Knicks roster turnover, Nets arena flip

The New York Knicks gained more salary cap room by acquiring Tracy McGrady in a three team deal earlier today. The Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings were the other two teams involved in the deal.

When Knicks President Donnie Walsh took over the team, he made it a point to open up cap space in order to make a splash in the free agent market after this season. That is when stars such as Lebron James, Joe Johnson, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh become free agents.

Today’s deal will save the Knicks $9.4 million in cap room. The Knicks acquire the veteran McGrady from Houston and guard Sergio Rodriguez from the Kings. The Knicks gave up Jared Jeffries, Larry Hughes, rookie Jordan Hill and two conditional first round picks. Jeffries, Hill, and the draft picks go to Houston while Hughes ends up in Sacramento.

Giving up Jeffries saves the Knicks $6.9 million while trading Hill saves them an additional $2.5 million. Hill was a highly thought of rookie that never paned out in Mike D’Antoni’s system.

The Knicks also sent Nate Robinson to the Boston Celtics for Eddie House. While a fan favorite, Robinson was constantly in D’Antoni’s dog house.

These moves are not about this year. The Knicks are to far out of the playoff picture to really consider these moves affective this season. It’s all about this coming offseason. By giving up Hill and two future first round draft picks, the pressure is on Walsh to add two big named free agents. If he can not do that, he will have put the Knicks franchise even further in a hole. And here we didn’t think that was possible.

Speaking of next year, the New Jersey Nets have a new home. Starting next season the Nets will play their home games at Prudential Center in Newark. The plan is for the New Jersey team to play in Newark for two years until their new arena in Brooklyn, New York is built.

The deal struck today allows the Nets to get out of their lease with the Izod Center for $4 million. The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority voted to approve the deal this morning.

The agreement also prohibits all sides from talking negative about either the Izod Center or Prudential Center or encouraging the closure of any facility. This is in hopes of ending the arena wars between the two buildings.

The Nets also agreed that they would not stand in the way of another NBA team coming to New Jersey in the future. The Prudential Center would likely love to have a permanent NBA team play there. I still believe its a perfect place for an NBA team.

Apparently the only thing left to be finalized is the actual terms of lease payments between the Nets and New Jersey Devils.

Professional basketball in the New York, New Jersey area will have a very different look next season.