OT: Knicks, Cavs, Thunder 3 team trade

Submitted by BursleysFinest on

Seems like there might be a major trade going down in the NBA.  The details can be found at the links below, but the general gist seems to be

Cleveland Cavaliers Get:  JR Smith (SG), Iman Shumpert (SG/SF), 1st round pick

OKC Thunder Get:  Dion Waiters (SG)

New York Knicks Get:  Lance Thomas (SG), Alex Kirk (C), Lou Amundsen (C/PF), 2019 2nd round pick

For the Michigan connection, this probably opens up more playing time for Hardaway Jr. who was already playing and scoring a lot more with Carmelo out with an injury. 

OKC gets more offense, Knicks get some Cap flexibility this off-season.  I don't know what Cleveland gets as they lose one SG who wants more shots for another SG who wants all of the shots.  

CBS Sports
Yahoo

 

 

BursleysFinest

January 5th, 2015 at 9:51 PM ^

  Yeah, I don't really understand why the Knicks would give Shumpert up or why the Thunder wouldn't push to get him in the trade. 

When you already have Westbrook and Durant, why add someone else (Dion Waiters) who needs the ball in their hands??

1 percent

January 6th, 2015 at 1:35 AM ^

Dion is of the same mold. There are reports from Cavs beat writers (for a couple years now) on Twitter that 1. Dion was unhappy with Blatt wanting him to be a spot up shooter and starter. 2. Didn't want to play defense and would play none if it wasn't for Bron. 3. Was unhappy with 'favoritism' of Kyrie because he .4. Thought he was better than Kyrie. 5. Reportedly punched Kyrie in the face last year. 6. Cared only for his stats

I always liked Dion, he was a typical tough Philly kid. He definitely fits in the head case mold though. I have no idea how he will fit with Russ and KD, he has the skill to put them over the top if they make it work. His problem is he is an offensive killer, stagnates it. ... A reality show of Westbrook, Dion and Perkins would be incredible

mGrowOld

January 5th, 2015 at 9:51 PM ^

Preach it brother.  I was at the game yesterday and it was brutal.  When Mathew Dellavedova plays 38 minutes in anything greater than a CYO game you are screwed.  We play a game here in Cleveland we call "is anyone on the court worse than Dellavedova?" and for 38 minutes yesterday they answer was no.

With the possible exception of Dion Waters.  He was so god awful bad yesterday it was tragic.  Airballs, ZERO defense (oops meant the whole team but we'll just talk about Dion here) and I think one shot actually hit the BACK of the backboard.  He put the S in suck.

So if we got anything resembling a player who can take minutes from those two I'm all for it.  I've been to six games so far this season and the Cavs have lost five of them.  And with the exception of the game against the Spurs none of them have even been close.

Gisele

January 5th, 2015 at 9:46 PM ^

Cavs obviously had to take Smith the get Shumpert. Good move to stay afloat without Lebron. This doesn't help their size issue though. I guess they feel they can take care of that with their 2 exceptions though.

TrueLT

January 5th, 2015 at 9:51 PM ^

What are the Knicks doing? They already have a ton of money coming off the books next year, I'd rather have Iman Shumpert than everyone else in that trade, including Dion Waiters. Yet the Cavs give up Dion and get not only Shump but JR Smith AND OKC's 1st round pick. 

 

This does not compute, is there something I'm just completely missing here? Do the Knicks really think it's the money that's hurting their ability to compete and not the extremely modest, self-declared  "most underrated superstar" Carmelo Anthony?

OccaM

January 5th, 2015 at 9:59 PM ^

Wait... what the hell are the Cavs doing? Don't they need front court help the most? OKC's GM hasn't made a good move since trading Harden away a few years ago. 

 

UMClassOf2018

January 5th, 2015 at 10:56 PM ^

I like this trade for the Cavs. Smith scares me, but he's really just a better version of Waiters. If the Cavs can somehow get him to buy in and not take tons of crazy shots, he will be a really good 6th man. Shumpert will also help shore up the perimeter defense, and that first round pick is just gravy (though there are already insiders saying the Cavs will try to trade that to get a rim protector in return). Like the deal for the Cavs now, could love it later depending on how JR Smith meshes

ghost

January 5th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ^

No one else has ever been able to get Smith to buy in so their is absolutely no reason to think the Cavs can.  

This is something like the Rockets adding Josh Smith.  Adding a head case who won't stop shooting to a team with chemistry issues won't work.  Look at the Rockets and the Pistons since they cut Smith.

Bb011

January 6th, 2015 at 12:32 AM ^

I really don't understand why ny would do this. I understand opening up cap space but there are much better ways they could do it.