Hope doesn’t just spring eternal in Florida and Arizona this time of year, its a geyser in MSG as the Knicks wiggled enough cap room to sign two max free agents. That much we know. What we don’t know is how everything will play out. Like many, I was refreshing ESPN.com, SI.com, and Yahoosports.com constantly to see if any updates came through. As Mark Cuban tweeted it was probably a better idea to “follow NBA Trade Deadline on twitter,” but I’m stuck on archaic methods.
Regardless, the trade deadline has come and gone and we have winners and we have losers of this trade deadline and much to process on both ends:
WINNERS:
KNICKS: Of course I begin with the hometown team and the fact that they were able to move the Jared Jeffries salary, and they were able to move Nate Robinson and move a few guys to get the cap space needed to go after two max free agents. They mortgaged the next few years on the hope that LeBron makes MSG his home for the next 7 years and calls another one of his super friends to come and help out. Of course being a Knick and Met fan I’m doomed to be pessimistic about it, but in theory this deal makes them the big winners.
ROCKETS: Yes, they did make out. Sure they took on another salary for next year but you always get the sneaking suspicion that Darryl Morey the stat guru MIT grad GM of the Rockets knows just a little bit more than the rest of us. He swapped first rounders with the Knicks in 2011 and got their 2012 pick (from everything I’ve been reading on it, only the first pick of the draft would be protected in 2011 and top 5 protected in 2012 (thanks to NBA.com)) and managed to set himself up nice with a proven scorer in Kevin Martin a guy that the Kings had been telling everyone was unavailable. Morey is banking on LeBron not going to the Knicks next summer and the Knicks being bad for the next few years and God help us if he’s right.
KINGS: I think it worked out on all ends here. The Kings acquired cap space for this offseason where they will attract absolutely nobody but hey, its a nice thing to put on the resume. They were able to snag two really tough physical players in Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey to play the post and be the mashers and grinders and they are staring down the barrel of a lottery pick this summer again which should help them if they pick as well as they picked last year. Also throw in Jason Thompson and they have a developing nucleus of young guys and bigs that could make the Kings a minor contender sooner rather than later. Only, they need another coach, sorry Reggie Theus, he wasn’t even a good coach on their TV show. Think about that.
BOBCATS: They got Tyrus Thomas and Theo Ratliff at the trade deadline and managed to keep DJ Augustin a guy they loved. Larry Brown’s team will be a tough out in the Eastern Conference whomever they face in the first round. Ten out of their 14 guys are 6’8′ or taller which gives them such an inside presence that it will be tough for teams to score on them in the low post. They just might sneak up on a few teams in the first round. Too bad the first round isn’t 5 games anymore, it might have been fun for this team to play a high seed under that format.
CAVALIERS: As much as the Knicks moves were geared towards getting LeBron James, the Cavs decision to trade for Antawn Jamison was to keep LeBron and they did a hell of a job in doing so. They managed to get the better deal in getting Antawn, that coveted stretch four they were seeking, than Amare- a deal in which they would’ve had to give up J.J. Hickson, something they were not willing to do. Amare while being more of a physical presence is only that on the offensive end, on the defensive end they are very similiar. Where Antawn has the advantage is that he can pull a 20/10 night consistently and in more ways than Amare can and that’s what you have to love. This move was facilitated towards keeping their young guys and also making LeBron happy.
ARN TELLEM: Why an agent? Easy. Tellem had as much to do with the Knicks getting T-Mac as Donnie Walsh. Let me explain. When most of us woke up this morning the reports coming out of the Houston Chronicle were that T-Mac had been traded- to the Kings. I had to stop everything I was doing to make sure I read right. Of course the following paragraph made me breathe easier when it said they were working on getting the Knicks involved in making sure T-Mac, and more importantly the expiring contract, went to the Knicks. But the Kings with all their leverage decided to ask for everything the Rockets were asking for, but not Jordan Hill and not the 2012 first rounder, but David Lee. That put a speed bump in there. Arn Tellem being the high powered broker he is, and this is just purely guessing on my part, may have called Geoff Petrie’s office in Sacramento and warned him of the dangers of stalling this trade with the Knicks. He is after all the agent for Tyreke Evans, the guy most responsible for Kevin Martin no longer being a King. The Kings GM being the wise man he is, decided against making the agent for his franchise player mad and decided to play nice and made sure the trade went down as it went down sending Sergio Rodriguez also. What’s lost in this is also Tellem being the agent for Danilo Gallinari, one of the players that will be here if and when the Lebron era begins in New York and judging on how he makes every player on his team better it stands to reason that Danilo might be staring down the barrel of a nice little jump in his salary with Lebron’s arrival. Winners all around.
LOSERS:
CELTICS: I know this may seem a bit biased but Eddie House fit the culture of Boston and the locker room Ubuntu they had going in 2008 when the Celtics won it all. Now, they bring in Nate Robinson who among other things brings a certain flair for the dramatic and I’m not talking about game winning shots. The goal for the C’s were to get Kirk Hinrich and send Ray Allen’s expiring contract with it but I’ve always been under the impression that you keep your best guys if you have a legitemate chance to make the playoffs. I’m basing this rating on the fact that I’m not a huge Nate Robinson fan like every other Knick fan. Just because he was the best player on the team for the last few years doesn’t make me automatically a fan of his, and the fact that he was should absolutely disgust Knick fans to no degree. The Celtics just seem to be getting older and not better. Its time to seriously think about breaking that team up and build around Rondo and Pierce.
HEAT: In my opinion this trade deadline had to be about convincing Dwayne Wade that the Heat were going somewhere and they didn’t do that. Now the Heat will have to sign a player a semi star first to properly convince D-Wade that Miami is a place that will be able to compete for a championship if he signs long term. I’m not too sure they will be able to sign that guy especially when his hometown team the Bulls will have enough cap space to sign him and already have Derrick Rose in place. Its a tempting offer and as much as South Beach offers I’m sure Wade is tired of giving up his body for a team that seems to be staying in place while everyone else seems to be getting better. Also its never a good idea when your GM is offering up quotes on how sure he is that a player will stay when nothing has been decided.
UNKNOWN:
DONNIE WALSH: We will see if he’s either a genius or an idiot come July 1st. That’s when basically his fate will be decided. Now its not fair to say that Donnie is a total idiot for giving up picks and much more to secure enough space to make those moves because let’s face it, he had to make sure he had the room to pull this off so doing that was absolutely essential but now it becomes a waiting game for Donnie and for Knick fans. Also the free agent class of 2011 isn’t too shabby either and with Eddy Curry’s 13 million off the cap it will give them even more space but I don’t think Knick fans can wait another year for another superstar to be available if we strike out on LeBron this summer.
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