With the trade deadline now less than a week away, the rumors are building to a flood and the scuttlebutt ranges from sensible to nonsensical. It is becoming clearer, though, which teams are truly eager to swing a deal and which players are actually going to be available.
Yesterday, Tommy Dee over at The Knicks Blog posted an entry discussing which teams he believes are aggressively looking to make a move and what might they have to offer. With respect to the Knicks, Dee wrote:
KNICKS
Donnie Walsh’s team has been on a roller coaster all year. A bunch of wins followed by a ton of losses.
Key Pieces: David Lee, Nate Robinson, Malik Rose, Jared Jefferies, Steph
Skinny: I’m sure you think I’m crazy for adding Jefferies to this list, but defensively he can help a playoff team, but will his contract scare people off? In the end, Lee and JJ2 stay, Nate and Malik go. We’re really trying to dig to find leaks, but MSG is on lock. “Spot on” Hahn apparently landed a great get with the Amar’e stuff. We’ve said dealing Nate is hard, but there’s no way he’s a Knick next year. He wants to get PAID and the Knicks won’t match so that’s not a good sign. I thought it made sense to keep him around for a playoff push, which can still happen, so if Walsh agrees then he stays. I think out of respect Walsh trades Malik to a contender. In this economy that contract is valuable. Honestly, who knows with Steph.
That section mostly contains information we already knew (thanks in large part to Dee’s always solid information and reporting). We know that’s pretty much what the Knicks have to work with.
One team that Dee didn’t mention on his list but is expected to be a deadline buyer is Dallas. In the aftermath of the Jason Terry injury, the Mavs are looking to make a move to bolster their backcourt and give them some of the scoring punch they’ve lost with Terry out. In recent days the Mavs have been linked to Vince Carter but ESPN’s Marc Stein is reporting that a trade is unlikely because the Mavs maintain that they won’t include Josh Howard in the deal (Besides, how many terrible deals can you make with the Nets in the span of a year? Two is overkill.).
At any rate, I see a potential match between the Knicks and the Mavs because the Mavs have an expiring contract in Jerry Stackhouse and the Knicks have an explosive backcourt scorer in Nate Robinson. Nate would replace at least 80-85% of the offense Dallas lost when Terry went down and at the end of the season the Mavs would own his restricted rights.
So I propose two trades (in order of likeliness, in reverse order of desirability):
In this deal the Mavs would get Nate and a versatile defender in Jared Jeffries that could lend a hand come playoff time, and the Knicks get some more cap room and another draft pick they can use to secure a player who’s rookie contract runs past 2010. (Note: JJ Barea fits in this trade as well if that makes it more palatable.) If, as Tommy Dee writes, it’s fait accompli that the Knicks won’t be resigning Nate, this is one good way to cut bait while putting the team in better position for the future.
This would obviously be ideal, as it would unload the biggest remaining albatross contract from the Isiah Thomas era (that would be the only prize–the Knicks don’t get back any useful talent for the long-term in this trade). The deal puts Donnie Walsh in good position to re-sign David Lee (if he so chose) while still being able to lure two max free agents in 2010. The Mavs are the one team in the league that I could envision being willing to take a flier on Curry because Mark Cuban is their owner. He might be willing to pay the remaining money on Curry’s deal in exchange for paying nothing, talent wise, to acquire Nate. They’d be getting a Terry replacement right away and Cuban could be enticed by the possibility of filling the Mavs’ void in the low post with Curry down the road.
The second trade is unequivocally the less likely of the two, but the Knicks and Mavs definitely need to talk.
