Was that a cheer out of the Jazz front office?
In his “Weekend Dime,” ESPN’s Marc Stein wrote down a thought many familiar with the Jazz have had since the Knicks made their trades with Golden State and the Clippers on Friday.
“Who loves the Knicks’ trades most in the West?
Probably Utah.
The Jazz own New York’s draft pick in 2009 or 2010. The Knicks will retain the pick in the 2009 draft if it falls between No. 1 and No. 22 in June, but the pick is fully unprotected in 2010, which means it could be a very good one, given the Knicks’ clear intent to keep their roster as frills-free as possible until the league’s free-agent bonanza in July 2010.”
I’m guessing the Jazz — and fans — probably wished these deals would’ve happened before Utah visited Madison Square Garden two weeks ago. Golden State-bound Jamal Crawford scored 32 points and Clippers-bound Zach Randolph had 25 points and 14 rebounds in the Knicks’ 107-99 win.
The Knicks under the guidance of new coach Mike D’Antoni are off to a 6-6 start, but who knows how good (or bad) they’ll be after throwing Al Harrington, Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas into the mix.
New York will gain a ton of salary space for the big free-agent frenzy of 2010 when LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade — possibly even Carlos Boozer if he doesn’t opt out of his deal at the end of this season — will become free agents.
Utah picked up the rights to this N.Y. pick as part of the Tom Gugliotta deal they made with Phoenix in 2004.