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NBA Trade Grades: 3-Team Deal Involving Dion Waiters

By Gerald Bourguet

Mar 20, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dion Waiters (3) sits in front of the Oklahoma City Thunder bench at Quicken Loans Arena. Oklahoma City won 102-95. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 20, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dion Waiters (3) sits in front of the Oklahoma City Thunder bench at Quicken Loans Arena. Oklahoma City won 102-95. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /
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NBA Trade Grades
Dec 12, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; New York Knicks guard Iman Shumpert (21) reacts after injuring his shoulder against the Boston Celtics during the first half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports /

New York Knicks

The Knicks are receiving rookie center Alex Kirk and Lou Amundson from New York, along with Lance Thomas from Oklahoma City, but will waive all three players in addition to Samuel Dalembert. For Phil Jackson, this trade represents a massive salary dump, pure and simple.

With New York waiving four players and trading two away, the only thing the Knicks are actually getting out of his is a second round pick. J.R. Smith has long outlived his days as a useful NBA player (in NY, at least), but including a young asset like Shumpert in the deal feels like overkill, even with Tim Hardaway Jr. still on the roster. Then again, it did allow them to dump J.R. Smith.

The deal gives the Knicks a $6 million salary cap trade exception for Smith and $2.5 million for Shumpert, in addition to their deals for this season and Smith’s $6.4 million player option next season. By waiving Dalembert before the Jan. 10 deadline when his contract would have become guaranteed, P-Jax saved the Knicks another $2 million.

In short, Jackson is putting his team into full tank mode while clearing up cap space for this summer when the Knicks are expected to be active players during free agency. If Carmelo Anthony is shut down for the season, the Knicks could become unbearable to watch, though probably not as excruciating as watching Melo play with what’s left of this roster.

Grade: C

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