Walsh, Knicks Making Moves

With less than two hours before the free agent deadline passed, New York Knicks' GM Donnie Walsh made the move he had to to prepare for the 2010 off season. Walsh, in a 3-team deal, unloaded the 6.9 million dollar expiring contract of Jarred Jeffries, rookie Jordan Hill and veteran Larry Hughes and received Tracy McGrady and Spanish guard Sergio Rodriguez. The Rockets acquire sharp shooter Kevin Martin, Hill, Jeffries and Carl Landry. The whole deal looks like this.

Knicks Get:

Tracy McGrady

Sergio Rodriguez

Rockets Get:

Kevin Martin

Hilton Armstrong

Jarred Jeffries

Jordan Hill

option on 2011/2012 Knicks' 1st rd pick

Kings Get:

Carl Landry

Joey Dorsey

Larry Hughes

McGrady comes to MSG with an expiring contract valued over 22 million dollars. This means that after this season, that money will be available to help the Knicks lure not one super star, but potentially two. It would have been unlikely that a LeBron James or Dwayne Wade or Chris Bosh joins the current Knick roster as it is. However, the possibility of pairing two of them together with David Lee, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler is a much more attractive team. Nothing is definite, all of the aforementioned players may stay on their current teams, but at least now Walsh has put his team in position to get the most out of the summer of 2010. Have to like the work Walsh did to make this happen, not a lot of people expected him to be able to work out a deal that moved Jeffries or Ed Curry.

On Wednesday, the Knicks traded Darko Milicic to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Brian Cardinal. Another move looking toward the future, I don't expect Cardinal to do much more than open up some more money this summer.

It also looks like Nate Robinson will be shipped to the Boston Celtics for Eddie House and a player to be named. This is a sacrifice of talent for New York, but it rids the team of a player with too much ego and not enough production. Yes, he can light up the scoreboard and the fans love him. However, he is often a headache for Coach D'Antoni and can't play any defense. Moving him is more of an identity change for the team, than a move to improve. He wasn't going to be on the team next year and House likely won't be either. However, House is a more consistent 3-point threat and this team lives and dies outside the perimeter. This move isn't finalized, but Robinson didn't dress yesterday against the Chicago Bulls and his locker was shown completely cleared out.