Chad Ford liked the Knicks trade for Norris last year!

although spoon isnt the best player around.. i would rather have him on the court and a next year of pay than moochie anyday. Moochie is one of the worst players in the league.... EVER...

 

Now if I could only put a full sentace together with out any spelling erors, I COULD HAVE HIS JOB!!! hehe

 

What make you think that he does not use a spelling checker?

 

It was a good trade for them cap-wise. Spoon gets a lot of money. Moochie makes a good deal less than him but had a longer contract. The difference between them was Amaechi's large but very short contract, which I believe is now expired. So, essentially, they were able to burn off something like 2/3rds of Weatherspoon's contract early, just by having the last 1/3rd drag out a year longer. Sounds like a good trade for them to me.

And talent-wise, Spoon was doing nothing because he couldn't get on the floor. Even Moochie's couple of weeks of productivity was better than what Spoon would have given them. Plus Moochie may still do something for them while Spoon never would have had the opportunity because he would have been cut if the trade feel through. So it was good talent-wise too.

And finally, don't lie to yourself. Even though Moochie wasn't very productive after he got his contract, he was a good backup in his contract year. Just as Spoon has once again found a place where he can make some contribution, Moochie may eventually find a good situation too.

To sum up, Thomas ain't a great GM, but the Moochie/Spoon trade was beneficial for all parties. And, though Ford ain't a great writer, he's right to recognize that Thomas made a good trade here.

 

Ok, I looked it all up.

For '04-'05, the salaries are (I had my recollection of Norris and Amaechi reversed):

Amaechi: 2.83 last year
Norris: 3.85 2 years + Team option
Weatherspoon: 5.90 2 years

So, New York was able to knock off about half of Spoon's cap hit a year early. As it turns out, Norris' contract is just as long as Spoon's because his last season is a team option. So, after this season, they carry only 65% of the cap hit for having a useless player. That's a good move.

As for the buyouts, they don't affect the cap. Amaechi still counts even though he was bought out and the same would have been true of Weatherspoon had they bought him out. This was completely a cap move for them. Any nonsense they may have said about liking Moochie was mostly lip-service.

 

JV,

The cap space they saved isn't that impressive, only 2M for one year, in light of their tremendous payroll. The trade was essentially a little ado about nothing much. If Ford had to bring up that one to illustrate Thomas' good moves, then that just shows you something.

Anyway, I think most jabbing on the Moochie's trade here was for pure fun, not really something serious.