Looks like teams are not valuing these upcoming drafts too much.

The Suns may or may not trade Amare Stoudemire, but there may be more of a demand for Portland's Raef LaFrentz and his expiring contract.

"If you asked owners in the league who they'd rather have right now, LaFrentz or Stoudemire, I think more than half of them would prefer LaFrentz," one executive said. "That's how screwed up this thing has been. I guarantee you [Blazers GM] Kevin Pritchard has gotten better offers for LaFrentz than the Suns have gotten for Stoudemire."

Gerald Wallace, Caron Butler and Richard Jefferson are the three players the Blazers are reportedly focusing on the most.

Portland sees Wallace as an ideal fit, but the Bobcats are trying to include Nazr Mohammed.

isiah was ahead of his time!!!

The Isiah approach is definately the way to go now....ironic huh? Man **** us...Knick fans are always on the outside looking in. 2010 my ass.

Posted by arkrud:

Posted by SupremeCommander:

Posted by martin:

wow, they are going to be good very quickly. How the heck did they come to get 5 first round picks over the next 2 drafts?

Their GM is from San Antonio. He helped them out first, by letting SAS use his team as a contractual dumping ground, for future assets. He let other good teams do the same thing. Presti didn't take any contract though, a la Isiah, he took on guys that were expensive, but had value (like Kurt Thomas) and was able to flip those guys to contenders for more in future assets.

That's why some poeple here are pissed at Walsh, because he didn't gain any future assets while he sacrificed some aspect of the future. The cap space is nice, and the team will surely benefit from it... but it isn't an asset.

From what Walsh should make assets... from garbage? How it is possible?
This is not recycling business...

That's what Presti did...

It's a tad bit different because he had cap space. So he let teams dump contracts they didn't want for picks. Then he traded that player to another team for a pick to.

Kurt Thomas is the example that illustrates this. Presti let the Suns dump Thomas on them, for a pick. Then, the Spurs decided they needed a a back up big, so they traded for him and gave up a pick.

It was structured EXACTLY like a recycling business, and all of Presti's deals have a touch of that.

Walsh could definitely do something similar. He could trade Malik Rose for a decent player, I don't know, someone like Antonio Daniels in New Orleans and a pick, because they are deseprate to save money. Next year at the deadline, someone is going to be looking for a player of that calibur, and he would have the option to rent him for a pick.

That's how Presti did it... he made those Jalen Rose type deals, but was smart enough to do it within the proper scale, with the types of players contenders could add to their financial model

LaFrentz is garbage....Knicks have Marbs and Malik....only reason the Knicks can't pull off a deal is cuz the league hates us...

This is just me speculating on nothing, but before the Suns fired Porter I thought the Blazers might offer LaFrentz + Aldrige (or something) for Steve Nash

Now I'm not so sure, but if the Suns can jettison Amare for an expiring and a prospect, maybe they'd consider that.

Like, what if the Knick decided they wanted Amare and got Lee... wouldn't a Lee + Aldridge front court be okay? There are a lot of point guard prospects in this year's draft too

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3913301

The New Orleans Hornets and Oklahoma City Thunder have completed a deal that sends center Tyson Chandler to the Thunder, according to NBA front-office sources.

Tyson Chandler

Chandler

Sources with knowledge of the trade parameters told ESPN.com that the deal was approved by the league office Tuesday afternoon, with the Hornets receiving forwards Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox in exchange for their best interior defender.

The deal has yet to be announced by the teams, but sources say that the Hornets will also receive the draft rights to Devon Hardin, who was selected No. 50 overall by the Thunder in the 2008 draft.

The Hornets play Tuesday night against the Thunder in Oklahoma City but the players involved in the trade are not expected to participate in the game.

ESPN.com reported early Monday that the Hornets -- who have been looking to move Chandler mostly for financial reasons -- were in talks with the Thunder on a trade that would net the expiring contracts of Smith and Wilcox. Thunder general manager Sam Presti is a long-time admirer of Chandler dating to his time with the San Antonio Spurs.

The Thunder also possess numerous draft picks to sweeten trade packages -- including five first-round picks in the next two drafts -- but Presti was able to land an accomplished center to complement his promising young trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green without surrendering any major draft considerations.

With a payroll at nearly $67 million this season and scheduled to reach almost $77 million next season, New Orleans felt it had to part with Chandler before Thursday's 3 p.m. trading deadline regardless, even though dealing away the 26-year-old almost certainly takes the Hornets out of serious playoff contention in the West.

The Hornets were widely projected as a dark-horse title contender entering the season but hit the All-Star break as the No. 6 team in the West at 30-20 after a variety of injuries and struggles to cope with raised expectations. Chandler has been bothered all season by foot troubles and is averaging just 8.8 points and 8.3 rebounds, compared to 11.8 points and 11.7 rebounds last season.

With the Hornets unable to generate trade interest in Peja Stojakovic and unwilling to part with either Chris Paul or David West, New Orleans elected to take this deal to erase Chandler's $12.3 million salary next season from its payroll. Chandler has the right to become a free agent after the 2009-10 season in the unlikely event that he chooses to walk away from his $13.2 million salary in 2010-11.

At the Hornets' Tuesday morning shootaround in Oklahoma City, West told the New Orleans Times Picayune that he was hoping his team would resist the trade interest in Chandler.

"I don't know if that's somebody we can afford to lose,'' West told the newspaper. "So I'm not sold on that idea. You just don't find a 7-foot-1 athlete like that and he's the only 7-footer we have. Especially if we're planning on making a run into the playoffs, we're going to need size to compete with Portland, San Antonio and the Lakers. I'm not sure that would help us.''

Wow... watch the Hornets move to Seattle

Posted by King1:

If I were Walsh I would trade Nate and Malik for Brad Miller

salaries don't match. Miller, Salmons for Nate, JJ, Malik fits