This is a silly thread & will never happen, but I was reading an article that indicated NY couldn't give their players away for anything of value. Obviously, this is an opinion of one writer, but with their current cap situation & the fact that the big 3 can't carry the team, maybe it's time to implode the team & rebuild. Portland, which has the highest payroll in the NBA, will be a player in the FA pool a year before NY (05/06), as things stand now. The first thing they have to do is get cap relief & the only way they are going to get that, is to dump the big 3 with some bad tag along contracts. They'd need to take back crap players with short contracts & deal with teams that would be willing to take on the long contracts of Houston/Spewell/Camby/Eisley. The hardest part of imploding the team would be convincing the fans, media, & David Stern that it's the right thing to do. Good luck with that. I had some extra time on my hands & worked up this bizarre 4 team trade that would accomplish the ultimate implosion. Don't bust a gut laughing at it. By doing this trade, NY would be able to drop ~$41 million off of their current 03/04 salary, giving them a team salary of ~$32.5 million. The only player traded for in this deal, still on the books by then, would be Stewart. That would make them major players in one of the deepest FA pools in a while. They could rebuild through free agency & the draft in just 2-3 years, if they get rid of Layden. I believe that this trade would help the other 3 teams, 2 of which are in playoff contention. What do you think? New York trades: Allan Houston $12,750,000 to Toronto (BYC Value $9,000,000) New York trades: Othella Harrington $2,475,000 to Dallas New York trades: Howard Eisley $4,781,250 to Memphis New York trades: Marcus Camby $6,250,000 to Memphis New York trades: Latrell Sprewell $11,250,000 to Dallas New York trades: Charlie Ward $5,110,000 to Dallas (plus Trade Kicker $814,500) TOTAL: $42,616,250 Toronto trades: Chris Childs $5,200,000 to New York Toronto trades: Tracy Murray $3,400,000 to New York Toronto trades: Michael Stewart $3,840,000 to New York TOTAL: $12,440,000 Memphis trades: Nick Anderson $5,401,906 to New York Memphis trades: Isaac Austin $5,695,715 to New York TOTAL: $11,097,621 Dallas trades: Juwan Howard $18,750,000 to New York TOTAL: $18,750,000 TRADE ACCEPTED
Not a bad idea for NY but Dallas really doesn't need to do it unless they expect Finley to be gone a long time. It would give them too many players without necessarilly upgrading on any of them. Would you prefer Finley or Spree? Ward over Nash? Playing time would become a bigger issue than it ever was in Portland.
new york gets a bunch of scrubs in return for their superstars...and howard is locked up with that huge contract, no one wants to touch him...the knicks could find a better deal on the market...
They could move Finley to the SF position. Nowitzki has been playing the PF spot lately, so Othella could slide into the PF spot. They'd have a starting lineup of: C: Nowitzki PF: Othella SF: Finley SG: Srewell PG: Nash If Wang ever gets up to speed, they could put him or Bradley in at center & slide Nowitzki over to the PF spot, with Othella coming off the bench. That'd be an explosive team & if they meshed together, they'd be a handful for any team. Cuban is the type of owner that would probably make that deal.
Did you read the whole post? Howard's contract expires after next year. Getting the scrubs with expiring contracts is why I feel that the other 3 teams might go for the deal & it would allow NY to be players in the FA market after next year. They'd only suck for a year & a half, or if you count this whole year, then two years. They would also pick up some draft picks along the way as well. I know that this deal will probably never go down, because there's no GM with that big a pair of n*ts in the league, but it would be the quickest way possible to restore NY to respectability. Otherwise, they're going to need a miracle. They could then negotiate with unrestricted FA's such as Brad Miller, Juwan Howard, Reggie Miller, Jermaine O'Neal, Zo, Cassell, Pippen, Dale Davis, Robinson, Payton, Malone, Duncan (if he opts out), & several others. They'd also be in a position to be involved in trades, because of the available cap space. Here's a link to the restricted & unrestricted FA's for 03/04. http://www.realgm.com/src_freeagents.php?year=2003
