Hinrich is gone (sadly, GO KU!) this summer. As well as some of these other contract year players we traded for. They better find a way.

Hinrich is under contract for another two years.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9193

Salmons contract was the thing the Bulls cleared, Thomas was already expiring.

The funny thing is in todays NBA, you're better off in the Knicks position than say the Bulls position, they can go offer 2 max contracts and then all they need is role players.

Not really. The Bulls can only sign one max free agent, but they actually have talent on their roster. The Knicks only have Douglas, Chandler, Curry, and Gallinari under contract.

The best case scenario would leave the Knicks with this roster:

Douglas
Chandler
LeBron
Gallinari
Bosh/Curry

+ vet minimum and no draft picks

New York or not, why should any superstar want to leave a better team and take less money to play with that crap?

If you haven't noticed that's generally how the NBA does things. There are very few teams that could survive without it's star, Cleveland without Lebron is a horrible team.

There's only been a handful of stars that have ever left their team in free agency. The Cavs have a better supporting cast around LeBron than the Knicks will be able to put around him for the next few years.

That's true for the current moment but it took Cleveland years to give him decent players.

Someone will sign with the Knicks, it's NY, people care about the money potential that brings.

Someone will sign. But if they get Joe Johnson and Rudy Gay, Walsh's plan has been a failure. It's LeBron/Wade/Bosh or bust.

I think they'll get one of the 3, it's probably more likely to be Bosh than Lebron but weird things can happen sometimes.

Of course I have an idiot friend who likes the Knicks who doesn't want Lebron of course he hates Arod too, what's with idiot people from New York?

There is a rumor that LeBron has a $50 million option in his Nike contract if he signs w/ a team in NY or LA.

Not likely, but it's an interesting theory.

More importantly, if I'm LeBron, I'm going to the Clippers, not the Knicks.

Let's see:

Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin

or

Nothing.

But it's the Clippers, he'd blow out his knee or something..

Not to mention Baron Davis is extremely injury prone, and Griffin managed to miss his entire rookie year.

It sucks being a Nets fan, but if we win the lotto (25% chance) and get Wall, we'll have a pretty nice core of young players to put around a star.

The Nets are in a better position than a lot of teams are...the NBA is weird like that.

"That crap" makes the NBA finals, especially if Chandler or Gallinari can be dealt for a guard. Chandler is a good player, Gallinari is also solid and extremely underrated.

Bosh at the 4, Chandler at the 3 and LeBron as a hybrid 2 is as strong a nucleus as any team in the league. Bring those 3 in and suddenly guys are willing to take the mid-level to play for you that would ordinarily look to the Lakers, Spurs, etc...

The NBA is rarely about depth, it's about stars and a strong role player or two.

I'd be excited if I were a Knicks fan.

You forgot Donald Sterling.

No way I'd play for that man. If I'm LeBron, I'm going to NY.

The Knicks can't use the MLE until 2011. It would take a few years to fill out that roster, that team isn't capable of winning a title next year. Finding a pg, a legit center, defensive role-players and shooters, ie basically building an entire roster can't be done with just vet minimum players. That roster has 2, maybe 3 starters on a championship team.

He's essentially sharing a city with the Lakers if he went to the Clippers.

With the Knicks, he's the biggest star in the city. He's bigger than Jeter. Bigger than any Giant or Jet.

He's playing in the most scorer friendly offense in the NBA.

The Clippers have nice talent, but they never, ever get over the hump. Baron can break down at any point. Gordon is a nice complimentary piece.

If I'm Lebron, I'm talking to Bosh and convincing him to join in New York.

I agree. However, I'm dealing Wilson Chandler far before I'm dealing Danillo. I think the pure shooter on the wing meshes well with Lebron's game.

It's setup for a 6-8 year run as the most dominant team in the league. Even if you had to wait until 2011, it's some patience I'd be willing to exhibit.

Besides, how can you argue that the Knicks as you posted aren't better than the Cavs were before Jamison? The Cavs had nobody even close to as good as Bosh; he's Varajeo squared. Chandler/Gallinari are easily as good as Williams/Gibson and have much MUCH more upside. And there are always guys like Camby around that would come over cheap.

That team would absolutely contend.

the question is do you want the bucks or the rings?

D'angello is not gonna win championships, man can he add stats and excitement

I don't see his brand of ball winning,
but damn it is fun to watch

Some nice trades overall.

Tonight is going to be some good games. Cavs Vs Nuggets and Lakers vs Celtics on TNT. lol

D'antoni?

And I disagree, he could win a title with the right personnel.

James is a perfect fit for his type of game, as is Bosh. Dwight Howard would be a better fit for D'antoni than any player in the league, IMO. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of selfless, athletic, gigantic, superhero-level athletes to be found out there.

The Cavs performance since the trade is showing why the Jamison deal has its problems. Cleveland's defense has been downright terrible lately, and a large part of it is the fact that a Shaq/Jamison frontcourt is terrible on the defensive end. Combine that with an undersized backcourt and it becomes a legitimate question of whether Jamison is really making them a better team. He's taking minutes from Varejao at the 4, who happens to be Cleveland's only quality defender in the frontcourt.

Dallas is the team that won with it's trade.

No Houston won.

\

That remains to be seen. Kevin Martin is still an injury prone 2nd/3rd tier guard that is on a bad contract.

I think losing Z hurt them quite a bit too, but they'll get him back. That's a lot of minutes to lose for a center, especially when your starter is past his prime. They'll get him back, probably--should be interesting to see how that goes.

I think Dallas trade is the one that improved their team the most in relation to what everyone else did.

Caron Butler is better than Howard is and they got Heywood and Stevenson on top of that.

Losing Z hurts, but he only plays 15-20 minutes most games and isn't a great defender. But getting him back will be important because it will let them give more minutes to Varejao at the 4 instead of Hickson.

I don't think there is any doubt, especially with Dampier getting hurt. Haywood has had a huge impact on their defense, Butler is an upgrade over Howard, and even Stevenson has played some good defense.

Martin is an underrated player and they swaped ppicks with the Knicks while not giving up much.