THURSDAY, 1:42pm: Mark Deeks of ShamSports clarifies that Felton's deal with the Knicks is for four years and about $14.86MM, with a fourth-year player option.
MONDAY, 4:13pm: The trade is official, according to a Blazers press release. The Knicks receive Felton and Thomas, while the Blazers get Jeffries, Gadzuric, Papanikolaou, Printezis, cash, and a 2016 second-round pick. As ESPN.com's John Hollinger points out (via Twitter), the Knicks can't be sending more than $1MM to Portland, since they already sent $2MM to Houston in the Marcus Camby deal.
MONDAY, 7:59am: A few more details of the swap, courtesy of Jason Quick of the Oregonian and Howard Beck of the New York Times: The Blazers will acquire Jeffries, Gadzuric, Papanikolaou, and Georgios Printezis, and cash from the Knicks, with New York also paying for Jeffries' 2012/13 salary, which appears to be for the veteran's minimum (Twitter links). Felton, meanwhile, will earn $10.5MM on his three-year deal (Twitter link).
SUNDAY, 11:37am: According to a tweet from the Oregonian's Jason Quick, the Knicks might be sending Kostas Papanikolaou to Portland along with an undetermined amount of cash to help pay Jared Jeffries' $3.1MM salary. Papanikolaou is a Greek forward who was selected by New York in the second round of the 2012 NBA draft.
SATURDAY, 9:53pm: The Knicks are set to acquire Raymond Felton from the Trail Blazers in a sign-and-trade deal, reports Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (via Twitter). The Blazers will sign Felton to a three-year, $10MM contract prior to completing the trade. Forward Kurt Thomas will be joining Felton in New York as the Knicks will send Jared Jeffries, Dan Gadzuric and a 2016 second round pick to Portland to round out the deal.
In addition to receiving Thomas and Felton from the Trail Blazers, the Knicks will also acquire the rights to two players currently in Europe. The Knicks now face the decision of matching the Rockets' offer sheet to Jeremy Lin or allowing the former Harvard star to leave for Houston as Felton becomes New York's latest starting point guard.
The acquisition of Felton will provide the Knicks with a seemingly cheaper alternative to Lin as the third year of his offer sheet from the Rockets was designed to be cost prohibitive. While it appeared Lin was destined to return to the Knicks regardless of price, the Knicks may simply not believe that the 23-year-old is worth the money being offered to him by the Houston. Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News suggests that Lin may not even want to play in New York, which would be reason enough for the Knicks to reconsider making such a heft investment in the young guard (via Twitter).
Felton, 28, enjoyed success with the Knicks during his first stop with the team during the 2010/11 season before being trade to the Nuggets as part of a package to acquire Carmelo Anthony. The former Tar Heels star averaged 17.1 PPG and 9.0 APG in 54 starts with the Knicks under then head coach Mike D'Antoni's tutelage. Felton's play fell off after landing in Denver and continued to struggle when he was traded to the Trail Blazers after the 2010/11 season. His time in Portland saw the veteran guard average a career-low 11.4 PPG as he started nearly all of his team's games.
For the Trail Blazers, receiving anything for Felton, an unrestricted free agent, serves as an added benefit for the franchise as it crafts a new identity. Look for Portland to waive Gadzuric and use Jeffries as a defensive specialist off the bench.
—–
Let Lin go to Houston. If teams want to overpay for players so you’ll have to think about matching their offer, then let that team deal with overpaying the player. Matching Lin’s offer is not a good basketball decision.
Lin just isn’t worth that kind of money. Neither is Novak, Illyasova, Batum, Bass, or half of the other guys getting ridiculous amounts of money this offseason. What was that whole lockout thing about again?
Bass got a pretty fair deal.
Couldn’t agree more. He gave Boston more than most people expected last year.
Yea I agree its almost like this new CBA didn’t do a thing honestly all it did was just make the luxury tax hit worse for teams that go over it but even then teams are still finding ways to get these guys on there teams because now there just signing and trading them or using the amnesty provision to make the cap space. I don’t agree with Bass though Bass got a fair deal at 6.5 million that’s about what Glen Davis gets and they pretty much had the same production last year.
I love how Jim Dolan spends 850 Million Dollars on renovations and paid 100 Million+ for Eddy Curry, Stephon Marbury, Stevie Francis and Jerome Jordan…and he draws the line on Jeremy Lin? Someone the public embraces and sees hope in. I’m thinking I’m done with the Knicks. #HelloBrooklyn
do u mean jerome james.
Sorry, yes, my mistake.
Giving millions to a player who had a cup of coffee is a complete Dolan thing to do. Take out the emotions and storybook of Linsanity and it is a good basketball move.
I agree to a certain extent. His stellar play was within a small sample size and who knows how he will play next season and beyond. With that said, his marketability is going to be off the charts b/c every single c hink and g ook (in the us and overseas) will follow him wherever he goes. From that respect, he will be worth every dime.
Actually no, its not a good basketball move.
The Knicks are losing an ASSET for NOTHING. All they would have to do is pay the money OR trade the expiring contract. Again, these two deals are NOT mutually exclusive. They can do both, and since we have no flexibility to add ANY kind of youth with potential, this is a HUGE waste.
