But I think Dallas is a dark horse candidate for Wade. If Wade is fed-up with Miami, and he wants to leave Miami with that 6yr deal, Dallas will probably go all out. They can offer, Caron Butler, Jason Terry, Eric Dampier (who’s contract can be waived), JJ Barea or Roddy B, and their picks for the next season or two. Jason Kidd, D-Wade, Shawn Marion, Dirk Novitzki and Brendan Haywood? Its a powerhouse. Wade will fill a Manu Ginobili-esque role, as he and Marion will be wing scorers when Kidd is on court. When Kidd comes off court, Wade becomes the PG. This makes Beaubois/Barea even more effective because they can be scorers instead of playmakers.

Honestly, I’d rather see this happen, because I just can’t stand the Heat anymore. Plus, it makes the West too good for Melo’s Nuggets in his prime years, making him bolt for NY. But this summer’s free agent chase can be very simple, but things like this show how crazy this thing can get. Houston could end up with Bosh, and Wade could end up in Dallas. We’d be screwed, hard, but its interesting to explore what can happen.

But I hope we end up with Wade next season. We could put him at PG, Chandler at the 2, Gallo at 3, Lee at 4, and sign Frye to play the 5. Bill Walker, Toney, and maybe Raja Bell off the bench for the vet minimum. Plus our two picks, maybe Jimmer Fredette and Varnado. Plus Curry’s corpse gives us a 12 man roster.

As far as Calderon… I don’t know how much he’d excite free agents like Wade and Johnson. The one selling point the Knicks could use is that D’Antoni will do for Calderon what he did for Nash. If Wade goes to Chicago the problem of sharing the ball is only magnified because Rose can’t shoot and needs the ball in his hand to be effective offensively (though he’s a plus defender while Calderon might as well be an orange cone on D). Johnson doesn’t dominate the ball to the extent Wade and LeBron do, and I don’t think he’d have a real problem playing next to a PG (though either his or Calderon’s ast% would surely suffer, there would be diminishing returns… plus a terrible defender and a mediocre defender in the backcourt together as they age is not the start to a good defensive team).

I see that as well, but to me, that’s sort of a deal breaker unless they take Curry back. But if we get Calderon, he’s going to be our primary ball-handler. This would probably turn guys like Wade and Johnson off from NY. But I have a question:

Say Amar’e signs an extension in Phoenix, Bosh goes to Houston as part of a sign & trade. Do you think Wade stays in Miami to play with Boozer? Or does he bolt Miami for here or Chicago?

One last thing is that iserp makes a good point that taking on Calderon (or maybe more so Turkoglu) could be a way to swing a sign-and-trade for Bosh, depending on a lot of factors.

ess-dog,

The interesting thing is that the main reason Toronto brought Jarrett Jack in was because he is Chris Bosh’s close friend. Toronto finished as the 5th best offensive team in the NBA, with Calderon having as good an offensive season as Jack. They were the worst defensive team in the NBA, though, and Calderon is a terrible defender (Jack is only a bit better). I don’t know exactly why Calderon lost the starting job. He had his worst season in a while, but he still had a PER of 16.5, a WS/48 of .111, a TS% of .569, a 3P% of .398, and an ast% of 33.8 (which is a big thing that rendered him less effective and less valuable to the Raptors: Hedo’s presense as a playmaker on the wing meant they didn’t need as much of a ball-controlling, playmaking PG). My guess is that Bosh preferred playing with Jack. Which means it’s unlikely Bosh will agree to a sign-and-trade involving Calderon moving with him. That’s total speculation on my part, though. Could just be that on a terrible defensive team with Hedo on the wing and Jack scoring more efficiently than Calderon, Jack made more sense.

I sort of doubt LeBron and Bosh/Amare would sign up for a small-ball lineup, having all three lost playoff series to physical frontlines year-in and year-out. It might be the situation to start, but I think they’d want assurances that all efforts would be made to find a center going forward. One good thing for the Knicks is that none of their old teams will have much of a physical frontline going forward once Shaq and Z are in wheel chairs (you could make the case they already are). Robin Lopez did play well this year.

“I guess he might work out after all, but he’s a guy I think we should make a trade for in august”

Yeah, I tend to agree. He’s a back-up plan and/or an option if they want to use Curry’s contract. And even then I agree there are question marks: defense, contract, Toronto’s system makes PGs look good (though D’Antoni’s should too), major decline this season = trend or off-year… All else equal I’d rather go for Andris Biedrins with cap space or Curry’s contract. I have no idea which, if either, will be available and at what price.

“I think if we can get Devin Harris in our system next year, maybe he’ll be back to that form.”

