old news but still pertinent in the upcomming draft:

nazr mohammed

for

malik rose, 2005 suns #1, 2006 spurs #1

what we definitely know:
malik rose has 2 more years on his deal at $14 mil total
the 2005 suns pick is #30

again, i think we all know the philosophy behind this deal - getting draft picks. now that we know this year's pick is #30, and next years will probably be in the #25-30 range, was it worth trading a possible sign and trade expiring deal this summer in nazr?

i think we could've EASILY bought a pick in the #31-35 range for $$$ alone. this takes us out of a 3 year committment and a player of the same talent level.

i gave this trade a B- when it happened. now, after seeing the suns pick, the grade is now downgraded to a D+ b/c of the $$$'s we took back, EATING INTO THE CAP the year AFTER H20 expires, and giving up a chip this summer. the only thing that can save this trade now is if duncan misses next season and the spurs are in the lottery (unless it's protected which it probably is)

or if Isiah drafts a steal at 30 which is very likely in this draft more so than last year and last year he drafted ariza 43rd!

if its so easy to 'buy' a pick, why haven't the knicks done it every year? and why don't teams do it all the time?

I think the Nazr for Rose was the equivelent of buying a pick- two late firsts.

could we have gotten more for Nazr?
maybe.

I think Isiah was constrained in some possible deals by the lack of 1st round picks (see Vince Carter) and he wanted to be able to address that.

Was it costly, the deal for two 1st rounders? probably.

But, he will probably be packaging picks with Penny or TT this summer or trading deadline.

why not? we hve enough money to buy half a dozen picks at least!

dj, i disagree man. I think the Nazr trade was one of Isiah's better moves - those 2 #1's are extremely valuable for this franchise, especially at this point in time. Nazr had been maxed out in terms of trade value, perfect timing to ship his well-meaning but limited azz out of town. Malik's a swell guy but lousy player IMO, way overpaid after a good 1999 playoff run. He's worth taking on to gain the 2 #1's, though.

Now in terms of buying #1's, doesn't cash count toward the cap? And aren't you prohibited from using your LLE and MLE allotments for cash? If I'm right, then we can't go around throwing our obscenely unlimited money around to "buy" draft pics, right? Anyone have the answer to this?

Posted by gunsnewing:

I agree about Rose. I rank him last on the PF depth chart. Everything he brings is redundant is is done better by the other 4 PF's

If we were a playoff team we would be thankful for having a backup PF like him. He may not bring different things than the other guys, but thats because you see the difference when he is on a winner. If we become one soon, we will see his true value.

Posted by Knicksfan:

Posted by gunsnewing:

I agree about Rose. I rank him last on the PF depth chart. Everything he brings is redundant is is done better by the other 4 PF's

If we were a playoff team we would be thankful for having a backup PF like him. He may not bring different things than the other guys, but thats because you see the difference when he is on a winner. If we become one soon, we will see his true value.

I agree.