With a lockout looming in 2011, this may be the last trade-deadline we’ll see for a while that actually involves any…well, trades.
Whilst in the States last week, the constant chatter during the entire All-Star weekend was the possibility of Amare Stoudemire ending up with the Cavaliers. This was seen as a potentially huge deal, not so much for Cleveland’s title chances this year, but the assumption that the acquisition would convince LeBron to stay.
Dwayne Wade is reported to have spent all of All-Star weekend wooing Stoudemire to join him in Miami, Wade’s preferred destination. Rumours that Cleveland are now pursuing Washington’s Antwain Jaimison are being stonewalled by both teams.
Jaimison’s Wizards were involved in a deal that did actually take place, and what a deal. Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, Quinton Ross all moved to the nation’s capital with Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson going to Dallas. The Mavs are looking to Butler to help lift them over the top in the West. It’s still not enough to get them past the Lakers, but if the new pieces gel quickly then they’ll be favoured over the #2 seed Denver Nuggets.
The other deal that went down in the West was the L.A Clippers who sent centre Marcus Camby to the Portland Trailblazers for Travis Outlaw (broken foot et all) and Steve Blake. The Blazers also sent $1.5m to L.A who have traded an expiring contract for two and are also saving $2m in incentives that Camby is due to receive. For Portland this was a great move, replacing the injured duo Greg Oden and Joel Pryzbilla until the end of the season. Next year Camby will probably be gone but that won’t matter because one or both of two of Oden and Pryzbilla will be gone.
The only deal that looks more than likely to take place is Nate Robinson finally leaving the Knicks to join the Celtics. The current stumbling point is that New York want a 1st round draft pick in the deal, which they would use to send to the Rockets for Tracy McGrady.
Houston are adamant that the Knicks include a 1st rounder in the deal, but after a decade of giving up 1st round draft choices, they’re reluctant to do so. By off-loading the unhappy Robinson AND the acquisition of Boston’s 1st rounder, it will soften the blow somewhat. Knicks owner James Dolan isn’t short of a bob or two and is willing to part with $3m to convince the Rockets to take on Jared Jeffries and the $6.3m remaining on his contract. But it’s the draft picks that are crucial to the deal.
As for the Clips, it’s another 2-finger salute to their team. Of course there is always the possibility that the Clippers will reward their tortured fan base with a massive free agent signing this summer. But a) more contracts need to be moved in order to do that and b) this is the Clippers, so it’s not likely to happen. Don’t rule out Camby coming back to L.A in the summer though.
