Rose for Earl Watson?

by Tommy Dee on January 7th, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Finger point to Gym Rat lonman for emailing me that he heard Gus Johnson on the radio talking about rumors of a possible deal that would send Malik Rose‘s expiring to Oklahoma City for reserve point guard Earl Watson.

After a Google search I noticed it was only being discussed in certain forums, nothing published. I haven’t heard this one but it makes plenty of sense.

Watson makes 6.6 million dollars in the last year of his contract, which is next season.

We’ve been talking a lot about how Chris Duhon‘s game has slipped of late and I sense some dead legs. I totally respect Duhon’s efforts thus far, but he’d be much more effective playing in that 30-35 minute range.

Did anyone else hear this on the radio?
  • Chris Alvino

    If that is the absolute best that we can do for Malik’s expiring contract, then I am in for it. Watson is a nice player, but only in a backup role.

    He is a productive player that looks to pass first. He will not add any offensive infusion, but he is a Chris Duhon type of ballplayer. I would love to extend that deal to get one of their forwards (like a Wilcox or Smith), but that might not be possible.

  • BiggieSmalls

    Im not crazy about that as a good use for Malik’s expiring contract.. It seems very short term in nature.. granted it is in line with the 2010 plan but a 7.6 million dollar expiring deal is a valuable commodity

  • greatman42001

    TD I got two things for you.

    1) Your style of writing has changed, since this whole Isola thing, you don’t need to ask everyone if they heard such a thing to confirm your sources. Us readers believe you as a credible source by itself. If this is what you heard thats all you need to say. Don’t worry if someone calls you out on it, you said it was a rumor and thats it.

    2) As for Watson for Malik Rose, I think that makes perfect sense, the only thing I can see that could possibly work better then that is trading Rose along with Lee or Curry to possibly get a guy with 2 years left on his contract that is better than Watson. But if that is what we can get I’ll take it, Watson seems like a nice back up pg that can take a few minutes off Duhon’s back. More importantly though it will guarentee that Nate will never play PG again which in my eyes can give us another 4 to 5 wins.

  • http://theKnicksBlog.com Tommy Dee

    No No great…I was asking if anyone else heard Gus mention it on the radio….

    Honestly, I don’t give a f*ck about that other stuff…

  • Chris Alvino

    Great and Big- I echo you points. I like Watson. Can this team use him? Yeah in the worst way they can use him. But this team can use any NBA pg at this point. Is Watson the best we can do for Malik’s expiring deal? Like I said, I would love to pry one of their young big men along with the deal, if not a guy like Wilcox.

    Johan Petro would work for me. Throw in Roberson to make the deal work numbers wise.

  • BiggieSmalls

    Just not that train wreck Swift with all those tats.

  • http://www.thiswebsiteissoawesome.com/ The Frankman

    I would think we could package the expiring with Curry/Lee in a trade… Heck we can cut Roberson and sign a backup off off the NBDL roster.

    I just think Rose’s contract is more valuable than Earl Watson.

  • italian stallion

    I hope they do something soon. It’s tough to watch this team when the only potentially long term relevant players are Chandler and Gallinari because of their youth (and one them has only played a few minutes). Let’s face it. This team doesn’t have any other players that are sure to be relevant in 2010 and beyond. Everyone is either irrelevant, a rent a player, or only highly regarded because the rest of the Knicks are so bad. The closet thing we have to a good player is Lee and the debate in Portand about our star player is whether it makes sense to pay so much for a bench role player.

  • BiggieSmalls

    hey IS >. welcome over from the Soviet Republic of Knickerblogger.

    Dont be so down on watching the games.. The long term plan is sound and we can all see a light at the end of the tunnel.. It may be a little longer to get there but at least we have the people in place to execute.

    I would argue that even Chandler is movable in the right deal .

  • Frank

    I’m also a refugee from the Soviet Republic- IS — good to see you here also!

    Re: Watson for Rose — blah. It’s a wash either way. Our team will be essentially irrelevant on the floor until 2010. If there was a chance that we could get a 1st rounder in the late lottery for Malik’s contract, or even one in the high teens, I’d rather have the pick. Unless we get that, does it really matter who we get? Anyone we pick up will likely be gone in 2010 anyway.

    That being said, I like Watson as a player — good defender, good distributor — really just like Duhon. Certainly he’s more useful than Rose.

  • belikmike23

    Knicks need to cut Roberson and sign Dee Brown and Darius Miles. By signing Brown they don’t need to give up Rose’s valuable expiring contract and they could then use it in a package with Lee. For my reasons of signing Miles you can look at my post under the article about the Grizzlies waiving him today.

  • BiggieSmalls

    Cutting Roberson has to happen today in order for him to clear waivers before the Friday deadline. On Friday all contracts become guaranteed.

    This is why we are seeing borderline players getting cut today..

  • http://www.knicksfan.net/?p=270 The Knicks Couldn’t Beat Petro and Second Rounder? | The Knicks FanBlog

    [...] look for Earl Watson to be on the move sooner than later. Perhaps to the Knicks for Malik. Share and [...]

  • superjay779

    If we could do this trade that would be awesome. Doubt The Thunder would bite though.

  • mariners005

    Soviet Republic……………..really? forget it. I think as of right now its our best move, but the closer we get to the deadline deals will start to flood in. Sometimes teams wait till the deadline before they give up on their team