The 29-game diversion was on a plane headed to New York last night eager to give Knicks fans something interesting to watch while this long NBA season mercifully reaches a conclusion and the real drama begins.
Tracy McGrady in a Knicks uniform is a reality for the next two months after team president Donnie Walsh shipped Jared Jeffries, Jordan Hill and Larry Hughes in a three-team deal involving the Kings and the Rockets.
The deal was done to create an additional $9.4 million in cap space, which will give the Knicks enough money to possibly sign two premium free agents this summer when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and host of other talented players will be shopping for teams. For McGrady, who had been working out in Chicago, it’s a chance to prove he still has something left after missing most of the last two seasons because of knee surgery.
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“I had somebody look at him and they said [McGrady] can play,” Walsh said last night when the deal was officially announced. “He looked good. He can shoot. He can take it to the goal and he can pass. But we’ll see when he gets here.”
Walsh, who also netted guard Sergio Rodriguez from the Kings, deserves plenty of applause for clearing more cap space than could have been imagined when he took the job two years ago. He even managed to protect his first-round draft pick in 2012. But the Knicks can’t take advantage of Walsh’s fine work until July. First they must get through the rest of this season. That’s where McGrady comes in.
The seven-time All-Star will at least make these final weeks of the season interesting. McGrady, 30, led the league in scoring in 2003 and 2004 when he was one of the top five players in the game. But no one should expect him to resemble the player he was then.
He had microfracture surgery on his left knee in 2009 and hasn’t played since a six-game stretch in December, when he averaged just 3.2 points a game. He became a malcontent around the Rockets and did not leave Houston on the best of terms.
“There were no tears over his leaving,” said a source in Houston, who follows the Rockets. “It was more like ‘Can we put you on a plane and help you out of town?’ ”
McGrady gets a clean slate with the Knicks. What he does with it is up to him. McGrady’s biggest impact for the Knicks likely will be the added cap space created with the departures of Jeffries and Hill. That could be his ultimate legacy in New York. Still, the Knicks should get the best he has to offer for the rest of this season.
He’ll be auditioning for a new contract next year, so it’s in his best interest to bring his A-game and act like a model teammate. That’s probably why he hopped on a plane as quickly as possible.
“We have every indication that he is healthy and committed to re-establishing himself as one of the best in our game,” Walsh said.
That might be a bit much to ask. But the better McGrady performs over the next two months, the more money he could command during the offseason. If he stinks up the Garden with his attitude and his work ethic, he could find himself begging for a job.
Either way the Knicks have nothing to lose. It’s not like McGrady can ruin the chemistry of a locker room that has no chemistry, and it’s not like the Knicks are expected to offer him big money even if he dazzles over the next two months, though Walsh said “all options are open.”
Still, he has the name to create a badly-needed buzz in the Garden. How long it lasts is up to McGrady.