If you consider a four way trade "reasonable", how about this? Pacers trade Murphy (to Cavs), S.Jones (to Rockets), Ford and Diener (to Knicks) Pacers get Eddy Curry, Chris Duhon, Jordan Hill, Tony Douglas * For 2009, the Pacers trade away $22.8M take back $20M salary. So that's a win. * For 2010, the Pacers take on $15M in 2010 salary but trade away $20.5M. So that's a big win, and they get two guys on rookie deals (Hill and Douglas). Dropping their salary by about $5M next year should get them under the upcoming smaller luxury tax threshold. Cavs trade Ilgauskas (to Rockets) Cavs get Murphy * This is financially pretty much a wash for the Cavs this year, but obviously Murphy costs them about $11M next year. The whole deal is pretty much predicated on them really being willing to make this sort of trade. Rockets trade McGrady (to Knicks) Rockets get Ilgauskas, Darko, S. Jones * This shaves $2M off the Rockets cap figure for this year, just enough, I believe, to get them under the luxury tax. So it also saves them another $2M or so in tax payments to the league and lost escrow revenue. So it's kind of a big boon to them. Plus it's a useful return for their big man depleted team. Knicks trade Curry, Duhon, Hill and Douglas (to Pacers), Darko (to Rockets) Knicks get McGrady, Ford, Diener * For this year, the Knicks would be taking on about $6M in extra salary, which will cost them out the nose. * However, for next year, subtracting Curry, Hill and Douglass and adding Ford gives them something on the order of $6M extra cap space next year, which they supposedly desperately want. * So this trade accomplishes two things for the Knicks. It gets them a flashy but expensive player this year, and additional cap relief next year. So looking at it from every side, I can see the logic behind it. I think Cleveland is the iffiest, since I don't know at all how legit their interest in Murphy is. The other teams should be on it like white on rice.
As long as cap is coming off, I'm sure Walsh will be with it. But that is quite a lot of movement and will probably disrupt our chemistry. I just wonder why anyone would take Curry.
Um, quick question. How in the world did Eddy Curry get that contract??? Did everybody know it was a terrible deal to begin with, or is this a hindsight thing? My memory is kinda fuzzy... I remember Curry's heart problems in Chicago, him getting traded for Tyrus Thomas, him hitting a game winning 3 as a Knick, and him getting more fat. Where did that contract come into play?
Curry was the Bulls leading scorer, and a capable post scorer which is highly valued. He went on to put up 19.5 PPG for the Knicks his second season there. The Bulls drafted LeMarcus Aldridge with the pick and traded him for Thomas.
Trading for Curry in itself wasn't bad. Trading two first rounders (unprotected) when you're a lottery team and two second rounders for him was absolutely terrible. What made it worse was the fact that Curry had heart problems, so the ball was in our court. We could have offered something much lower for Curry. Curry played well his second season with us, but after the trade for Randolph it all went down hill from there. Last season he also had a lot of personal issues (injuries, daughter killed, etc.) I thought Isiah had some good ideas; he just did a terrible job executing them.
