One important point not mentioned; this trade enhances the possibility that the Knicks could pick up a third star player in 2012 - Chris Paul. That would give the Knicks a pretty formidable threesome to rival the Heat and Celtics in the Eastern Conference.
RE: One important point not mentioned; this trade enhances the possibility that the Knicks could pick up a third star player in 2012 - Chris Paul. That would give the Knicks a pretty formidable threesome to rival the Heat and Celtics in the Eastern Conference.
Chris Paul is worth close to $14M a year. Don’t know how this will play out in the salary cap negotiations.
With this trade, the Kicks get the ageing but somewhat still effective guard, Chauncey Billups, so yes, they have to actively look for a younger star point guard.
The guard they trade away, Ray Felton has been doing a very good job quickly passing the ball to Amare who’s one of very few big men who moves well without the ball (and who need a good point guard like Steve Nash to quickly find them when they cut and become open).
Billups unlike Felton or Nash is not known for timely feeding the open teammate, he’s a control freak kind of point guard who thinks he has a choice as to whether to pass the ball or not to an open teammate.
When Billups played with Detroit, teammate Rip Hamilton was one of the best “moving without the ball” player in the NBA (others being Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, and for big men Amare and David Robinson, and lately even this Gortat who’s now benefitting from Steve Nash’s timely passes) and yet a lot of times Rip Hamilton run and run to get himself open but Billups never made the pass.
So unless Billups changed his ways, Amare will now score less although nobody in NY would care as Carmelo will now make up the difference in points. And yes, now New York will become a preferred destination that good players would want to go to.
Amare is not a create his own shot type of guy, he does not need to dribble with the ball and create his own shot, instead he moves quickly without the ball to get open and be fed with a timely pass. But now with Carmelo needing ball plus a more ball hogging Billups, Amare likely will not be getting as many touches and easy scoring opportunities.