http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archi...n_richardson_dealt_to_knicks_for_kurt_thomas/ Can somebody get Isiah Thomas away from New York before he phyically blows up Madison Square Garden, instead of just imploding the team from within. Did he really need to give up the only guy on the team that can grab a rebound for another SG. AND throw in a 1st round pick, I might add. I guess this means that he'll be cutting Allan Houston for sure. I can't imagine that PT can be found for Crawford, Richardson, and Houston. I'd pick up AH for the minimum. And I'm not sure I like it from the Suns point of view either. Thomas isn't a center. And the whole notion of Amare at the C, was to get a quickness advantage at all frontcourt positions. Now what? Are they now going with a more traditional PF in Thomas alongside a traditional PF in Amare. Not sure how this is going to work out.
Q shot like crap in the last two rounds of the playoffs and the suns need some defense, but Q's 3's in the regular season were always just such huge momentum shots and part of what made them so deadly. it seemed like they always culminated some huge run or stop the other teams run. it was his first time in the playoffs so it may have just been a bad shooting stretch. marion at sf isn't the quickness advantage it was at pf but he's still quick for an sf and big and athletic for one as well. and amare is quick at any position. thomas would give them some D but i'm not sure how great it will be, especially if no one else is playing it. and it's not even like it's shotblocking D, just toughness and boards. as for ny, what the hell they need another shooting guard for is beyond me. shockingly, they gave up one of the pf's they love to collect so much. unshockingly, it was their good pf. and they threw in a pick! if cd isn't on the phone with isiah 24/7 just throwing him crap trade idea after crap trade idea in the hope that one of them gets accepted, then i'm disappointed.
good for Houston, and bad for NY, and Phx. What made PHX so unique is that they had, joe, Q, and marion on the perimeter, while nash and Amare ran the show. They just broke that unique offense. I know Kurt got that midrange jumper but you can easily go off of him to help on Amare. I think Phx will drop to the 5-8 seed in the west.
Wow, stick a fork in Phoenix. While Q sucked in the playoffs, as has been said, the only reason they were able to take the league by storm was because Marion's ability to play the 4 allowed them to be the only team in the league able to play it's 5 most 'skilled' players all together the majority of the game. Any other team has to have some lesser big man out there for rebounding purposes in place of a guard - think JHO over Mike James. With Q gone, and Marion back to the '3', throw that out the window, and while they may seem more balanced with a conventional lineup, they don't seem nearly as deadly. The trade makes absolutely zero sense from New York's perspective, but of course I don't expect anything else from them.
Q's a little more of a 3. A perimeter of Marbury-Crawford-Q is better than whatever they've been running out there. Houston is probably gone. They got an extra pick from San Antonio from the Malik Rose deal- it could be that one. They have another lotto pick this year, and I think this opens up the way for Sweetney (or possibly their own Phoenix style attempt with Tim Thomas at the 4). How NY was able to parlay a guy who won't play out his contract and a pick in what may be a very weak draft into a young player on a reasonable contract is beyond me.
I think it is a great trade for New York - get rid of an older player (at a position that you have the most depth) for a younger player that can play in the backcourt with Crawford and Marbury - I have no idea what PHX is thinking - they JSUT signed Q, and they need to free up some money for JJ and Amare - Kurt T still have three years left on his deal (simliar to Mo T's deal I believe) - they just got older for no reason ... but I guess Steven Hunter will now be available as a free agent
I think Kurt Thomas' rebounding numbers are going to take a huge drop (like 6 rebounds a game) playing next to Marion and Amare. He's getting older, slower, and in New York he never really had to play with any other big man that would take any of his rebounds. Now he's going to play next to 2 players that are each going to get at least 9 rebounds a game. Really does not make any sense for either team.
