The optimism from rival teams heard this week about the Los Angeles Clippers making 2010 All-Star Chris Kaman available before the Feb. 24 trading deadline -- thanks to the fast-moving rise of Blake Griffin's buddy DeAndre Jordan -- was not debunked Thursday by a source familiar with the Clips' thinking.

But there is a disclaimer: L.A. is saying, at least for now, that it is likely to keep Kaman through the deadline unless moving him results in a clear upgrade at small forward.

An upgrade with a reasonable contract, that is.

That presumably rules out a move for the long-term deals of Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala or Charlotte's Gerald Wallace. Detroit's Tayshaun Prince, with an expiring contract valued at $11.1 million, fits the Clips' parameters better, but the Pistons -- despite their longstanding fondness for the former Central Michigan center -- could well lack the financial flexibility they'd need themselves to take in Kaman (owed $12.2 million in 2011-12) until the sale of the team goes through (as mentioned in Box 3).

One of the other factors that makes things tricky: Kaman has been sidelined for all but 10 games this season by a badly sprained left ankle and the Clips would prefer to see how a Kaman/Jordan/Griffin frontcourt rotation looks at full strength before deciding Kaman is superfluous. The Clips, though, might not get much evaluation time before the deadline arrives, with Kaman bound to attract outside interest whether he's fully healed or not.

What's clear is that Jordan's in-house stock has risen dramatically and that maintaining the financial flexibility to re-sign him, with restricted free agency looming in July and the threat of big offer sheets that they'd have to match, is high on the Clips' to-do list. The fact that Jordan and Griffin got so friendly over the summer -- with the added benefit of lifting Jordan's on-court productivity -- only makes keeping them together more of a priority.

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-110114-16/howard-qa

Obviously the Knicks will wait out the Carmelo situation but I like the potential of the trade. Especially for the 2012 cap space while attaining 2 players we could use.

TLover wrote:A trade that could work out for the Clippers & Knicks is the following:

Curry (Expiring)
Azubuike (Expiring)
Randolph (small forward with a reasonable contract)

for

Kaman (1 year left on contract)
Foye (1 year left on contract)

We get our Center & back-up pg and preserve our capspace for 2012.

Line-up:

Pg: Felton, Foye
Sg: Landry, Douglas
Sf: Gallo, Chandler, Walker
Pf: Amare, Chandler, Williams
C: Kaman, Turiaf

I actually like this scenario. I like Kaman and what he brings to the table, dude plays hard..A few things to consider though: (1) we'd officially take ourselves right outta the Melo sweepstakes and despite it looking bleak, I get the feeling we're still very much in this..The man wants to come play here, that's why nothing has gotten done yet with Jersey; he's stalling by being wish-washy on signing the Jersey extension in order to give Donnie every possible chance. Bottom line is that for the next 5 years (the duration of Amar'e's contract AND his prime playing years) we may never have another opportunity to get STAT a sidekick the quality of a Carmelo Anthony, (2) it would cap us out for next year and although we'd be better than we are now, we probably still wouldn't have a title-contending team yet, so what would be the point? At what cost? A shot at Anthony?? Although if it didn't work out we would be able to regroup after only 1 year (with Amar'e still in his prime) when Kaman and Foye come off the books--a nice silver lining with this hypothetical deal and (3) Kaman hasn't shown himself to be the most durable big guy out there. It's true, the guy is always hurt and I am a little concerned about this ankle injury (he tried coming back from it once already and reaggrevated it and had to shut it down for a 2nd time--it's taking a long time to heal for some reason).

We'd really have some weighing to do -- pros vs cons...If Melo ever went to Jersey before the deadline and that was no longer an option, I might do this.