ESPN Insider on Francis
From ESPN's pay area:
ESPN.com - NBA - Sheridan: Knicks looking to pair Stevie Franchise with Starbury: "Steve Francis is being strongly sought by the desperate New York Knicks, who want to pair him in the backcourt with Stephon Marbury in a bid to save their season.
Two sources involved in the Francis trade discussions told ESPN.com on Tuesday that New York is actively pursuing Francis, who is being shopped full throttle by the Orlando Magic.
The Denver Nuggets remain in the hunt for Francis, but they are not the leading option as they were a few days ago. The Minnesota Timberwolves also were trying to stay in the mix, looking for a third team to take on players Orlando is not interested in.
New York was believed to be offering Penny Hardaway, Jamal Crawford and at least one other player, likely Trevor Ariza, David Lee or Nate Robinson, in a deal in which the Knicks would also take back center Kelvin Cato, whose $8.64 million salary comes off the cap at the end of the season.
Cato would have to be included along with Francis ($13.7 million) to provide a match for the salaries of Hardaway ($15.75 million), Crawford ($6.5 million) and the third player, be it Robinson ($1.2 million), Lee (860,000) and/or Ariza $640,000).
The trade, if it were to come to fruition, would provide Orlando salary cap relief"
ESPN.com - NBA - Sheridan: Knicks looking to pair Stevie Franchise with Starbury: "Steve Francis is being strongly sought by the desperate New York Knicks, who want to pair him in the backcourt with Stephon Marbury in a bid to save their season.
Two sources involved in the Francis trade discussions told ESPN.com on Tuesday that New York is actively pursuing Francis, who is being shopped full throttle by the Orlando Magic.
The Denver Nuggets remain in the hunt for Francis, but they are not the leading option as they were a few days ago. The Minnesota Timberwolves also were trying to stay in the mix, looking for a third team to take on players Orlando is not interested in.
New York was believed to be offering Penny Hardaway, Jamal Crawford and at least one other player, likely Trevor Ariza, David Lee or Nate Robinson, in a deal in which the Knicks would also take back center Kelvin Cato, whose $8.64 million salary comes off the cap at the end of the season.
Cato would have to be included along with Francis ($13.7 million) to provide a match for the salaries of Hardaway ($15.75 million), Crawford ($6.5 million) and the third player, be it Robinson ($1.2 million), Lee (860,000) and/or Ariza $640,000).
The trade, if it were to come to fruition, would provide Orlando salary cap relief"
posted by WeRDevos @ 10:09 PM
7 Comments:
At 10:15 PM,
OVERWADED said…
It would be interesting to say the least. Crawford isn't bad, but I'm not crazy about him. We'd earn one other bench player from them I guess. I don't watch the Knicks enough on NBA TV because they suck so bad. The most intriguing part would be reuniting Penny and B Hill, even if it was just for half a season. In the end, we could always get worse. I'm sure if and when Francis is delt, it'll be right before the deadline hits.
At 12:23 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Yeah, that trade would work under the salary rules, and would provide the Magic salary cap relief, plus Jamal Crawford is a pretty good player. His stats are down this yr (14 pts per game) because the team is struggling so bad in Larry Brown's first year.
But last season, he averaged 17.7 ppg and 4.3 assists per game, and he will turn just 26 in March. He just needs to work on his consistency. I would like the idea next season of having Nelson at the pt and Crawford at shooting guard, with Dooling and Diener the other guards off the bench.
But I don't think the trade will come off for the simple reason that I don't think Magic management would want to force Penny on BHill, even for just half a season.
At 12:43 AM,
OVERWADED said…
Remember Magic fans, it could always be worse. We could be fans of the Knicks, who are strongly pursuing Francis and K-Mart. A combo of Francis and Marbury is one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time. And K-Mart, would be a decent idea if he wasn't a mess with injuries and owned 65 million over the next 4 years. Then they'd have over 100 million invested in an average front court of Curry and K-Mart in which it's doubtful that either one of them will finish out their current contracts. What are the Knicks thinking? Who cares really, either way, there seems to be a good chance that Francis is heading to Denver or NY. At least he won't be our problem anymore.
At 1:13 AM,
Ken said…
I don't know what would be worse, watching the Hardaway/BSHill reunion, or watching SFrancis pretend to play and BSHill ptetend to coach for the remainder of the season.
I can see it now, Francis going through the motions, scoring 10 points a night, collecting a nice little paycheck along the way until the Magic are to the point where they'll take anyone in return just to see him go, and loose any sort of return on him they had hoped for.
Not to mention BSHill continuing to play Garrity 30 minutes a night (tonight: 24 minutes 0-5 FG% and 1 rebound) bitching about matchups, and continuing to make futile attemps to design a offense for the talent we have. And hopfully, DHoward dosn't regress to the point of seeking to move on.
Chances are, Hardaway would never even see a Magic uniform, we would be free of Francis and his pouting, depressing attitude, and then be free to let Jameer play the point when he's ready, focus on the younger talent, and give Deeener, Kasun, and the others some valuable playing time taking advantage of Grant Hills' leadership skills, and hoping EmporerBSHill dosn't do to much damage along the way.
I have no idea whats gonna happen, but it just seems like something has to be done. It's time for RDV or Vanderweed or whoevers' running the show to take charge because the current inmates seem to be running the asylum.
At 1:23 AM,
Ken said…
Good point intro316, about Francis and Marbury being a train wreck waiting to happen. Remember when the Suns were gonna pair Marbury with Hardaway in Phoenix? They were suppose to be the ultimate backcourt. It might actually be funny to watch that happen. Marbury and Francis, Francis couldn't handle the competition from Jameer causing him to become an emotional basketcase, now he would be in Marburys' shadow.
At 10:08 AM,
Matt said…
My take is a bit different. I think with the season lost there is no need to throw Francis's value away for nothing. Past the trade deadline Francis could be a productive element (provided Hill does not mess up again), working towards increasing his value for his own sake, not to mention the team's. Francis for Crawford is crazy (since there is no comparison) and Francis for Darko and Arroyo is giving a super-star away while inheriting a 9 million dollar project for a suspect center. Cato's situation should not be an issue since it's coming off the books anyway. When the Denver's situation cmae up, there was the mention of a swap for Andre Miller. That trade makes sense, but I don't see Miller's name mentioned nowadays.
I still say stay put.
At 8:37 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Matt, you're always insightful with your opinions and analysis of the Magic, but with all due respect, since when did Steve Francis attain superstar status as you said in the above post?
I agree that Francis is a very talented player, but has he ever led a team to a playoff series victory during his career? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the answer is no. Like I said in a previous post, even though I like Steve as a player, I just don't think he has the mental toughness to be a true superstar, as evidenced by his erratic behavior all season.
I agree with you though when you say that the Magic should try and maximize Francis's trade value, whether it be by Feb 23rd or sometime in the future.
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