ITS A GREAT BASKETBALL MOVE!!!! you dont pay 25 million for a guy who was not drafted, cut by 3 teams and only played 25 games while turning the ball over like crazy with questionable court vision. Also I understand the whole theory as the 3rd year at 15 mill might get a team to trade for him as an expiring contract(same theory goes with the bulls and asik) but you have to assume that he continues to play well enough to get a team to want to trade something for him. which there is no way to prove because he is an unproven player. Just because he is an expiring contract does not mean people will play for him, ALSO if he has trade value as an expiring contract that means the knicks would take on salary in a trade. This is a smart move, this puts all the onus on him to perform. This could be a serious mistake for houston. Letting a hyped up guy who only played 25 games, walk is the smart basketball move
So signing a solid PG with playoff experience over an unproven player that’s coming off of knee surgery is the deal breaker as a fan? You never were a fan. Enjoy Brooklyn. Us die-hards will still be waiting here when you jump off that bandwagon.
Raymond Felton is neither a “solid” (less than 15 PER) whose playoff experience was him getting owned.
And the events are NOT mutually exclusive (Since you seem kind of slow, that means that the events don’t depend on one another). You can do both. All it would take to get Lin is extra money. And don’t tell me that the Knicks can’t do that when they paid 170$ Million in Luxury Tax for a 23-59 team that had Shannon Anderson, Malik Rose, Jerome Jordan, Eddy Curry and Jalen Rose on it.
Instead we’re just going to let a huge asset with a big expiring contract trade chip walk out the door. That’s forgetting the fact that he is an international icon therefore increasing MSG’s stock 7 points in the NasDaq.
Idiots like you ought to give Dolan your calling card so you can be his loyal AA meeting friend.
I thought you were a Net fan. Stop clogging up the blog with your nonsense. If you know so much why are you working at McDonalds instead of running an NBA franchise? Oh right you can’t even handle mopping the floors. Enjoy Brookyn you goon.
I’m not a Knicks fan, but come on. Be realistic here. NY will NEVER win with their current roster. It’s okay to support your team, but please don’t overvalue them.
I don’t know what you mean, I’m not overvaluing them. I wanted them to go after Odom and Allen or Terry, not do what they did. As for not being able to “win” I disagree in the sense that they’ll be fine to make the 2nd round or so, but I do agree this isn’t a roster, not yet anyway, that can compete with Miami, LA, or OKC for a title or the chance to make it that far.
Who is Jeremy LIN and why would YOU pay him $25 Million?
Felton is more established and experienced and he wants to be in NY. LIN obviously didn’t want to be here or he wouldn’t have signed the offer sheet that puts $15 Mil in the third year. He is from Harvard and he knows exactly what he was doing.
its pretty easy to draw the line at a guy who only started 25 games in the nba after what 3 teams let him walk. Yeah it was a good story for the NBA and knicks. But lets all reaize he has only played 25 GAMES IN THE NBA. He was very good against bad teams and average(not bad) against good teams. Fact, the lakers game, Lin scored a majority of those 38 points against fisher(who is a horrible defender now) and was shut down once kobe came over.
I understand its new york and the whole world revolves around NY but a smart basketball person and a smart fan does not want to spend 25 million dollars based off of 25 games. Give it a year to decide if this was a bad deal. If he continues to play like he did during those 25 games, then maybe its a bad deal. But if he regresses back to the kid that was not drafted, spent 4 years at harvard because he had not draft stock and was released by 3 teams then its a great deal.
Is anyone excited about superstar Jared effing Jeffries
Why is everyone so quick to not only dismiss lins great performance last season (save one game against Miami in which lebron freaking james was guarding him for extended periods) AND feltons horrible performance since getting traded for melo as flukes? Lin has proven at the very least that he deserves some respect and a chance to become something and not be cased off in favor of a guy who is more likely to eat himself out of the league than he is to be the player he was in the beginning of 2010. Im this close to giving up on the knicks all together.
I don’t think people think of it as “flukes” I think people realize that Lin isn’t worth more than double what Felton is worth, especially after only 25 or so games as a starter. Felton isn’t perfect by any stretch, but he’s a much better defender and isn’t coming off of knee surgery. Besides, who said they still won’t sign Lin?
Actually no, he’s not a better defender. Read the stats: link to espn.go.com…
Your views are probably based on watch SportsCenter and meaningless conjecture as opposed to studying the game. Do you know what a screen and roll is?
Actually yes, he is a better defender. The fact that you attempt to talk down to someone by assuming they get their information from the tabloid that is ESPN and then use ESPN as your proof is laughable. Also, you probably should find a better argument than comparing 26 games as a starter vs Felton’s worst career year as your case in point. Do your research before you talk down to others and come up with such drivel; anyone that ACTUALLY follows the sport closely knows Felton is a better defender. I was sitting in the third row the night Deron dropped eight 3 pointers and 38 points making Lin look helpless. More importantly, I haven’t missed a Knicks game on TV in years and rarely do I miss a televised NBA game. I don’t need some skewed ex post facto article that neatly picks out instances that “proves” the writers point.
The mods have already deleted one of your posts. You might want to start speaking to people like you would in real life before you go getting yourself banned. Mature adults would like to discuss basketball, not fling insults like schoolyard children. I won’t be responding to you, just reporting any future posts.
he has not proved anything, 25 games does not prove a single thing. Also he may have proved he should get the chance to start a full season yeah, which is what he is going to be doing for huston, but not at 25 million
who are the two players from europe to Portland?
Probably the two guys they got from Dallas in the Tyson Chandler deal.
I could care less about the finances because thats Dolans pockets, the only thing I care about is Lin’s return to the knicks could possibly affect the locker room… Guys been in the league longer than Lin who haven’t seen that type of money yet.