Alright, I'm expecting we keep McGrady and let him expire. There will probably not be a good enough deal for him. I think we could get some good pieces from Chicago but I doubt Morey would want to do this. Would you take Deng or Salmons + Brad Miller for Mcgrady?
You probably already know the answer but they might want to get rid of Deng because of his ridiculous contract. I read a article earlier about how Bulls can trade Deng for more cap space (http://ken-berger.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/11838893/20035997.) McGrady is a huge expiring contract for them and would help them 2010 free agency.
From Twitter: alanhahn McGrady not sounding very good, mainly bc there is doubt (from people around the league) that he can physically do it after microfracture.
If New York had sent Al Harrington and we had sent Chase Budinger, I would think that more valuable than crappy Josh Howard. I wish we would have gotten in on that deal. I am tired of watching this team with no true center. And Butler would have been a solid addition as well.
Knick beatwriter like Feignen, mouthpiece for organization. Tmac's going to the Knicks. David Stern wants a building sized picture of Tmac in Times Square.
Tony Parker and Ginobli are star players, but the only reason that team has ever contended starts and ends with Tim Duncan, who they tanked to get. After you get that type of player, then you can start adding these late round talent guys to build your team. Just like Morey has done with Brooks, Landry, Budinger. The problem has been our "Tim Duncan" can't seem to ever stay healthy long enough to know if it'll work. Free agency can land you some nice players, but rarely do the true elite players change teams except through trade. I can't see LeBron or Wade leaving this year.. and if Toronto keeps up the pace, Bosh might not either. Those type of guys don't sit on the market very often -- they come from high draft picks that you nailed. I think a Caron/Jamison trade, in addition to our (hopefully [sorry.]) lottery pick this year, would give us a team talented enough to beat the Lakers. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.. but when talent works hard, there's not much you can do. I'd rather use this opportunity to add a heap of talent to our team - the worst case scenario is Jamison on the books for one year after Caron/Yao expire. That's hardly a drain on our cap. No, I expect Les to be smart enough to know a hard cap won't come into play. The players will not accept it. The players are currently making their counter-offer, which I'm sure concedes some things to the owners. The hard cap stance is just a bargaining position. In a different argument, to side track, is how would that even be implemented? Most teams are over the cap - you can't just come in and cut the excess unless you're going to allow teams to cut players with no penalties? I have no clue. I think I factored in Scola being traded in the deal and we just end up re-signing Lowry. We don't need Scola if we get Jamison, but we damn sure need Lowry. So I guess it's essentially Scola/MLE vs. Jamison. I'd still roll with Jamison. If we need a basket at the end of the game, I'd feel more comfortable with Jamison shooting it than Scola. At the end of the day, that's all I care about. Some may disagree, but Jamison gives me more confidence in a closer's role. I think Aaron Brooks and Landry will get a nice raise, but I don't think either deserves over 10M/year, do you? I wouldn't feel comfortable giving Landry big money - he's a great offensive player, but he's not a good defender or rebounder. I don't think either should really take up a chunk of our space. Let's say they both get signed for 10M/year (high IMO), Trevors 6.8M, with ~4.7M in options (Andersen, Dorsey, Taylor), and a re-signed Lowry @5M (fair?) - that's 36.5M. Jamison pushes that to about $51.7M. Add in our first rounders and minimum contracts to give us enough players, and that probably puts us right at or a little bit above the cap, BUT below the luxury tax line. Not to mention, I inflated the contracts Brooks/Landry should receive. If the Rockets don't bring back Yao/Caron, they could decide that Landry or Brooks at the price isn't worth it. They could decline the options on Andersen (2.7M) or Dorsey (~1M). Point being, yes doing the trade would have us paying a huge salary next year. But it would be an all-in move, and wouldn't severely cripple our future. We would only be stuck with an extra year, and even in that year we wouldn't be paying luxury tax. It's not exactly a franchise killer, and it could potentially set us up for an exciting run next year. Damn you Dallas for making this a moot point.
