I understand that the Clippers can afford to keep Brand but they still aren't winning with him. Would there be anything we can offer them to get him on the Knicks? Start with Sweetney...He is a younger version of Brand who may but not likely reach Brand's level. Then include some expiring contracts (but I don't know how attractive this is to the Clippers). Take on some bad contracts and include our 1st round draft pick. Would that even be enough? Would they want Kurt Thomas? Or maybe get a 3rd team involved who would want Kurt and in return they give something more attractive to the Clippers.

If we were to get this trade done, we would have a core of:

Nazy
Brand
Ariza
Crawford
Marbury

That would be a nice, young core. What do you think?

first of all, the Knicks don't have any expiring contracts other than Vin Baker, Sundov & Brewer, & those guys don't make nearly enough to make a trade for Brand feasible...the soonest that a big contract of ours becomes an expiring deal is next year, when TT, Penny, Moochie & Nazr have contracts that will expire after the 2005 season...maybe something can be worked out during the offseason, but not this year.