We will not try to separate truth from fiction here. We’ll just tell you what is being reported, and we’ll see how it all shakes out tomorrow at 2 p.m. when signings can officially begin. But remember when we told you there were going to be a ton of bad contracts signed because of the stretch exception? That madness is beginning.
_ The Knicks are making a big (foolish?) move to address their need for a center. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com was the first to report the Knicks have moved into the lead to acquire Dallas center Tyson Chandler for four years at $58 million, but they will have to trade Ronny Turiaf and use their amnesty provision on Chauncey Billups in order to clear the cap space to make the move, and Billups could be claimed by another team through secondary waivers.
“He’s irate under the circumstances,” Billups’ agent, Andy Miller, told Yahoo Sports. “He felt this would be his final destination, and he was promised that he would be playing for a team that was going to be competing for the playoffs. He has no intention of being open-minded about any possible situation where a team would claim him off waivers unless it’s a team he chooses himself. Buyer beware.”
Speculation abounds that the Chandler move is a precursor to the Knicks sending Amare Stoudemire to the Hornets in a trade for Chris Paul.
But there are also reports out there of a three-way trade brewing between the Lakers, Hornets and Rockets that would send Paul to Los Angeles, with Luis Scola and Kevin Martin going to New Orleans, and Pau Gasol landing in Houston.
Other reports, from a variety of news outlets:
_ Tayshaun Prince is staying with the Detroit Pistons for four years and $27 million, and Jonas Jerebko is getting four years and $16 million to remain in Detroit.
_ Greg Oden is signing the Trail Blazers’ one-year $8.9 million qualifying offer.
_ Shane Battier is signing with the Miami Heat for $9 million over three years under the so-called mini-midlevel exception.
_ Caron Butler is getting a three-year, $24 million deal from the Los Angeles Clippers.
_ The Milwaukee Bucks are signing Mike Dunleavy for two years and $7.5 million.
_ Shannon Brown is getting a $3.5 million, one-year deal from Phoenix.
_ Eddy Curry is signing a one-year deal with the Miami Heat.
Is that Curry to the Heat deal a joke?
signing him is foolish in more then one way. 1) this team will not win without a point guard so getting rid of billups without a definite from the hornets on a trade for stat the knicks could be in a lot of trouble with melo stat and chandler. 2) chandler is over hyped due to the lack of centers available look at his statistics nothing spectacular ( he is an upgrade do NOT get me wrong). The only trade the knicks should be doing is stat for dwight howard. keep billups i feel bad for this man who can STILL play!
They will get their point guard… it just does not have to be an all star point guard.
(even though the reports are they can still get Paul by way of FA next year)
Take a decent pg and a good center way before I would take a good point guard and a shitty center!
Especially in our situation with STAT… get him Chandler and STAT becomes way more deadly!
They CANNOT get Paul as a free agent next year. Knicks fans need to lose this notion. He isn’t coming for 5m a year which is the amount the MLE would allow them to give him. This move for Chandler does take away all cap room they would potentially have for Paul. In the end, it is STILL the right move to make.
Not going to feel bad for a guy who gets to keep his 14m without even playing, he’ll get to double dip. And why would the Knicks need to feel any loyalty to a guy that played about 15 games with them? I’m a Knicks fan, not a player fan. Whatever makes the team better is what I want them to do.
not a player fan but if you want to tell me that the knicks can do anything with toney douglas running the point be me guest. never said the knicks should have loyalty but they need to realize he is the best option outside of a trade for cp3. this isnt a convo if the knicks do get a pg who knows how to run an offense and knows how to manage the game i have no loyalties to billups but he is capable of advancing this team in the playoffs
Raymond Felton came from the Bobcats looking like a scrub and D’Antoni made him look like an allstar. Toney played the entire season last year with a torn up shoulder. We have no clue how Toney would look running the offense now that he’s healed. That being said we don’t really have to, we still will have the MLE to use to sign someone else. We will find an adequate pg.
Chris:
U forgot about the most important free agent deal so far. Jamaal Magloire going home to play for the Raptors. LOL
First Canadian to play for the Raptors.
Knicks Possible Lineup next season
PG Nash,Douglas
SG Field, Shump
SF Melo, Grant Hill
PF Amare
C Chandler
U telling me thats not better then CP3?Melo? Amare… They will then have a 2 year window with Nash.. Nash can make Chandler way better on offense and make fields better..
Foolish move? Where did that come from?
Chandler is a center and a damn good one… the Knicks need a center more then they need any position… they have a chance to land Chandler and it is foolish?
Not following my man!?!
Why on earth would the Knicks getting a great defensive center who fits in well with the system be foolish? I mean not only do they plug their biggest need which IS center, NOT pg. But they also get to hold onto their young talent in Fields/Shump/Douglas/Walker. How is this anything but smart? Honestly, I think this move is BETTER than waiting and praying for CP3.
The Knicks wouldn’t have anyone to get their stars the ball. Melo isn’t a good enough ball handler to create for himself. Chandler is an AWFUL offensive center. And if they were to trade Amare for CP3, then they have another hole at the 4. Knicks NEED a PG.
D’antoni’s system makes most pg’s look spectacular, he had Felton looking like an allstar the first half of the season last year. We don’t need an offensive center (although since you brought it up Chandler did have the highest TS% in the league last year so not sure why you would consider him awful), we needed a defensive center that could allow Amar’e to dominate from where he should dominate from and that is from the 4, not the 5. This move also allows the Knicks to keep 4 players they were going to lose for nothing if they were going to sign cp3 as a free agent. So that is five guys you have on the team balancing it out just by scrapping the notion of waiting for cp3 as a free agent. If you call that foolish then I’m glad they are fools. A frontline of Chandler/Amare/Melo is the best frontline in all the land. I really don’t see why that is bad. They also will be able to actually use their MLE now as well, so this is NOT the last move they are making. I think this makes them frontrunners for the Atlantic division and really puts them into direct competition with the heat/bulls. They go from being a team with no defense and no bench whatsoever to being competent on D with a reasonable bench.
This is winwinwin…..
Not sure you’re understanding how the CBA works. If they sign Chandler, they would have to trade Amare to get CP3. The Knicks are a luxury tax team so they don’t have the $$ to sign guys to all these big contracts without trading someone.
I never said anything about getting CP3 at all, I think that goes out the window and instead of having 3 guys signed next year and needing to scrape together min guys you take a balanced roster and just simply tweak it. I am well aware of how the CBA works, if you would have actually read what i actually wrote it clearly says “scrapping the notion of waiting for CP3 as a free agent”.
Might want to do some searching on that one… not the way it is being reported.
Yes signing Chandler ends signing Paul THIS year… but not next as a FA!
Plus our success in no way hinges on Paul… a good point guard is MUCH easier to come by then a good center!
Give me a good center and a decent point guard over a shite center and a good point guard, any day!