Trade Deadline Ends With Knicks On Top

I recently wrote this piece for RealGM.com and it has a thorough comedic breakdown of my thoughts on the Knicks deals at the deadline. 

http://realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/746/20090220/a_trade

I thought they were great.  They got rid of 4 players that meant nothing and picked up two guys who can immediately step in and compete for a starting spot.  We are now about 10 deep and extremely talented.  The best part is that we finally have roster flexibility and have two open roster spots.  We can use these spots to grab the best talents of the NBDL. While many of you Knicks fans would love to see Patrick Ewing Jr., I'm not convinced that his skill set will help us much.  If anything, we need a back up point guard (see: Blake Ahearn or Jason Williams) and a shotblocking big man.  If we can add these, we'd be a force heading into the last 28 games of the season and, hopefully, the postseason.

Here is an excerpt from my piece on RealGM:

"2) New York Knicks acquire forward Chris Wilcox from the Oklahoma City Thunder for forward Malik Rose and cash considerations.

Any human being that has ever watched a game involving Malik Rose knows that the Knicks won this deal in an absolute landslide, to the point of comic proportions. The Knicks somehow turned one of the league’s absolute definitions of overpaid wasted roster spot into a 26-year old power forward who is a beast on the block with toughness in the paint. I am having difficulty containing myself here because I am convinced the Sam Presti was severely intoxicated after his doctor refused to ‘okay’ the Tyson Chandler trade, and instead made this exchange with the Knicks as a move to spite the Thunder franchise for crushing his dream core. More on the Knicks in a bit.

3) New York Knicks acquire guard Larry Hughes from the Chicago Bulls for forward Tim Thomas, center Jerome James, and guard Anthony Roberson.

When reading the sentence that defines the terms of this trade, one cannot help but take a double-take and re-read. Did the Knicks just really pull this off? What are the Bulls thinking? Now that we have the terms of the Knicks and Bulls deal, let’s evaluate how they each did overall.

When taking a step back and looking at the deals of the day, not only was Donnie “God” Walsh able to get rid of Malik “Absolutely bad at basketball” Rose along with Jerome “Thank You Isiah” James, but he also brought home Chris “The Knicks wouldn’t have made only one playoff appearance in the past decade if they would have picked me instead of packaging Nene with Mark Jackson and a then-26 year old Marcus Camby for one month of preseason Antonio McDyess and a now-bagging groceries Frank Williams” Wilcox to go along with Larry “I was created for Mike D’Antoni” Hughes.

Wilcox and Hughes both fit the system perfectly. Hughes gets teary-eyed when he doesn’t get to shoot and play big minutes. Since the Knicks only have two real guards in Chris Duhon and Nate Robinson, he will get plenty of time on the floor and D’Antoni loves it when his players shoot. Loves it. While Wilcox doesn’t have a strong jump shot, big deal. His big tough body in the paint is just what the team is missing and his transition game and ability to finish at the rim will go perfectly on the pick-and-roll with Duhon.

What’s funny is that if you ask any Knicks fan who they hate the most on the roster (besides Marbury), all of them will say Jerome James, Malik Rose, and probably now Eddy Curry. All of them have made piles of money and, besides a year or two of Curry, done absolutely nothing during their time in New York. All of them are fat slobs who have constantly infuriated a knowledgeable fan base. But what’s weird is the fact that James and Rose both possess the surnames of the two most sought after names that Knick fans crave – LeBron James and Derrick Rose. How weird is that?

All in all, Walsh was able to get rid of two hated slobs, their worst rotation player in ‘Whiny Tim,’ and a guard who shouldn’t even be in the league for two guys who can come in, fit D’Antoni’s system perfectly, and eventually be starting for the Knicks in this year’s postseason. And, they did all of this without adding salary to the Summer of 2010, and they opened up two roster spots to add NBDLers like Patrick Ewing Jr. or Blake Ahearn, waiver wire cuts like Quincy Douby, or maybe even the potential return of Jason Williams to the NBA."