The Knicks officially announced the Tyson Chandler signing that goes down as a sign-and-trade in a three-team deal involving Dallas and Washington.
The 7-1 Chandler will sign a four-year deal worth roughly $56 million. The Knicks traded Andy Rautins to Dallas for the rights to two obscure Dallas draft picks, Ahmad Nivins of Jersey City and Giorgos Printezis, who is playing in Greece with Olympiakos.
The rest of the package had been previously reported, with center Ronny Turiaf and cash headed to Washington and Chauncey Billups formally waived via the new amnesty clause.
Chandler said the Nets and Golden State were his top two choices before the Knicks barged in on the process on Thursday.
“I didn’t hear serious things from the agent until Thursday,’’ Chandler said at the press conference. “The Knicks honestly came in last minute. I almost was ready to make my decision. Once the Knicks opportunity came up, I didn’t want to hear about anything else.’’
Chandler said forming the frontcourt of Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony was something he couldn’t pass up.
“Playing alongside Amare and Carmelo, I’ve thought so highly of them throughout my career,’’ Chandler said. “ I feel like they’re two dogs. I like to be alongside people who I feel will fight with me every night. I felt if I came here, two aggressive guys like that, there’s potential to do something very special.’’
All these maneuvers were done to get under the salary cap in order to afford Chandler in a drastic change of strategic planning as the Knicks will now forever be over the cap in the future, no longer waiting for Chris Paul, who was on the verge of being headed again to the Lakers. The Knicks removed $19M in salary today to take on Chandler. Billups made $14.2M, Turiaf $4.2M and Rautins $600,000.
Dallas agreed to do the sign-and-trade to get a trade exception that could help them land Samuel Dalembert or ultimately Dwight Howard. The Knicks could have signed Chandler outright.
Knicks owner James Dolan spoke at the press conference, saying “He’s going to love it in New York and the fans are going to love him back.’’
The Knicks are looking to add another point guard and have had talks with Mike Bibby’s agent, David Falk. Last spring, former Knicks president Donnie Walsh had a chance to decline the option on Billups’ final year but instead exercised it. There was debate then on whether they should decline to exercise the option and go after the elite centers in the free-agent class led by Tyson Chandler, Marc Gasol and DeAndre Jordan.
Billups was unaware of the Knicks’ secret plot to use the amnesty on him if they had a crack at Chandler and flew into New York Thursday ready for training camp. He flew back that day and his agent Andy Miller has threatened he would retire if the wrong team picked him up in the amnesty bidding. There’s speculation if he falls through the bidding, Miami would scoop him up.
No. 6: Tyson Chandler shows off his Kni9cks jersey at a press conference announcing his signing to a 4-year, million contract. (Neil Miller)