One nice thing about Shandon is that he was concidered the best defensive player on the Rockets. Takes a little pressure off of Spree always having to defend the best 2 or 3 on the opposition all the time.

As far as sacrificing our cap space in 2005. Before this off-season I would have been really against this trade for that very reason. I think part of the reason why Rice will go to Houston is that he will come off their cap when McDyess, Duncun and others are free agents. However, free agent movement amoungst the big name free agents was non existent, and teams with cap space really did not benefit. (Seattle, Detroit, Houston)

I welcome this trade.

One thing I like about this trade is if it does go down, we'll actually have some pieces on our roster to make more trades in the future instead of tons of overpaid, injured, old players. Oh, I forgot, the role players will still be overpaid. My mistake. But at least they will be tradeable. Hmm.

Okay, after debating this Ward+Rice trade for Shannon+Howie+Foyle, I'd say, "Let's do it"

Only if we get picks and cash.

Picks and cash?

What, do you own Cablevision stock?

Fine, just picks...

i think wut people are forgetting is that by 2005 were not gonna have much cap to work with since 100 million dollar man, allan houston, will be paid nearly 20 mil that year.

whoa I went a little too deep into the future *2005

Caseloads,
I was up on this thing last night (I'm on the West Coast), so I didn't get to read your posts until today. Can I offer you some reasons why we did this (or want to do this):

1) Ward has bad knees a bad contract and is getting up there in age.
2) Rice has a bad heel, a bad contract and is getting up there in age.
3) Foyle is a great defender and is a legit center. Zo is 6'10" also, but is a legit center. I'm not saying he is Zo, I'm just saying he's built like a center. We're just spoiled in the NBA because of Shaq, Mutumbo and other 7ftrs. But that doesn't mean a 6'10" guy can't play center. They can.
4) Eisley is younger and better than Ward.
5) Anderson is a better role player than Rice would be. Rice could not adjust to coming off the bench.
6) In a sense we trade 2 guys for 3 role players.

Now I know you're upset that we may overpay for Eisley and Anderson, but they won't have $9 million contracts like Rice. Eisley, Anderson, and Foyle will all have reasonable contracts in comparison to Rice and Ward. So Layden actually will help us in that area.

As far as Cap space to sign free agents is concerned. The NBA system has made it almost impossible for big market/big money teams like the Knicks to just spend on available free-agents. We will only be able to get marquee guys through sign and trades. So I'm one of those guys who says "f---" the cap. As long as we can compete and have good players than the cap doesn't matter. Same goes with the luxury tax. Those are things that Dolan has to worry about.

Now, with this new roster our 11th man is Othella! And as far as I'm concerned if Othella can't even crack the 2nd team, then we've got a talented roster. Because of the talent, though, Van Gundy will be forced to play 9 maybe even 10 deep. And to me, that's a good thing.

If this trade goes down we will like it. I'm sure we will.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I think maybe we *needed* to move some talent on our team, so we didn't have so many huge ego's demanding the ball.

Definately agree. A team needs a couple of stars (Spree, Houston, maybe Camby) and then good role players to fill out the team. LA had Derrick Fisher, Fox, Horry. Even though the salaries will stay the same, we won't have that big chunck locked into 1 person, giving us at least a little more flexability.

I'm not crazy about the deal and here is why:

1. We still r structurally flawed. Spree at the 3; where he doens't like to play.

2. Rice has a year under his belt and will improve in the new zone defense.

3. I'm not crazy about Anderson or Eisley even though he's better than Ward (I'd prefer Strickland).

4. Were paying a lot for a long time for bench players which will hurt us w/ the cap.

5. We then traded Ewing n Ward for these guys.

6. I'd like to trade Houston for a big man; Odom trade sounds great even though LA won't do it


If the trade happened I wouldn't bitch n moan b/c there are some positives that you guys have already mentioned, but I'm not estatic about it.