Welcome to Jason M. Williams' NewYorkKnicksNews.com blog! I am an experienced NBA writer for the past 3 years, and have been featured on RealGM.com, COEDMagazine.com, Insidehoops.com, AtomicSportsMedia.com, and BleacherReport.com. I am a huge Knicks fan and would love to get this blog rolling by doing a series of Knicks related storylines from the first half of the 2008-09 season.
When Donnie Walsh took over the Knicks franchise, he made a deal with the fans by telling them that he would do his best to make sure he had enough cap room to lure some of the key free agents to New York in the summer of 2010. He held true to his word immediately, by gutting the team and dealing his two leading scorers (and biggest 2010-11 contracts) in one fell swoop. He unloaded Zach Randolph to the Clippers and Jamal Crawford to the Warriors in exchange for Tim Thomas, Cuttino Mobley, and Al Harrington. We all know Mobley is now retired, but Harrington and Whiny Tim have fit in nicely since coming over to New York.
The key for Walsh to get payroll flexibility was getting rid of these monster contracts and now the team will have roughly $27M with which to attract LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce, Tyson Chandler, or one of the many available top flight talents on the market. While it is no secret that Walsh's number one priority is King James, bringing the game's most dominant force may be easier said than done.
The bottom line is that step one was to get the cap space to make a big splash - and Walsh did that. Now he must work diligently before next week's trade deadline to make a few more moves that strengthen his team for the now and for the future. If he can find a taker for Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries, he can get this squad even further under the cap. Or if he can find some young talent like Anthony Randolph, maybe he can lure an unsuspecting GM into a trade using Malik Rose's $7M expiring contract, or better yet, bring in an Amare Stoudemire type by dangling Stephon Marbury's $21M expring deal.
Let's applaud Donnie for his first move, and see where he takes us from there. Thanks for reading!
Keywords: 2010, Al Harrington, Amare Stoudemire, Anthony Randolph, Chris Bosh, Cleveland Cavaliers, Coed magazine, coedmagazine, Cuttino Mobley, Dirk Nowitzki, Donnie Walsh, Dwyane Wade, Eddy Curry, expiring contract, Golden State Warriors, Jamal Crawford, Jared Jeffries, Jason M. Williams, Joe Johnson, Lebron James, Los Angeles Clippers, Malik Rose, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns, RealGM, Stephon Marbury, summer of 2010, Tim Thomas, Zach Randolph