Pick and pop, pick and pop, pick and pop. They lost a three point shooter in Q, but that's all they lost, and it's not too hard to gain another for a lot less money, if that's all you ask of the guy. They gained a rebounder, a protecter for Amare, and a guy who improves their half court game. Now they have 3 front court players that can average double digit rebounds so you won't see them being outrebounded nearly as much as they were last season. Thomas is undersized but he's a tough guy that I would have loved to see on the Rockets, their interior will not be as soft as it was before. He'll also work out fine in the half court with the pick and pop. As for New York? I dunno. Maybe they have other deals lined up because right now at the 1-3 spots they have Marbury, Crawford, Thomas, Ariza, Q, Williams, Penny and Houston, with Mo, Rose, Sweetney and that's it up front. Yuck.
as for PHX - the problem IS money - they need to free up money for JJ and Amare's max deals. While they will be more balanced, the reason they were so dominate was that they were NOT balanced and forced their opponents into mismatches - while they rained 3s all over the place as for NY, have you not heard that they are cutting Houston and I believe Penny and Thomas' deals expire soon (besides they don't care about money) - they want to draft a center (Fry) and then have their starting line up solifdified.
Assuming this is for real.... It looks like I'm about the only one that thinks this makes a bundle of sense on the part of Phoenix: -Pho keeps Amare happy by bringing in a guy that can relieve his burden of guarding centers, something he's openly complained about. -Pho increases their odds of keeping Joe Johnson by removing one of his competitors for minutes. -Pho can play Marion either at the 3 or 4, Thomas at 4 or 5 and Amare at 4 or 5, increasing their ability to create matchup problems for other teams (one of the key factors in their regular season success). Typical Isiah move, demonstrating his ridiculous lack of loyalty to players as well as a total lack of vision. Forget the Allan Houston angle, this tells you worlds about how he feels about Crawford. There's also the troubling thought that this confirms rumors that Kurt would be dealt because he got on Starbury's case for being a cancer. Evan
Of course I think Zeke is screwing up the Knicks more and more by bringing in the flavor-of-last-moth and trading away players that could help him. Q would probably be a good player for NY but it ain't exactly a turn-around-the-franchise move and that's what NY needs. Phoenix on the other hand...all they lose is a 3PT shooter. Seriously. Now instead of 5 guys running on a fast break, it'll be 4 guys and Kurt Thomas lagging behind. Marion and Johnson are more then adequate 3pt shooters. Q was "better" is because if he got hot, he could light it up but those moments were nonexistent in the WCF. With Thomas (at this stage of his career) they're getting a Steven Hunter with a shooting touch. I think this move neither helps nor hurt the Suns. It helps them by getting Amare back to his true position and it gives them a defender (why don't they just resign Hunter?) but it's not going to make a big difference in the W-L column
But the Suns lose one of their scorers...which is basically the only way the Suns could beat anyone. It's not like they got a good scorer off the bench in the deal, and the "future" #1, depending on the conditions, doesn't really help them if it's lotto protected. Kurt Thomas may help them out in spot minutes, but as a starter, I really don't think he'll be able to cut it in the West. Banging him around could cause him to be on the IL for half the season... For the Knicks, looks like they really don't trust themselves to draft well. It's a good trade for them, not great. I just don't see how there's enough ball to go around Crawford Starbury and now Qrich. I guess they're going to play a 3 G 2 F system, but the tallest person on that team is, what 6'9"? If they pick up Channing Frye...haha, it'll be an interesting experiment that probably ends in the usual question we always ask ourselves: "What the f*ck were you thinking, Isaiah?"
Phoenix does manage to pave the way for re-signing Joe Johnson. They're still gonna have grotesque luxury tax problems by giving Amare the max (deserved) and Joe Johnson the near-max (can't really argue, the kid's good, wish we had him). I thought they might try to move Shawn Marion; they'll be paying four guys a ton of money. And they still might trade The Matrix, although getting value for him would be tough. Isiah Thomas got a really solid young player for the Knicks. But emjohn is correct. Isiah doesn't have any plan at all. He's just jerking off (Isiah, mind you; not emjohn). Isiah keeps throwing money at his problems and he'd better wake up quick. Then again, what does it matter? He always lands on his feet. Isiah destroyed the minor league NBA (CBA?), he sucked in Toronto, he sucked worse as a coach in Indiana, now he's displaying his dazzling smile in New York.
