More NBA Rumors and News

The Knicks signed free agent guard Anthony Roberson to a two year deal stoking speculation that Stephon Marbury’s days in New York are numbered.  The signing puts the Knicks roster at 16 players, 7 of which are guards, which is one above the league limit meaning they need to trim the roster by one player.  There is some speculation that Jerome James may be the fall guy here.  The Knicks of course are denying there is any truth to the rumor that they are looking to move Marbury.

In other Knicks’ news Danilo Gallinari has a sore back and is being held out of Summer League competition as a precautionary measure.  After missing his first five shots Gallinari settled in to hit five of his last six shots and score 14 points in the second half of the Knicks first summer league game.

Donnie Walsh also denies rumors that the Knicks are interested in acquiring Ron Artest.  While I am sure Artest would love to come back home and play for his home town team the Knicks do not have a lot to offer other than proposing a potential swap for Marbury.  That notion is not as far fetched as it may seem though.  The Kings need to seriously consider moving the enigmatic Artest who has become increasingly grumpy about not opting out of his contract and they are in desperate need of an established point man in addition to a marquee name.

Beno Udrih is a solid player but I am not entirely sold on him being a quality NBA point guard.  Marbury’s career has probably peaked but his contract is up at the end of the year and they could probably force the Knicks to take Kenny Thomas back given they would need addtional salary to make such a deal work under the salary cap.  This, in turn, frees up an additonal 8.5 million in cap space for next summer which would put the Kings a good 25 to 30 million under the cap with some decent young talent to build around.

The Pacers actually offered the Heat Jamaal Tinsley in exchange for Udonis Haslem.  Fortunately for Heat fans Pat Riley is smarter than that.  There is no way the Heat are going to move their only established post player for a middle of the road point guard.  Not that Haslem is anything special himself but he provides the Heat with their only real low post option on offense.

Posey Moving to the Big Easy; Gibson Re-ups with the Cavs

James Posey has signed with the New Orleans Hornets accepting a 4-year $25 million deal on Wednesday.  Picking up Posey is a strong pickup for the Hornets who were in need of a wing player to come off the bench.  Posey gives the Hornets another shooter off the bench who can hit the three pointer but what may prove to be even more vital is he provides the Hornets with a quality perimeter defender off the bench.  He also gives the Hornets a player who has won two World Championships in the past three years with the Heat and the Celtics.

On the flipside of that the Celtics lose a key role player from this past season’s Championship squad.  Posey had six double digit scoring games, seven games of six or more rebounds, and hit just under 40% (.398) of his three point shots off the bench for Boston in the postseason.  Re-signing Posey was a priority for Boston this off season but they just were not willing to give Posey the kind of offer he ultimately recieved from New Orleans.  The Hornets took a calculated risk by trading their top pick for cash in order to free up more cap space to be able to sign an established veteran role player as opposed to spending that money on a rookie who will need a couple of years to develop and it appears as though that gamble paid off for the Hornets.

Another signing of note was announced today as Daniel Gibson accepted a five year deal to stay in Cleveland.  Gibson is a good fit for the Cavs as one of those small point guards who comes off the bench and can shoot the three a-la Janerro Pargo in New Orleans and Leandro Barbosa in Phoenix.  Gibson does not do much for the Cavs by way of handling or distributing the ball but he fills it up from the outside and shot .440 from behind the arc this past season.  The Cavs have no real financial flexibility this summer so retaining Gibson was a priority for them.  Cleveland is in a real precarious situation as they need to make some moves to get better before LeBron opts out and potentially leaves town and they just do not have many options to accomplish that goal.

Camby to the Clippers

The Denver Nuggets, desperate to gain salary cap and luxury tax relief, executed what amounts to a salary dump by agreeing to send Marcus Camby to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for the opportunity to swap 2nd round picks in 2010.  From a financial standpoint the move makes a lot of sense for the Nuggets. 

By shedding Camby’s contract which had two years remaining on it they will now potentially be a good $15 million or so under the cap once Allen Iverson’s contract expires at the end of next season.  They will have the flexibility to be able to part ways with Iverson if they choose to do so and go after an impact player on the free agent market.  Obviously the Nuggets would have preferred to unload Kenyon Martin or Nene but it appears as though they cannot give them away at this stage. 

Martin’s career peaked during the ‘03-’04 season, he has had microfracture surgery on both knees, and he is still owed over $46 million over the next three years.  Nobody wants to take the gamble on him staying healthy enough to be a $15 million a year caliber player.  Nene is a tantallizing talent but he too still has a rather hefty contract and has only managed to stay healthy enough to appear in 81 games over the past 3 seasons.