Yesterday, CBS’ Ken Berger had the latest on the ‘Melo situation:
The Knicks would send three starters — Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, and Raymond Felton — to Denver for Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williamsand Anthony Carter, sources said Sunday. The Nuggets would get the Knicks’ first-round pick in 2014, while Minnesota would get Eddy Curry‘s expiring contract and Anthony Randolph from New York. Curry would then be waived, and the Knicks would send as much as $3 million to Minnesota to pay his freight. The Wolves also would send Corey Brewer to Denver in the proposed deal. Carter must approve the trade and waive his Bird rights for the trade to be approved.
Four points of discussion for this fine, snowy Monday:
1. There have been many Anthony Randolph trade scenarios thrown out there this season, all loosely pointing to this. Some reports like the above have the Wolves trading Brewer, some say a first rounder, and some say both. Either way, for the Wolves to not get Randolph would be surprising. We can all but guarantee the addition of another long, athletic big left-handed big man from New York in some capacity. Regardless of what happens, whether we give up a first round pick, Brewer or both:
2. This is another example of Kahn’s continued demonstrated incompetence and a very questionable use of resources. Consider the perceived value and opportunity costs given up by the Wolves: 1) Worst case scenario: Brewer, a starting player on our team, a first round pick, or both. Decent value as it is and certainly more than enough value for an 11th man on a Knicks team, However, 2) We are renting all of our cap space in favor of a potentially better deal until the offseason, a time when our cap room will be in the $6-$7 million range, potentially less with the Randolph addition. All of this so New York can: 3. Move an albatross deal that will free up enough cash so they can acquire Carmelo Anthony and 2 former Wolves point guards, one of which was a NBA Finals MVP, thus solidifyng their future and essentially making Donnie Walsh’s Knicks rebuild a staunch success. If this doesn’t get any Wolves fans left on team-Kahn to fold, then I will start to rudely question sanity. Here is what Kahn is saying if this goes down:
“Donnie, yes. We will forgo our trade deadline plan. We will allow you to use all of our cap space, which will decrease by about 50-60% this off-season… n’er to return. In addition we will give you a first round pick, our starting shooting guard, or both! Just so you can free up enough money to acquire a top 10 NBA player and a former NBA Finals MVP! All we ask is for you to give us your 11th man in return, who plays a position of relatively little need. Do we have an accord?”
As a very comparable and relevant example of why this is incompetence at the highest of NBA levels, consider:
3. A few years back the 76ers were trying to free up about $4 million so they could get far enough under the cap to sign Elton Brand. In order to do so they they had to shed some salary, so they agreed to a trade with a McHale-led front office in which the Wolves received Nicholas Cage lookalike Calvin Booth (!), Rodney Carney AND a first round pick for a top 55 protected 2nd round pick. AKA: nothing. Just so Philly could free up an arbitrary amount of cash to sign a Tier 2-3 Power Forward. The pick we received, might I add, ended up turning into Martell Webster 2 years later. And of course, Kahn got the credit for it.
This should put things into perspective as to how much the Wolves are getting fleeced in this scenario. I guess we will have to wait and see.
4. Under this scenario, the Al Jefferson trade is now: Big Al and Corey Brewer for a 16-20 range first round pick, Anthony Randolph, Eddy Curry’s Krispy Kreme franchise and Kosta Koufos.
David Kahn: Worse than McHale. Here’s hoping this story changes as the week goes on.
PS: You know those NBA commercials where they show lost footage of stars when they were young, and someone “goes back in time” to tell them they will be an NBA star someday? You know, like the one with Stephen Curry? Well, if some little kid came up to you on Nicollet Mall downtown and told you that David Kahn would use his cap space on a 500 pound Eddy Curry, how would you have reacted?
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