Oh how I wish I could ask Daryl Morey some (more)questions: - After the announcement of the Landry/Martin trade, it looked like we decided not to trade Tmac. I'm guessing Walsh tried to keep the picks, but Morey called his bluff. I'd love to know if that's how it went down. How hard did Walsh try? Did he topple quickly when Morey leaned on him for the swap rights and the 2012 pick? - Did Morey's staff map out the possibiliy that Chicago, NJ and Miami would take these steps to create cap space? Giving away first round picks to take away Hinrich and Cook. Paying for someone to take Yi Jianlan. My guess is that Morey's staff models all these possibilities, which made the NY picks all the more valuable. Morey probably just spent a day thinking bout what he would do if he were the GM of a given team -- What Would Morey Do if he were GM of ____. - Did Walsh consider the possibility of this much competition? Of course, this is all moot if Lebron picks NYC and Walsh looks like he had inside knowledge that Lebron was coming. But NY misses out on the major FAs, Walsh looks like an ass. Not only did he spend two years clearing out bad contracts, which was a legit goal, he spurned opportunities to build the team in a traditional fashion and instead was single minded in pursuit of this summer and Lebron. Thinking about these things makes me believe that Morey really has 6 contingency plans. It's not just PR or marketing. Les, please lock up Morey to a lifetime contract.
Who knows but as things are looking right now, that move might have set up the Rox for the next decade and finished off the Knicks for the foreseeable future.
As I remember it, T-Mac was part of the original trade and was headed to Sacramento. Kings were getting TMac, Landry and Dorsey, and we were getting 4 players including KMart, Armstrong, Sergio R, and a fourth person whose name escapes me.
I think Morey has always thought that NY's strategy won't work. He said right after the deadline trade that he thought most of the big name free agents will go in a sign & trade this summer. He bet against NY from the beginning of the negotiation. As Carl Herrera posted in the David Lee thread, How EPIC it would be if the Knicks strike out this summer and Morey come to the rescue. (And if smoothie or moes can have the time to make another video of this new round of negotiation that would so full of WIN)
I got the impression Dolan had a lot to do with it as much if not more than Walsh. The key was get enough under the cap for two FA's. They were bluffing Houston thinking they could low ball them because Tmac was a waste here. It might have worked accept Morey took the bluff seriously and immediately looked for the next best option. Fortunately for us Sac wanted to dump Martin for Landry long ago but all we offered was Scola. When we finally offered Landry they were takers with whoever else we threw in to complete the deal. When we told New York , "Hey we got another buyer", they panicked and removed most of the draft restrictions off of the deal. Amazing deal for Houston. But if NY ends up with lebron then it is a great deal for them. Still got to believe this was Dolan's baby. It is reported that Lebron easily triple his cost annually. Increased ticket prices, increased advertising revenue, increases knicks gear sales, increased tv revunues, etc... Got to believe this was Dolan's baby... but with lousy draft picks for the next 2 years and nothing to show for it expect both Walsh and Dolan to be gone.
