it's not like they must stay in Sacto and can only leave on away games.

If the team was winning, anyone would go there...and if you offer a ton of money...anyone will go there.

It's not hard to imagine that they could maybe sign a Rudy Gay or another good player.

 

NBA.com has it listed as Larry Hughes also coming to Houston...

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS -- The trade is done. Tracy McGrady is heading to New York.

Here's the deal, per TNT analyst David Aldridge: McGrady, acquired Wednesday by Sacramento, goes to New York along with guard Sergio Rodriguez. The Knicks send guard Larry Hughes, forward Jared Jeffries and forward Jordan Hill to the Rockets, along with a 2012 first-round pick. The Rockets can also swap first-rounders with New York in 2011. The Rockets send forwards Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey to Sacramento, and get Kevin Martin from the Kings.

The trade saves New York $2.5 million in cap space--the amount of first-year money for Hill, the eighth pick overall in last year's draft. More importantly, by putting Jeffries, who has one year remaining on his contract at $6.8 million next season, in the deal, the Knicks will clear enough cap room to be able to make offers to two max-level free agents this summer, allowing them to go after, say, both LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, or Wade and Chris Bosh, or James and Joe Johnson.

New York only has four players under contract for next season: forwards Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, guard Toney Douglas and center Eddy Curry, whom the Knicks were unable to deal.

The trade was first reported by ESPN.com.

 

No...no...Not Hughes...no...it was all going so well!

 

So Van Gundy wanted us to be the New York Rockets & Rick will make us the Sacramento Rockets

 

Feeling better now? Who would you spend those first round draft picks on?

 

Chris Bosh....just saying

 

When the other options are Chicago, Miami, and New York, no sane NBA player would sign in Sacramento. All those teams will have cap space to acquire a top flight Free Agent this summer.

 

This is some random blogger's blog.

 

Yeah, I'm repping you.

 

That can't be right...isn't Hughes, Jeffries, and Martin too much salary outgoing?

EDIT: Guess it does work. Taking Hughes instead of KT and Armstrong it looks like.