The Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks jumped in the Atlantic Division trading fray with a surprising deal of Andrea Bargnani for Steve Novak, Marcus Camby, Quentin Richardson on a sign-and-trade, a first round pick in 2016 and second round picks both 2014 and 2017.
Bargnani had been on the trade block for months, bridging the tenures of Bryan Colangelo to Masai Ujiri. In the general manager seat for less than a month, Ujiri not only unloaded Bargnani but managed to pick up a few draft assets in the process.
A strict salary dump of Bargnani was never going to materialize and the actual savings for the Raptors is insignificant, but it is addition by subtraction in terms of roster composition and of course the value of the picks.
Furthermore, the Raptors can now use their amnesty provision on Linas Kleiza instead of being forced to pick between the two players.
Bargnani’s departure closes the books for a player the Raptors liked so much to select with the first overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft instead of LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay. Any of those three players would have given the Raptors a more competitive team around Chris Bosh, though they did go on to win the Atlantic Division that season.
Bargnani has been unable to stay healthy in recent seasons and is as limited on defense and the glass as any seven-footer the NBA has seen play heavy minutes. Any playing time going to Bargnani instead of Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson is the epitome of sunk cost, plus it gives the Raptors the abiliy to slide Rudy Gay to small ball power forward with greater frequency.
Grade for Raptors: A
Well over the salary cap, the Knicks are again handcuffed in regards to ways to improve their roster. The Knicks’ roster had been constructed by collecting assets and cap space over a period of years rather than a series of double-downs that led to deals for overpriced players on the wrong side of their career such as Jalen Rose and Steve Francis.
Carmelo Anthony unquestionably needs more help for the Knicks to become title contenders, but the only paths available to them for improvement would be for Amar’e Stoudemire to become a version of his old self again, or to somehow get a player selected out of the top-20 to become a real difference-maker.
The concept of trading away picks for a player that may be undervalued in terms of on-floor contributions due to his contract that needs a fresh start is a fine one given the situation and depth of financial resources available to the Knicks. But playing that chip on Bargnani, who is a bad fit with their current personnel even if he is the guy with a PER just above the league average rather than the 11.2 he posted this season, is a classic example of making a trade just to be doing something. Figuring out how to allocate minutes and defensive assignments to Bargnani, Anthony, Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler will be about as easy at it was for Sam Mitchell when he had Bargnani, Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu in 09-10.
With the picks the Knicks gave up, they would previously have been able to acquire a real asset via sign-and-trade, but that is off the table in the new collective bargaining agreement.
Grade for Knicks: C+