I think it’s a matter or health. I didn’t watch the Nets much or follow them day-to-day, but I’m pretty convinced Harris wasn’t healthy last season. He really wasn’t that bad last season, but he had a career low in TS%. His jump shot eFG% was down, but so was his inside eFG% and his FTA/36 and FTA/FGA. Losing Vince Carter might have hurt him and maybe he just wasn’t into it mentally since the team was so bad, but I vaguely remember reading he wasn’t healthy.
So, the question to me is whether his health is shot long-term or he’ll recover this season. He’s been an effective mid-range shooter, but he’s a bad 3-pt shooter who relies a lot on penetration, finishing at the basket, and going to the line… not necessarily someone who will age well if he’s lost a step.
If I’m the Nets I’m not sure I’m in a rush to give him away anyway. Not unless I can use the cap space better immediately and/or I think he’s washed up. Even if they do get Wall it’s unlikely he’ll step in next season and be Magic Johnson. He can probably use another guard in the backcourt to share the playmaking and scoring loads. If they get the #3 or 4 pick then they keep Harris almost for sure.
He was good in Dallas. He’s a good defender, an efficient scorer, a reliable playmaker. His career PER is 17.6 and WS/48 is .122… a well above-average starting PG (if he’s healthy).

I somewhat agree with you on Haywood. Although if you’re talking 9 mil for either Thomas or Haywood, I’d give it to Haywood. And he’s a better fit next to Lee.
I do have to agree that the Bosh lineup is the more likely one for D’Antoni. In fact the ideal lineup might be Douglas, Walker, Gallo, with Lebron and Bosh/Amare at the 4 and 5 respectively. Utility man, Chandler off the bench. Not that I’m a fan, but if you scrounge enough together, you could bring back T-Mac to round out the rotation.
D’Antoni would really have to sell his system though. And he can blame lack of quality available centers.
With Lebron, I’d rather have a guy like Douglas who can hit threes and play good D than Calderon who is losing his job to Jarrett Jack, plus, you save your Curry contract for the trade deadline.

I think if we can get Devin Harris in our system next year, maybe he’ll be back to that form. I mean he was playing for the worst team in basketball this season. Maybe winning will rejuvenate him. Wasn’t he starting in Dallas at PG during the ’06 Finals? They were winning then, and he was good enough to start.

I see your point. Calderon is a phenomenal on offense, and I hadn’t thought about the defensive job they were doing in Phoenix. I guess he might work out after all, but he’s a guy I think we should make a trade for in august, not when we get Bosh. I feel that if Stoudemire gets an extension, Bosh is the key to Wade. And Calderon’s contract too early would mean no Wade. Unless we do a sign and trade, sending Eddy Curry in a deal with Toronto for the two, then getting Calderon doesn’t matter because we still have enough for a max guy.

The more I think about it, you do raise an interesting point about Lee’s value vs. Thomas’ value. I tend to think that Lee is significantly more valuable, but there’s a tipping point where he might be overpaid just like every other FA. Since Lee’s been undervalued for so long I think we all assume he’ll be undervalued no matter what, but that’s not necessarily the case.

Massive,

Calderon is not just a 3-pt shooter. He’s one of the best offensive PGs in the league. Great playmaker as well as scorer. I can literally think of 3 or 4 PGs in the world who give you what Calderon does offensively and also play strong D (Paul–when healthy, Deron Williams, Wade and LeBron even though they’re not technically PGs… Rondo comes pretty close and is obviously a great defender). All those guys are much better than Calderon and it’s not to say that those are the only 4 PGs in the NBA who are better overall (Calderon is truly terrible defensively which costs him a lot of value).
I agree that Calderon is a bit overpaid for maybe the worst defensive PG in the league, and can understand why you’re not crazy about him. However, outside of LeBron and Wade and maybe Joe Johnson (who will also be overpaid) I don’t see any obviously better options at PG for the Knicks this summer (maybe Devin Harris via trade, and that depends entirely on whether he’s 08-09 Devin Harris or 09-10 Devin Harris… the former was a star, the latter pretty average). Not to say the Knicks need a long-term PG this summer, but I don’t know that you can get a guy who “does both” this offseason. There aren’t many guys who put up TS% over .600 and ast% over 40. A handfull in the league.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/caldejo01.html
I think Calderon would be a perfect offensive PG for D’Antoni. He’s as close to a Steve Nash clone as there is (Mark Price maybe).

Rose, Nelson, and Rondo, by the way, are capable of killing any team at any time. None of those 3 does it on an extremely consistent basis, but they all generally hurt opposing teams. The Suns managed to be an average or above average defensive team despite both Steve Nash and no interior D to speak of in part by switching Nash off of strong PGs onto non-scorer and jump shooters. Knicks could do the same thing with Douglas, Walker, Chandler, etc… D’Antoni was even putting Gallo on PGs.

I agree that Lee is more valuable than Thomas, but I wouldn’t really compare Thomas to Hickson: Hickson is good offensively and weak defensively, while Thomas is the opposite. As far as overall impact, I don’t know.

Calderon? I’m not too high on him. Not because he’s having an off year or anything, I just believe that Derrick Rose, Jameer Nelson, Rajon Rondo, and possibly John Wall will murder us on the perimeter next year. Depends on what D’Antoni wants; Perimeter D or 3-pt shooting. Personally, i think we can get a guy who does both, especially at Calderon’s salary.