Seriously, FUCK Miami Thrice. Some will claim the NBA’s Eastern Conference is already wrapped up by some South Beach combination of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh (and perhaps Derek Fisher), but those folks have yet to witness (GET IT?) the sick potential of a trio featuring Amar’e Stoudemire, Raymond Felton and Timofey Mozgov. The New York Post’s Marc Berman has the details that will surely result in some sort of massive celebratory party at MSG any day now.
The Knicks last night were on the verge of signing 7-foot-1 Russian free-agent center Timofey Mozgov, according to a source. The anticipated three-year,
$9 million deal would eat up the rest of their cap space.
The Knicks worked out the 24-year-old the past week and were hoping word would not get out. The Knicks must pay his Russian team Khimki $500,000.
Mozgov veraged six points and four rebounds in 13 minutes per game last season for Khimki. Though he didn’t log a lot of minutes, the standard in Russia is for young centers to be brought along slowly.
According to a person familiar with the Knicks’ thinking, the club will explore trading Wilson Chandler, possibly packaging him with the expiring contract of Eddy Curry. The Knicks would love to trade for a premier outside-shooting big man.
All this Lebron talk got me back into Knicks mode, but this Timofey guy doesn’t seem too bad coupled with Amare and a serious shooter.