NY Daily News: Sprewell could land in San Antonio

[Cassius Clay]

www.nydailynews.com/sport...3031c.html


Sprewell could land in San Antonio

By FRANK ISOLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Latrell Sprewell's days in New York appear to be numbered.

The Knicks are trying to find a fourth team willing to be included in a complicated trade that would involve sending Sprewell to San Antonio and with the Knicks getting Keith Van Horn from Philadelphia, according to a person familiar with Scott Layden's thinking.

Last week, there were reports that the Sixers would get Malik Rose from San Antonio but the Spurs have said they will not trade Rose, a backup power forward who also happens to be Tim Duncan's best friend on the team. It is unclear as to which club is the fourth team in the deal or whom the Sixers will get in the proposed trade.

One Western Conference GM said yesterday the Knicks were close to trading Sprewell to the Spurs. However, a Knicks spokesman denied that a trade was imminent.

Reached yesterday in at his home in Utah, Van Horn acknowledged being aware of the trade rumors but declined to comment.

Layden, the Knicks' president and GM, yesterday was in Salt Lake City, where the Knicks' summer league team is participating in the Rocky Mountain Revue. He was unavailable for comment.

Layden has tried to trade Sprewell since last summer and has turned down several deals, including a trade with Milwaukee that would have brought Glenn Robinson to Madison Square Garden. Robinson eventually was traded to Atlanta.

Sprewell has two years remaining on his contract that will pay him $26 million. One of Sprewell's close friends said Sprewell maintains that he wants to finish his career in New York, but that Sprewell also believes there is a strong chance he will be traded.

Sprewell is the team's most popular player but his relationship with management has been strained since April of 2002, when he failed to show up for a morning shootaround in Miami. Five months later, Sprewell arrived for training camp with a broken hand and was banished from the team for two weeks for failing to notify the club of his condition. He was also suspended for one exhibition game.

Sprewell missed the first eight games of the 2002-03 season and the Knicks started the year 1-7. Overall, they were 37-45.

On the last day of the season, during a press conference to announce Don Chaney's contract extension, several players were praised by Garden officials for their individual performances. However, Garden chairman James Dolan, Layden and Steve Mills, the president of Garden sports operations, all failed to mention Sprewell.

And yet, Sprewell finished second on the team in scoring and steals and ranked third in assistants and fourth in rebounding.

Many NBA scouts feel that if the Knicks swap Sprewell for Van Horn they will be sacrificing toughness for more scoring. The Knicks had no trouble scoring last season; they averaged 95.9 ppg., Their problem was stopping the other team from putting up an average of 97.2 ppg.

[Cassius Clay]

The only reason for a 4th team to be involved would be to send something to Philadelphia. The Spurs can basically offer that 4th team the ability to clear up to $12 mil in salary off the books. But the Sixers would have to be willing to take on whatever contract(s) that other team is willing to send out.

Here's an interesting thought...what if the Warriors join the deal in order to clear up the cap space to match the offer to Arenas?

Or perhaps the Spurs sign and trade Claxton as part of the deal and the Warriors send some players to Philadelphia?

[Ghost Writer]

Cassius, you and I have always pined for Spree on the Spurs, but is now the time?

Rose, for all his "short"-comings, is still clearly our best big off the bench.

The tandem of Manu and Jack literally give us everything Sprewell would give in terms of skills and passion.

I don't know about this one.

We must have plans to add a credible big man to the bench, too.

[Cassius Clay]

Rose is off the table according to the article. I would surmise that the Knicks are looking for a 4th team that would give Philly back something other than cap relief from KVH's contract.

[Cassius Clay]

Also, if the Spurs have made a $5 mil offer to Horry they must've given up on landing Sprewell.

[MannyIsGod]

Exactly, I think this trade is dead in the water.

[Ghost Writer]

Why would the $5 million offer kill a deal for Horry?

We'd be trading some salary away to get Spree, right?

Why are we offering the downtrodded Horry $5 million anyway?


Question.

[Cassius Clay]

Basically if they offer Horry $5 mil then they would need to deal Rose but as we can see Rose is apparently off the table.

[MannyIsGod]

Well, thats true, if we do a sign and trade with speedy and jax, it could = the diffrence.

Question is, what does that do to piatkowski? We're losing speedy, so i woudln't mind doing a S&T w/ him and jax for spree.

We'll see though.

[Cassius Clay]

If you S&T those two then their salaries come out of the cap space until the Spurs go over the cap. Then the Spurs wouldn't have enough salary to send out.

[Ghost Writer]

Does signing Horry for that much money make Rose expendable?


Question.

[Cassius Clay]

I would say no. Horry's role is likely to be the 4th big with perhaps some time at the 3 depending upon the situation. He'll have the "Ferry role" but obviously he will be an upgrade. This is a shrewd move by the Spurs should it go down.

[Ghost Writer]

$5 million is a lot to pay someone for the "Ferry role".

I think the Spurs see him doing more than that. I hope.

[Cassius Clay]

Well, he'll be an asset to have as a reserve. He's not as limited as Ferry is. Keep his minutes down and keep him fresh for the playoffs.

[50 Cent]

The Spurs management team has gone completely off the deep end if they offer Horry 5M a year. That's ing crazy. I'm all for Horry coming, but for closer to the vet min. than $5M.

[MannyIsGod]

Well, it makes no diffrence what they pay him to be honest with you.

Its not like we need the capspace to sign anyone else,so they can offer him an inflated deal to make sure he doesn't go back to the lakers or dallas.

Having this guy off the lakers is huge, and I don't think the lakers realize it.

[Ghost Writer]

Manny, who is backing up Parker next season?


Question.

[Spurminator]

Assuming we land Horry for the 5 million, don't we still have plenty left over to sign a backup PG? How much would that leave us?

[SAmikeyp]

Manny, who is backing up Parker next season?

Manny is!! the dude can ball!!

[MannyIsGod]

Ghost,

is 7 million in capspace enough to get a backup point guard?

[Ghost Writer]

Sure, Manny. I'd like to square the backup PG away before we throw $5 million at a washed up player who will only see 10 minutes a night for us if we bring back last year's rotation.

[MannyIsGod]

Ghost, don't act like Pop and RC only talk to one player at at time. They have several negotiations going on, I'm sure of that.

You don't sit around and tell a player to hold on because you haven't filled another need that is not directly related, and Horry and a backup PG are not directly related.

[Ghost Writer]

Whatever, Man. I'd just assume save the money for a better acquisition. It baffles me that the front officce would overpay for a guy that actually helped us beat LA with his awful shooting, yet we turn a blind eye to Lamar Odom.

That's par for the course this offseason.

[MannyIsGod]

There is plenty of money to go around, 7 million left after this deal for a point guard is MORE than enough.

[Ghost Writer]

That's true, Manny.

I guess I'm just not ready to overpay for crap when there's still guys like Odom out there.