More NBA Rumors and News
Posted by Eric Engberg on July 16, 2008
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.
AG said
Nice update.
I like how Gallinari is ALREADY injured. I mean the luck of the Knicks can be compared to that of the Clippers.
I actually like Beno Udrih, he provides the Kings with a legit PG. Plus, I know their were a few other teams interested in him so you have to figure they saw some kind of talent there.
Eric Engberg said
Thanks.
The thing with Gallinari is I am sure it is more precautionary than anything else. I didn’t see the game so I don’t know how he got hurt or what have you. The way the Summer Leagues work is teams are playing several days in a row. I suspect if this were the regular season he may not miss any significant time it is just that teams err on the side of caution when the games do not really mean anything.
I like Udrih too I am just not sure he is ever going to get past being a second tier PG in the league. I doubt he will ever give the Kings the type of production that Bibby gave them.