There are always interesting trades on draft night in the NBA, but the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks gave us a tasty appetizer on Wednesday, with Marc Stein reporting that New York will ship Tyson Chandler and Ray Felton to Dallas for Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington and draft considerations. This is the first big splash for Knicks president Phil Jackson as an executive, and while it's unclear what it means to the short-term direction of the franchise, the move is a clear signal that Jackson is going to be ultra-aggressive in his makeover at Madison Square Garden.
It's a little difficult to assess the trade in straight-forward basketball terms, because we don't yet know how the trade will fit into the overall context of each team's offseason plan. The swap was ostensibly one team trading its point guard and center for the starters at the same positions from another team, but it means much more than that. Dallas is looking to get better on defense, and the Mavericks won a championship with Chandler anchoring the backline in 2011. While Calderon was a good fit in Dallas next to Monta Ellis, it was a poor defensive pairing that may needed to end for the Mavericks to move forward.
In moving from Dalembert to Chandler, the Mavericks go from a guy with a 3.07 defensive RPM to one at 3.52, but is Chandler is an $11 million upgrade, especially considering that Dalembert is a more durable player? We'll see, but the Mavericks should still be able to easily clear enough cap space, depending on the eventual contract they give to Dirk Nowitzki, to make further enhancements. Dallas can target a more traditional wing that will better balance the lineup, thus improving the defense at more than one spot on the floor.
But let's face it -- the Knicks' angle is the fascinating aspect of this deal. What is Phil's next move? What does this say about the team's direction? And, most interesting of all, what does this mean for Carmelo Anthony?
New York remains a long ways away from clearing enough cap space this season to make a run at LeBron James, or a possible James and Anthony combination. Amar'e Stoudemire is still on the books for $23.4 million, and Andrea Bargnani accounts for another $11.5 million. Felton has a player option for 2015-16, so Jackson sheds that obligation, but Calderon has three more guaranteed years left on his contract for a total of $22.2 million. All we've been hearing is that Jackson does not want to take on contracts that extend past next season, but apparently he's done just that. Calderon is a good value. His 6.1 WARP ranked in the top 50 in the league, and is worth around $12 million in a hypothetical vacuum. His passing and shooting abilities are also among the best in the league, making him a fine fit for the triangle offense that Knicks coach Derek Fisher is expected to install.
So, what does that mean? Well, if Jackson convinces Anthony to stay, then he'll be playing alongside a point guard well suited for feeding his habit of scoring at a high volume. If Anthony leaves, Calderon wouldn't be too terribly hard to flip, especially in-season when some team around the league ends up with an injured point guard. But in the meantime, Jackson needs triangle-friendly players around to help Fisher embed the new offensive system, and Calderon is much better suited to do that than Felton.
Dalembert, on the other hand, isn't exactly what you would call a triangle-friendly player. He doesn't have much face-up ability to speak of, has never averaged even one assist per game and has committed nearly three turnovers for every dime he's handed out in his career. But Chandler has similar offensive shortcomings, and Dalembert can at least hold down the fort defensively. Jackson teams have always relied on offensive rebounding, and Dalembert at this point is better at that than Chandler, and he's a high-efficiency finisher despite having poor hands.
Most importantly, Dalembert is a relative bargain. The lone year left on his deal is partially-guaranteed for about $3.9 million. Only $1.8 million of that is guaranteed though, per ShamSports.com, Dalembert has a 15 percent trade kicker on his deal that means New York would be on the hook for around $2.4 million if Jackson were to just cut him loose. Most likely, he'll be further trade fodder or a bargain basement stopgap solution in the middle. (A description that may eventually be Dalembert's epitaph.)
As for Anthony's reaction to all this, it's hard to say. While we can objectively say that Calderon might accentuate him on offense, and Dalembert will at least be present to defend the rim more often than the brittle Chandler, Melo may just look at this as a cost-cutting move. There is more to come, and the moves Jackson makes next will determine whether he's making a play for next season, or just clearing the decks for a ramp-up in 2015.
Just a couple of days ago, I suggested that if Anthony wants to go to Chicago, then a sign-and-trade that brings in future assets makes sense and, really, that hasn't changed. Obviously Felton can no longer be part of that scenario, but with Ellington apparently coming aboard, then perhaps Jackson will now try to use J.R. Smith as the tax for taking on Boozer in a sign-and-trade. If Jackson is playing tear-down, then Calderon's contract makes a little more difficult to get under the tax line in the post-Melo world.
But what if Jackson's Plan A is more than that? What if he thinks he can get someone like the Philadelphia 76ers to take on the last year of Stoudemire, and then miraculously finds a taker for Bargnani? Then suddenly the path opens up for Melo to return, joined by his friend LeBron and a whole new era of Walt Frazier superlatives from the sidelines. It's a pipe dream, and while we don't know what this first salvo fired by Jackson means in the big picture, we can already see it's going to be an interesting year in New York.