I am not sure that is such a good strategy- there are a lot of teams with players entering the last year of their contract:

Portland Trail Blazers Damon Stoudamire $15,750,000
Dallas Mavericks Antoine Walker $14,625,000
Minnesota Timberwolves Latrell Sprewell $14,625,000
Seattle SuperSonics Ray Allen $14,625,000
Portland Trail Blazers Shareef Abdur-Rahim $14,625,000
Cleveland Cavaliers Zydrunas Illgauskas $14,625,000
Philadelphia 76ers Glenn Robinson $12,000,000
Portland Trail Blazers Theo Ratliff $10,937,500
New Jersey Nets Kerry Kittles $9,816,666
Portland Trail Blazers Dale Davis $9,000,000
Atlanta Hawks Alan Henderson $8,273,125

Sure- some of these teams will be sellers, not buyers- and plenty of these players are going to get contract extensions.

but, Portland's got plenty of ammo to reload.

Who is going to dump salary at mid year?

Lets take a quick look at the bloated payrolls for up to six years out on existing deals:

New York Knicks $298,319,444
Philadelphia 76ers $264,107,169
Dallas Mavericks $261,881,343
Sacramento Kings $241,088,636
Indiana Pacers $240,436,493
Minnesota Timberwolves $200,936,419
Boston Celtics $186,826,551
Toronto Raptors $185,047,011
San Antonio Spurs $172,404,516
Orlando Magic $151,789,848


Our beloved Knicks top payroll committments- and we're buyers?

Orlando's # changes with Grant Hill probably soon- most of the rest of these teams are good- with the exception of Boston, Toronto, and the 76ers.

So- sellers are probably going to be Boston, Toronto and the 76ers.

Who are they going to look to get rid of that we might want?

Raef LaFrentz and Pierce make the big bucks on Boston, with Ricky Davis not far behind.

AI, Aaron McKie, Eric Snow and Kenny Thomas are the big salaries on the 76ers

Jalen Rose and Vince Carter next up on that list for Toronto?

My point is that at the trading deadline this season, there might not be a lot of opportunity and you should go out and look to make your deals now.

that's a good point, i haven't though about it.

wait until the trade deadline to move our expiring deals?

Try to trade them now, but if you don't get a good offer, wait until later

They'd have to at least sign-and-trade them.

From the Knicks standpoint, you can't give up all those expiring contracts and then not retain the player you get. You'd be left with several roster spots open, still over the cap greatly, and not really have any choice but to load up on guys making the league minimmum.