A few Wednesday’s ago The New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks made a trade. With all of the “Carmelo opting out” talk, nobody had the Knicks making a pre NBA draft deal on their radar. Everyone and their momma knows the Knicks have a gang of bad contracts (Chandler, Smith, Felton, Bargnani and Stoudemire), just to point out a few.
The Knicks were able to get rid of Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton’s bad deals while being able to get picks (two) in the 2014 Draft and receiving a strong prospect in Shane Larkin. I know a lot of people will say Chandler is the prize for the Mavs, but this isn’t 2010-11 Chandler. I guess the Mavs think Chandler can recapture his old form. Cuban must be cool with forking over the last year of his four year $60 million deal. Which is overpayment for a guy who only can dunk, rebound and block some shots.
Details of trade:
New York Knicks receive:
PG Jose Calderon
C Samuel Dalembert
SG Wayne Ellington
PG Shane Larkin
And 34th(Cleanthony Early) and 51st(Thanasis Antetokounmpo) picks in the 2014 draft
Dallas Mavericks receive:
C Tyson Chandler
PG Raymond Felton
The Mavs do receive a lot of financial flexibility in the 2015 summer, but if they don’t land the people they aim for at what price was this trade made? Felton, and if they re-sign Harris, is a complete downgrade from Calderon and the potential of Larkin. While Chandler is an upgrade over Dalembert, but it isn’t 2010-11 Chandler, but hey who am I?
Jackson who is now the President of Basketball Operations was known as a coach who allowed some of the biggest egos in basketball history to mesh with others now has made a move where he played a huge Zen trick to allow him to get some solid veterans, a prospect and some draft picks while giving up dead weight on his current roster.
Maybe Chandler will prove me wrong, but I personally think Phil got one over on Cuban and the Mavs. We see you making solid moves over in New York Phil. Do your thing.
