TMS wrote:

Cosmic wrote:Why has Sacramento given up on Kevin Martin? Seems kind of strange right?

because he's always injured, he doesn't mesh well w/Tyreke, & he's owned a huge contract

It's that bad? Wow I thought he was their franchise player. Haven't kept up on them though. Ever since the Knicks went south this year again I haven't paid much attention to other teams.

Meanwhile, this is the only thing I could find, and after reading it, I will sit back and wait for it to unfold - or not unfold. Whichever. EZE at EBS is in good with the Kings so when he gets his ass up today I'll ask him if he knows more. Late last night he seemed confident TMac would be flipped to NY for the same stuff we were going to offer Houston. So maybe it happens anyways for us.

Here's the last ESPN bit I could find.

The Kings will acquire Tracy McGrady along with with Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey from Houston for Kevin Martin, Kenny Thomas, Hilton Armstrong and Sergio Rodriguez.

A source involved in the discussions said early Thursday morning that there was still a "decent" chance that the Kings would re-route McGrady to New York for a similar package as what has been discussed by Houston and the Knicks.

"I think it will happen," said a source that spoke with ESPN's Marc Stein when asked about the McGrady to New York scenario.

Rodriguez would likely go to the Knicks as well and Sacramento would receive Jared Jeffries, Larry Hughes along with some sort of package that includes draft picks and/or Jordan Hill.

TMS wrote:i'm getting the feeling Donnie's gonna end up giving the same package pretty much to whatever team he deals with to dump Fishlips' contract... when it's being widely reported that we're already willing to give up at least 2 if not 3 young assets to dump his contract i can't imagine any other GM accepting any less.

Just reading this morning's Post article (http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/report_knicks_would_get_mcgrady_zIjbOLMLkFZQgkLwwKRI5L) -- it looks like Donnie's insistence on the 1st rounders being top-6 protected is holding this up with Houston. I mean can you imagine that? We're not even talking top-10 protection..It's top-6... Gimme a friggin' break man - he's gotta have some protection built into the damn picks...Houston must really think we're still gonna suck balls next year and in 2012. That's crazy -- think about it, as bad as we are right this second, we're not even a top-6 lottery team. If I'm this guy Morey, I wouldn't let that hang up this deal -- all indications are the Knicks won't be a top-6 lottery team the next two years, not with what they plan to do with their cap space which has always been highly publicized. And that's even if the Knicks wind up settling for 2nd and 3rd choices in free agency (say we don't get LeBron and Wade but wind up getting Bosh and Joe Johnson)..And furthermore, if I'm a Rockets fan, I'd be a little pissed off right now. I'd rather take the Knicks offer than Kevin Martin. Think about it - does adding Martin really put them into the elite status in the West and give them a chance to knock off the Lakers? No it doesn't. Minus Carl Landry now too, who's become an excellent player for them.. They deal with us, they get a superior young package and they get to keep Landry. Good luck trying to fill a very productive reserve big spot with Hilton Armstrong. Armstrong's been nothing but a bust since joining the NBA...And how does Martin mesh with Aaron Brooks? On paper, not too well I think - Houston already has an all-star type backcourt guy who needs to get his every night. I'd argue that Martin could very well disrupt their team chemistry..I think the Knicks package is much better for them even with this top-6 protection for the picks, which really ain't that big a deal...Hopefully now Sacramento takes whatever Donnie was willing to offer w/o complaining. It'd be a very good trade for Sacramento -- they could have a chance to bring in 2 or 3 young assets here (Jordan Hill, the right to swap 2011 1st rounders and our 2012 1st) for basically Kevin Martin, a player making too much money that doesn't even fit in there anymore anyway. And for us, we'd be getting Sergio Rodriguez to boot which would be a pleasant surprise. Sergio's no all-star but he's a very creative & exciting playmaker that's cheap and only 23-24 years old. An instant upgrade over Chris Duhon and someone we might want to consider bringing back on the cheap..Sounds like Houston ain't playing too fair here. Good. F 'em. I'm kinda glad Sacramento got involved. They might turn out to be the easier team to satisfy.

AnubisADL wrote:

Juice wrote:Don is sleeping on this one. He'll wake up and read the story tomorrow no biggie.

LITERALLY.

I should be sleeping but got a text about this trade. WOW.

Oh well guess we do ANOTHER deal with Chicago for the billionth time.

I'm thinking that the last good thing from Chicago was Oakley. Trading with Chicago should be avoided at all costs!

Finestrg wrote:

TMS wrote:i'm getting the feeling Donnie's gonna end up giving the same package pretty much to whatever team he deals with to dump Fishlips' contract... when it's being widely reported that we're already willing to give up at least 2 if not 3 young assets to dump his contract i can't imagine any other GM accepting any less.

