http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/marty_burns/02/23/rebuilding/?cnn=yes

At the time it seemed like a steal for New York -- the NBA equivalent of Dutch settlers purchasing Manhattan from the Indians for a sack of beads. Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway to the Knicks? For Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, two foreign prospects and draft picks? Knicks boss Isiah Thomas couldn't help but smile when he pulled off that blockbuster trade with Phoenix in January 2004, and with good reason. Marbury was an All-Star point guard, born and bred in Coney Island. Hardaway was a four-time former All-Star who had found his niche as a solid veteran reserve. Their playmaking would return the Knicks to the playoffs and bring some much-needed sizzle back to Madison Square Garden.

The Suns, meanwhile, appeared to be hoisting a white flag over the Arizona desert. With a 12-22 record at the time, they were clearing out big contracts for salary-cap relief and a chance to start over again the following summer. "We are taking a step backward in the immediate run," Suns president Bryan Colangelo acknowledged. "But we're certainly looking forward to the future."

Flash ahead one year to Feb. 5 at America West Arena. The Suns are 38-11, the NBA's surprise team. Led by MVP candidate Steve Nash, signed as a free agent with cap room created by the Marbury/Hardaway trade, Phoenix is exciting, talented and putting on nightly clinics in fast-break basketball. And on this night they are crushing the Knicks, who have lost 16 of 18 games to plummet to the nether reaches of the Eastern Conference.

Welcome to the NBA's wild world of rebuilding. It's a place in which teams such as the Suns and Sonics can turn around their fortunes in a single season while deep-pocketed clubs such as the Knicks and Blazers seem mired in mediocrity. But New York and Portland are lucky compared to long-suffering doormats such as the Warriors, Hawks and (until recently) the Bulls.

"Rebuilding is not easy in the NBA," says Bucks GM Larry Harris, who has spent the past two years trying to retool after the "Big Three" days of Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson and Sam Cassell. "There are a lot of ways to do it, through trades, free agency and the draft. [But] spending money doesn't guarantee success. You've got to make the right decisions."

With Thursday's trade deadline looming, many NBA teams once more are confronted with the same difficult choice the Suns faced last year with Marbury. Some teams -- such as the T'wolves, Knicks, and Sixers -- are said to be contemplating a blockbuster move that can push them over the top, or at least to the playoffs this season. Other teams -- such as the Hawks and Warriors -- are each looking to add young players or draft picks to build for the future. But whether teams go for the quick fix or the long-term plan, there are no guarantees. Why is it so hard to rebuild quickly in the NBA? Here are four main reasons:

1. The salary cap/luxury tax
The NBA has a "soft" salary cap, estimated this year at around $44 million per team. Teams over the cap are allowed one "exception" worth the average player salary (around $5 million) to sign free agents, but it's usually not enough to land a marquee player. While NBA clubs are allowed to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, they are subject to a luxury tax if they spend past a certain level (estimated to be around $54 million this season). These teams must pay a dollar-for-dollar penalty above the amount. Few teams are willing to take this kind of financial hit.


2. Sticky trade rules
Basically, teams over the salary cap (which now includes all but a few of the league's 30 clubs) can't make trades with each other unless the total salaries exchanged match up within 15 percent. The Knicks, for example, can't just go out and get Shareef Abdur-Rahim or Antoine Walker. To make a deal for either of these high-salaried veterans, they must get the Blazers or Hawks to take back a player of near-equal salary, such as Allan Houston or Tim Thomas. But rebuilding teams seldom want to take back any big contracts that eat up cap space for years to come.

The Knicks know first-hand the danger of taking on big salaries in an attempt to win now. Ever since the Patrick Ewing trade in '00, they have tried under two different management teams to load up the roster with high-priced players. Even Thomas admits the strategy hasn't worked: "We definitely have to make sure we don't keep repeating the mistakes of the past."

3. No free agent guarantees
Even if a team has salary cap space, there is no guarantee it will be able to land free agents. The Bulls cleared massive room a few years ago, only to have Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Tim Thomas and other top free agents decide they didn't want to be part of then-GM Jerry Krause's post-dynasty rebuilding. The Jazz also have been famously spurned by players in recent years.

NBA rules allowing sign-and-trade transactions also make it harder for teams with cap space to snag their main targets. Once a team realizes it is about to lose a free agent, it often will decide to re-sign him (league rules allow teams to sign their own free agents for more money) and trade him rather than lose him for nothing. The Jazz, for example, thought they had a deal for center Brad Miller two years only to get the rug pulled out from under them when the Pacers decided to match Utah's offer and instead trade him to the Kings.

4. Few impact players in draft
It used to be a team could rebuild quickly through the draft. The top picks were almost all NBA-ready players such as Duncan, and there were maybe a dozen impact players overall in the first round. These days, the draft is full of high school kids, unknown international players or collegians who have played only a season or two. And for every LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony, there is a Darko Milicic or a Nikoloz Tskitishvili.

Moreover, the influx of young players into the draft has created a double whammy for bad teams. While they often have to wait years for their lottery pick straight out of high school to develop, the league's top teams can nab a seasoned college player or take a chance on a foreign prospect. The Bulls, for example, have waited four years for Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry to blossom. During that time, the Spurs have been able to stay on top by surrounding Duncan with hidden gems such as Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Beno Udrih, each of whom was acquired in either the late-first or second round.

It all adds up to make NBA rebuilding a long and sometimes painful process. Even last year's Pistons -- who picked up Rasheed Wallace from the Hawks at the trade deadline en route to the title -- weren't built in a day. President Joe Dumars needed a few years of tinkering to put it all together, and it entailed a key trade (Jerry Stackhouse for Rip Hamilton), a free-agent signing (Chauncey Billups) and a draft pick (Tayshaun Prince).

The Knicks -- like so many NBA teams -- are learning this lesson the hard way. Even with a $100 million payroll, they have yet to find the right combination of pieces to make it work. "In order to have [a championship] team, you've got to have that player -- or those two players," says Heat center Shaquille O'Neal. "They have a player in Marbury, but they don't have anybody else to help him out. And he plays a position that's hard to carry a team, point guard." So what the Knicks really need is a good center? "Exactly," Shaq said. Funny, but Shaq was available last summer. The Knicks just didn't have the combination of young stars and draft picks needed to pry him from the Lakers. Maybe they gave them all away in the Marbury trade. One more reason why it pays to be patient in the NBA's rebuilding game.

nice read but some pretty obvious stuff.