Al a Hawk, sJax a Pacer, Craw a Knick?

Be careful what you wish for that is a saying Al Harrington is
learning. He wanted to be a starter, made that clear to Larry.

Larry gave Al his chance to start, WITH THE HAWKS. Ouch!

So in that Pacers/Hawks deal sJax gets to laugh at the Spurs who
thought he wasn't going to be on a winning team & get his money.

Who's the guy in the corner crying into his beer, oh thats just me.

The guy dancing a jig on the opposite end is Pax the Bulls GM, he
knows NY (at this point) will sell their soul to close the Craw deal.

I like Craw, but taking Erob/JYD bad contracts to get him, damn!
Why is NY in such a predicament? Shandon & Allan knows... :-(

"G. Smitts" <02434GS.RemoveThis@asqeuica.com> wrote in message news:<

> Who's the guy in the corner crying into his beer, oh thats just me.
>
> The guy dancing a jig on the opposite end is Pax the Bulls GM, he
> knows NY (at this point) will sell their soul to close the Craw deal.
>
> I like Craw, but taking Erob/JYD bad contracts to get him, damn!
> Why is NY in such a predicament? Shandon & Allan knows... :-(

Don't cry, dry your eye. When you boil this nine-player trade down,
what you basically have is a trade of Jamal Crawford for Frank
Williams and the expiring contracts of Othella Harrington and maybe
Dikembe Mutumbo. It's not great, but it's not terrible.

Losing Shandon and Moochie's horrible deals in exchange for gaining
E-Rob and JYD's horrible deals basically just cancel each other out.
They're all a bunch of basically useless pieces, functional
underachieving players that have repeatedly proven that they won't
make any substantial difference for either team on either end. Their
contracts (I think) all expire around the same time, so it's basically
six in one, half-dozen the other. Maybe they can buy JYD out.

So the Knicks get Craw instead of Frank Williams. Under the current
team design, Craw is a better fit than Frank Williams as a reserve,
being that Williams, who can only play the 1, can only get so many
minutes behind Marbury (at most 10 a game) but Allan, at his age and
questionable health, needs a strong backup the Knicks didn't have.
That gives Craw more minutes at the 2 and also some minutes at the 1,
sort of like Bobby Jackson on the Kings. A great burst off the bench.

The bigger problem isn't E-Rob or JYD's contracts...it's Craw's. NY
is going to have to pay him $10 million a year for the next seven
years. That's right, Craw will take up 25% of the salary cap until
*2011*. Not that anyone thought the Knicks were ever going to rebuild
anyway, but this effectively kills whatever hope any of us might have
had for 2008, when Houston's contract eventually comes off the books.
When you see how masterfully, efficiently, and quickly teams like
Denver and Indiana rebuilt, it tends to make one wonder "what if".
OTOH you can look at how a team like the Bulls has rebuilt and it is
clear that this path isn't guaranteed either.

The main loss in this exchange for the Knicks (other than the
continued and repeated Knick quashing of the future) is the trade bait
of Harrington's and Mutumbo's contracts if those get thrown in to this
deal too. Those could have been traded for other quality bench
players from teams seeking cap relief.

The Knicks will continue to be mediocre, but this makes them slightly
better for now. Hey, it's not my money.