Hone in on Love trade

[washingtonparkjones]

For Love - the T-wolves demand Wiggins, Bennett, T.Thompson and that the Cavs take back JJBarea. This is waaaaaay better for the Cavs than waiting for Love to hit FA and gutting the team to fit him in. Barea isn't even a bad player for them. He would let Kyrie play off ball, which is good b/c they are thin at SG.

T-Wolves then shift T.Thompson over to us for Bargnani (to fill the hole left by Love) and force us to take on Chase Budinger.

T-Wolves take on 22.5 mil and shed 25 mil - lowering their tax, while filling the hole left by Love temporarily and adding a a ton of young talent.

We trade a overloaded position (C) for an idea athletic forward. Buddinger impacts 2015 cap room but not by much and he's a useful skill set we don't have on the roster.

[n8 the gr8]

I guess this won't happen but I do like the idea of trying a trade with Minny now. I would propose Calderon, Smith, Outlaw and Aldrich for Rubio and Pekovic.

The Knicks take on $5 million for the summer of 2015, putting the team at 44 million. If the salary cap doesn't rise at all the Knicks would have 19 million in cap space. For Minnesota they have a ton of young talent and now they'll have a lot of cap space in a few years.

The first ten would be:
Rubio/Prigs
Shumpert/THJ
Melo/Cleananthony
Amare/Bargs
Pekovic/Dalambert
... with Larkin, Acey and Smith getting spot minutes.

I think Pekovic is a very serviceable player and would actually fit really well in the triangle. But Minnesota overpaid him when they were trying to hold onto Love and he's too old for them to rebuild with him. Rubio is going to be pissed when they start losing again. With Calderon and Smith the Wolves get a couple of players that they could swing at the deadline to teams in the west that want a boost, or if Wiggins is effective this season they might even be in the playoff hunt.

I think that roster is actually really well-rounded without any real holes around Melo. It gives the Knicks the ability to sign the best player available with a max contract without trying to save a couple million for a stopgap at a position perceived as a hole.

[nazrmohamed]

Wheres the balance in that lineup. Our entire perimeter wouldn't be able to hit the side of a barn, off the bench we'd have no real firepower and Pekovik is nice yet somehow both he and Rubio couldn't help the Wolves win any games. Rubio woulda been a last system perfect pg. We're moving away from that now.

[n8 the gr8]

I was saying the same thing about Rondo as I'll say about Rubio regarding how he fits on a team that runs the triangle. It's not like his skillset somehow contradicts the triangle concepts. His ability to get steals and push the ball gets the team easy baskets, there's no reason that you can't get easy baskets in transition and run an effective half-court offense. He's a subpar 3 point shooter, but he's not Rondo- teams have to guard him out to the 3 point line and his form is good enough that I believe he can improve.

If you want you could start THJ for more shooting. I'm not really sure how much firepower you want off the bench. Bargs and THJ could get 20 point on any given night if they get the shots and Cleananthony should be proficient.

But really I think having a legitimate starting-caliber player at PG and C would be huge for this team and be good for evaluating what we have long-term. A lot of people here are penciling in Marc Gasol as a max player at in '15 but I'd be interested to see how the team looks next season with an 18 & 9 player at C in Pekovic. He's a pretty good low-post player and with that frontcourt the Knicks aren't going to get out-rebounded by anyone.

But what I like is that this team is almost ready to contend as is, but then you still have money for a max contract, for whatever position needs the most work (maybe Aldridge).