The NY Knicks are an active team this summer and Phil Jackson made a trade with the Kings for Quincy Acy and Travis Outlaw, sending Wayne Ellington and Jeremy Tyler and now he could be looking at trades with names like Pablo Prigioni, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, Amar'e Stoudemire or Shane Larkin after Ellington was moved and that followed the earlier trade of Tyson Chandler.
Jackson is looking to build this team in his image and after signing back Carmelo Anthony, Phil has made some solid moves this offseason, including trading Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton for useful pieces like Jose Calderon and Samuel Dalembert. According to ESPN.com, the Knicks are shopping Prigioni and this comes after they dangled Ellington and got back some players for that deal to use.
The team traded away Wayne Ellington to the Sacramento Kings and now they have the chance to make more moves after they previously were unsuccessful in trading Ellington this offseason. The Knicks already had a number of big men with Cole Aldrich, Jason Smith and Samuel Dalembert and that's why Tyler was moved and now the team has more depth behind Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks feel that having Quincy Acy and Travis Outlaw give them more flexibility in the rotation and more depth in an area where that is needed.
Cleanthony Early signed his rookie contract and the Knicks are expecting him to be a solid contributor and he also could be used as a backup got Carmelo Anthony. The team wanted to break up the logjam up front and that's why they made the deal with Sacramento and now they could do the same with the backcourt at some point this summer, as they have a surplus of players at the position.
The Knicks started off terribly last year and they can't afford to start that way again and this summer Melo said he is keeping that in mind as he prepared for the season. Anthony had another very good season and he was easily the MVP of the Knicks and now he has a new five year deal and the chance to be a part of something big with Jackson building from the ground up.
Jackson has his own coach hired with Derek Fisher and he is on a five year deal as well and that means Melo, Jackson and Fisher are tied to each other and that's something the franchise has not had in many years. The Knicks are looking to get better on defense and the trades should help that and it also gives Anthony some support behind him. The Knicks already have a better team than last season and this should be a playoff team even if they do not win the division, as Anthony has more players around him and the addition of Jose Calderon could be massive as well.
While Knicks fans are not known for being patient, the fact that those main three are on five year deals is promising, as that gives a solid timeframe for this to be a success. Going year to year whole firing coaches and changing philosophies is not a way to do business and now the Knicks will get a taste of the right way to do it.
