Damian Necronamous

Here's what I propose...

Trade #1: Jamal Crawford, Malik Rose, Nate Robinson and Renaldo Balkman to Phoenix in exchange for Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw

Trade #2: Stephon Marbury to Cleveland in exchange for Wally Szczerbiak and Eric Snow

Trade #3: Eddy Curry to Toronto in exchange for Rasho Nesterovic and Maceo Baston

Draft: Let's say the Knicks get the 5th pick and take Jerryd Bayless. Eric Gordon and O.J. Mayo could also be available here.

The 2008-2009 Knicks
PG: Leandro Barbosa...Eric Snow
SG: Jerryd Bayless...Mardy Collins
SF: Quentin Richardson...Wally Szczerbiak...Wilson Chandler
PF: Zach Randolph...Boris Diaw...Jared Jeffries...Maceo Baston
C: David Lee...Rasho Nesterovic...Jerome James

Phoenix does the first trade to free up some cap room and give themselves some depth. Robinson, Crawford and Balkman all fit well in their style of play, and Malik Rose could even get some minutes behind Stoudemire. The Suns will also have the 15th pick in the draft, which they'll probably use on a big man (Koufos? R. Lopez?)

Cleveland does the second trade because it's an easy gamble on a talented PG. Snow and Szczerbiak are both expiring and Snow isn't going to be used at all. The Cavs already have Pavlovic and Devin Brown at the other swing spots next to LeBron and they could easily replace what Wally has been giving them through the draft (19th pick) or through free agency. They are going to be spending that $20 million anyway, so they might as well spend it on a one-year gamble that could end up giving them 14-15ppg.

Finally, Toronto takes on Curry for Nesterovic (expiring) to add an extra scorer into the mix down low. Curry could fit well next to Bosh, and getting out of the NY spotlight and onto a talented up-and-coming team would do him some good. It's definitely a move that Colangelo would be willing to make. Even if Curry isn't a ground-shaking player for them, he's still an upgrade over Rasho Nesterovic.

All in all, the Knicks would have added two great young guards in Barbosa and Bayless, finally gotten David Lee a starting role and they'll still have $30M in expirings with Snow, Wally and Nesterovic. Better yet, they will have gotten rid of several questionable characters while bringing in veterans who give much better balance to the team.

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Chick Hearn: This game is in the refrigerator. The door is closed, the lights are out, the eggs are gettin' cool, the butter's gettin' hard, and the jellooooooo's jigglin'!

Current 2008-2009 LA Lakers Roster
PG: Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar
SG: Kobe Bryant, Sasha Vujacic, Sun Yue
SF: Vladimir Radmanovic, Trevor Ariza, Luke Walton
PF: Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Josh Powell
C: Andrew Bynum, Chris Mihm, D.J. Mbenga