I was thinking they would trade Marion before they would trade Q as well...because of the salaries not because of talent. They're basically going to give the money that Q made to Johnson thus putting them into more of a rut when Amare needs his max contract. Then they trade Marion away. Maybe i'm forecasting too much, but Phoenix is starting to sound like a one-hit or two-hit wonder.
Q played with Nash and the rest of the Suns (i.e., gets a lot of easy looks) and only shot 39% and 36% from 3 land, though he took the most of them by a wide margin (8 per game). By comparison Joe Johnson shot 46% and 48% from 3s (and JoeJ is better in every other apsect of basketball than Q as well). Also, Jim Jackson shot 44% and 46%. Nash, Barbosa and even McCarty had high %s too, only Marion shot a lower % of Suns who take 3s. Simply by putting Jim Jackson in the 3 spot instead of Q (and finding a vet back-up for JJ or drafting a new swingman) they may get better shooting and smarter shooting. Kurt Thomas gives a guy to do the dirty work for Amare. They can sort of switch back and forth in duties offensively and defensively, and Kurt isn't so bad offensively (e.g., Hunter) you can leave him alone. It gives them a lot of front line flexibility with AS (4,5), KT (5,4) and SM (3,4) being multi position players. Overall this move doesn't help the Suns versus us or Miami (neither KT nor AS can give even token resistence to Shaq or Yao), but versus everyone else I think it may help (keeps Amare from foul trouble versus guys like TD and KG). They can bring in another vet swingman or have lots of draft picks to find a guy to spell Jim Jackson, and not really lose anything from Q or may even get smarter and more offensively efficient. I don't expect the Knicks to be in the playoffs the next couple of years, so the pick keeps the deal more even long term. Overall, while if I am Phx I might have sought trading Marion 1st if I could get full value, Q would have been the 2nd guy I would have looked to move (SM and Q were also the two players to really collapse in the WCF). This deal looks fine to me from Phx's short term and long term perspective. People keep up bringing up $ and Phx. They had the lowest payroll of any playoff team and are UNDER the cap right now. Sure they will have to shell out a max for Amare and close to it for JJohnson, but so what. It is a lot like the Spurs situation a few years ago with a max deal for TD coming soon, and close to max deals for Manu and Parker needed the following years. Phx salarywise has managed their team very well, paying market value for good players is fine, you just don't want to pay a lot for bad players. Also, Phx is a profitable franchise with new ownership and the lux tax thing has be redone. They are in fine financial shape and are not going to blow up their regained fan base. The only guy they want to keep they might lose is Hunter, and that is if another team will throw a lot of jack in a risky multiyear deal. They are a model team financially (no bad contracts), have two of the best young players in the league (Amare, JJohn), have excellent vets mixed in (Nash, Marion, Jackson), have extra 1sts from other worse teams (NY, Chi) and three extra 2nds (with the new CBA these are even more advantagous and 1sts are less financially risky). In sum, they are without a doubt one of the teams with brighest futures for many years.
Talent age wise its a very good trade for NY. Still, they are trading another near expiring contract when they need to just wait for there players contracts to run out. I guess the Knicks are really counting on Channing Fyre. They have no size now and if they dont get this guy they are screwed.
What doesn't really make sense to me is why Phoenix decided to sign Q to that big contract in the first place. He played about as well as they could have expected him to play. So why sign him just to trade him a year later? They probably should have just resigned Mcdyess last summer who is younger, better, and cheaper than Kurt Thomas.
Because as well as it worked out for 6 months, they found out quick that they needed a defensive big if they wanted to handle Duncan and be true title contenders. Besides, swingmen aren't that hard to come by in this league. A 6-6 guy giving you 15 and 6 isn't irreplacable. Evan