Just reading this morning's Post article (http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/report_knicks_would_get_mcgrady_zIjbOLMLkFZQgkLwwKRI5L) -- it looks like Donnie's insistence on the 1st rounders being top-6 protected is holding this up with Houston. I mean can you imagine that? We're not even talking top-10 protection..It's top-6... Gimme a friggin' break man - he's gotta have some protection built into the damn picks...Houston must really think we're still gonna suck balls next year and in 2012. That's crazy -- think about it, as bad as we are right this second, we're not even a top-6 lottery team. If I'm this guy Morey, I wouldn't let that hang up this deal -- all indications are the Knicks won't be a top-6 lottery team the next two years, not with what they plan to do with their cap space which has always been highly publicized. And that's even if the Knicks wind up settling for 2nd and 3rd choices in free agency (say we don't get LeBron and Wade but wind up getting Bosh and Joe Johnson)..And furthermore, if I'm a Rockets fan, I'd be a little pissed off right now. I'd rather take the Knicks offer than Kevin Martin. Think about it - does adding Martin really put them into the elite status in the West and give them a chance to knock off the Lakers? No it doesn't. Minus Carl Landry now too, who's become an excellent player for them.. They deal with us, they get a superior young package and they get to keep Landry. Good luck trying to fill a very productive reserve big spot with Hilton Armstrong. Armstrong's been nothing but a bust since joining the NBA...And how does Martin mesh with Aaron Brooks? On paper, not too well I think - Houston already has an all-star type backcourt guy who needs to get his every night. I'd argue that Martin could very well disrupt their team chemistry..I think the Knicks package is much better for them even with this top-6 protection for the picks, which really ain't that big a deal...Hopefully now Sacramento takes whatever Donnie was willing to offer w/o complaining. It'd be a very good trade for Sacramento -- they could have a chance to bring in 2 or 3 young assets here (Jordan Hill, the right to swap 2011 1st rounders and our 2012 1st) for basically Kevin Martin, a player making too much money that doesn't even fit in there anymore anyway. And for us, we'd be getting Sergio Rodriguez to boot which would be a pleasant surprise. Sergio's no all-star but he's a very creative & exciting playmaker that's cheap and only 23-24 years old. An instant upgrade over Chris Duhon and someone we might want to consider bringing back on the cheap..Sounds like Houston ain't playing too fair here. Good. F 'em. I'm kinda glad Sacramento got involved. They might turn out to be the easier team to satisfy.

The fact that the protection thing is such an issue on both sides makes it seem like neither GM thinks Lebron to NY is such a sure thing. That being said no matter how good you are top 10 protection on your pick make sense. INjuries are completely random and can happen at any time.

Markji wrote:I think Sac got the better of the deal. They dumped Martin who has 3 years left after this year (a good player who is always injured at at odds with their young star guard-Tyreke) and got back Landry (a very good player who plays hard, is healthy and is a good fit with Tyreke). Sac also has the rights to McGrady, who they can now dump on us and get a #8 drafted rookie and a pick.

Yep, Sac made a good move. I like how Walsh is standing firm. Sac probably does not want McGrady, so if they can get Hill and a 1st round pick for him, they would be happy. Walsh should be able to do a better deal than what Houston wanted. Honestly, Jeffries, Hill and a 2012 (Top-10 protected) pick is more than enough for McGrady. In fact, now that they have Landry, they probably don't want Hill. We probably could do the trade for Jeffries, our 1st round pick in 2012 (top-10 protected), and a pick swap next year if we are worse. In this deal, we would keep Hill.

iSergio wrote:

Markji wrote:

iSergio wrote:I just can't wait until 3pm - this ish is so damn stressful. ......... Same with the 2012 pick. If we are in a position to be a losing lottery team two years after we signed 2 MAX FA's, something went terribly wrong. So that is very unlikely.

Isiah thinking and look what happened. We signed "the best point guard" Marbury and a great young dominating Center (Eddie Curry) and gave up loads of draft picks, mostly unprotected whaich turned into 3 lottery picks including a #2 pick....Joakin Noah(#7), LaMarcus Aldridge (#2), and this year our lottery pick ( around #9) all for players who became albatrosses with their large contracts.

No one really knows what the future will bring so you have to have some insurance and protection.

It's a risk, I agree. But we're not signing Stephon Marbury or trading for Eddy Curry. Both of them had huge question marks when we acquired them. Marbury was known as a locker room cancer and Curry was known as a heartless and injury prone. Both were proven to be correct. Isiah Thomas did not go after the correct players to build a team. This time around, we're going after proven Stars like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. It's not the same.

And how confident are you that we'll be able to sign those stars? Walsh's strategy might have more of an assumed risk than Zeke's. You have to protect yourself and have a back of plan. This is a gamble, just like Isiah's strategy was a gamble. You're fooling yourself if you try to claim otherwise.