With the crisis obviously "Who can play C for the Knicks?", why doesn't Isiah throw the Magic a phone call and see what he can do.

They have two guys who are 6'11", both are a little overpriced and have 2 years left on their contract. Kelvin Cato and Tony Battie.

Cato's #'s in 03-04: 6 points, 7 rebounds, 1.4 blocks/game in 25 minutes
Battie's #'s in 03-04: 6 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block in 20 minutes per game.

Let's go after Cato, he's more expensive. Would Mohammed and cash get Cato? Mohammed's younger, but doesn't block shots as well.

I would look into this if I were Isiah, the Knicks need a shot blocker.

Overpriced? Battie and Nazr make the same dollars. And at $8M per, Cato is about where he should be.

http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries/orlando.htm

You don't give big men away, and with Dwight, Battie and Cato, that's a nice core for the C/PF positions.

Battie is a rugged big man with experience, he'll be kept around to tutor Dwight.

He should call the Magic and Nuggets. Has anyone got info on Nene and why he is not playing. Is he hurt or is he on the trading blocks. Another player from the Nuggets the Knicks should look into is Francisco Elson. I heard he was contemplating to play in Europe.

Posted by crzymdups:

Also, someone said this in another forum, but what are the rules surrounding our draft pick to Phoenix this year? Is there anyway we get to automatically keep it, or is it completely up to Phoenix?

As of my understanding, Phoenix cannot pick this year to use the draft pick because we traded last year's away.

We can draft and then trade, but I don't think that would count as the future first rounder Phoenix got from us.

We need to draft WISELY.

After Isiah's first draft with only a late 2nd rounder hows your confidence?

Mine's pretty good.

other teams arent going to take extra salary or worse players.

right now I think we have to say

Nazr is playing 30+ minutes at C Sweetney is playing 35+ minutes at PF and KT is the main backup with Baker taking up any other minutes.

I dont think we have necessary trade material and what team is going to give us a big? We have to let Nazr go at C unless he really flops on his face and I dont think he will. There should be no more talk about PF--Sweetney should start and play bulk minutes. There is no doubt that we need 2 athletic 6-10+ guys in the next 2 years as we get rid of everyone except Sweetney.

We have other needs, but getting 2 bigs are the most important.

if i'm the Magic, i hold onto both of them & try to make a run at the playoffs this year...why give either 1 of them up to get back Nazr & cash? unless they're in a situation where they desperately need to unload salary in order to re-sign 1 of their pending FA's, i don't see the point.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Would they do Kurt Thomas and Vin Baker for Cato? I'd prefer a PF/C rotation of Sweetney, Cato, and Nazy over what we have now. They would get the best player in the deal (Kurt). If you think we're giving up too much, you could try just Kurt and salary filler (maybe Sundov and Brewer) for Cato. Or maybe Kurt Thomas for Battie and DeClerq (expiring contract). I'm not sure I'd do that latter one, though.

[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 10/22/2004 15:25:58]

Once again they don't need KT and you are undervaluing Cato. A legit center is very difficult to find in the NBA. As of now even Cato has a heavy price tag. I think the Magic like having two center in Battie and Cato. Rather than having two PFs Howard and KT. In the south division they are going to need two centers to do battle with the heat.

i'd do a nazr or kt for cato. not much else if they want more, due to the fact that cato isn't that much of an offensive threat. he gets most of his points off alley-oops and put backs. now, he does clog the middle because of his leaping and shotblocking. also, i know we'd be giving up scoring in kt, but getting back some MUCH needed defense, height, and athletisism.