New York Knicks Blog – Page 117 – NBA Blog

Knicks manage to avoid paying luxury tax

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:

Give former Knicks president Donnie Walsh a pat on the back. The NBA announced yesterday its audit for the 2010-11 season is complete and, according to a person familiar with the situation, the Knicks did not pay a luxury tax for the first time since the now-expired collective bargaining agreement was reached in 1999.

According to a person debriefed on the audit, the Knicks 2010-11 payroll finished over the salary cap following the Carmelo Anthony bonanza, but finished at $67 million — $3 million less than the luxury-tax threshold.

During the Isiah Thomas and Scott Layden years, the Knicks paid a dollar-for-dollar luxury tax of $24-30 million annually, when their payroll skied above $100 million, leading to Walsh’s hiring and his massive cap-cutting. A source said the three luxury-tax victims were the Lakers, Orlando and the NBA champion Mavericks, each paying around $20 million.

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Billy Hunter tells InsideHoops that NBA lockout meetings may not resume until August

By Jeff Lenchiner

Wednesday evening in New York City I paid a visit to Dyckman Park for some streetball action. It was a big matchup of some top teams that has been anticipated for weeks, so the park was packed. Included in the crowd were rapper Jadakiss, Denver Nuggets forward Al Harrington, and the head of the NBA Players Union, Billy Hunter, among others.

Before the game, Hunter, bravely attempting to communicate as some top-notch rap music blasted from the park’s booming speakers at full volume, gave InsideHoops.com a very quick update on the current NBA lockout situation:

InsideHoops.com: What’s the latest?

Billy Hunter: We’re trying to find some way to re-open the negotiations. We’re not making very much progress. It looks like we’re going to be where we are, I would assume probably [until] August before we actually end up getting back together.

InsideHoops.com: How long might the lockout last?

Hunter: It’s unpredictable. It’s hard to say how long it’s going to go.

It sounds like NBA fans should not hold their breath waiting for positive developments just yet.

Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov signs in Russia

Euroleague.net reports:

BC Khimki Moscow Region brought a familiar face back and announced a new player with the signing of Timofey Mozgov and Chris Quinn on Thursday. Mozgov (2.16 meters, 25 years old) played four seasons with the club from 2006 through 2010. He averaged 6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in 16 Euroleague games as a reserve in his final season with the club, 2009-10. Last season Mozgov played for New York and Denver in the NBA, where he amassed 3.6 points and 2.7 rebounds over 45 games. Mozgov grew up with LenVo St. Petersburg and also played for CSK VVS-2 Samara before joining Khimki for the first time. During his time with Khimki he helped the team reach the 2009 Eurocup title game and qualify for the Euroleague for the first time. He has also developed into a regular for the Russian national team, for whom he played at EuroBasket 2009 and at the FIBA World Championships last summer.

Marcus Landry signs in France

Euroleague.net reports:

BCM Gravelines improved its roster for the upcoming Turkish Airlines Euroleague Qualifying Round by inking versatile forward Marcus Landry to a one-year deal, the club announced Tuesday. Landry (2.01 meters, 25 years old) arrives from Maratonistas de Coamo, where he averaged 11.9 points and 4.9 rebounds in 10 Puerto Rican League games this season. He started the 2010-11 season with Reno in the NBA Development League, averaging 17.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in 53 games and helped this team to reach the D-League semifinals before joining Coamo.

Union plans player meetings as NBA lockout drags on with no progress

Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated reports:

There will be labor-related meetings in the near future.

They just aren’t the kind that typically lead to collective bargaining progress.

According to sources close to the situation, the National Basketball Players Association is planning a series of player sessions in as many as six cities over “the next month or so,” as a way to help with its planning during the lockout and update players on the state of negotiations with the NBA. Unless things unexpectedly change, there won’t be much to report on that front.

While mid-level staffers from both sides met on Friday to finalize the numbers related to basketball-related income (BRI) for the 2010-11 season, no negotiating sessions involving commissioner David Stern or NBPA executive director Billy Hunter have been scheduled. Sources said the BRI numbers were not finalized Friday and more similar sessions are forthcoming to that end, but the union is focused on fortifying from within rather than exchanging proposals with the owners, who are pushing for a hard salary cap as part of a drastic overhaul to the current system.

InsideHoops.com editor says: Basically, the two sides are considering their various options and possible proposal changes, amongst themselves. There’s no way of knowing if either side plans to make any changes the next time they make offers to each other, when they do eventually meet again. I’m just guessing here but it sounds like the earliest the NBA lockout could even possibly end is early August. But that’s not expected, because it sounds like both sides remain pretty far apart.

Knicks may want Lawrence Frank

Alan Hahn of New York Newsday (blog) reports:

Whatever happens in Detroit could trigger Mike D’Antoni’s activity in searching for a defensive assistant coach.

All eyes will be on what happens with the Pistons head coaching position, as the finalists appear to be Mike Woodson and Lawrence Frank.

From what we’ve been hearing, D’Antoni personally likes Frank and there is a strong mutual interest there for many reasons.

First of all, whomever the Knicks hire would have to accept a one-year deal because D’Antoni is going into the final year of his contract and there is some uncertainty about his future. Frank, unlike most, would likely be amenable to accepting a one-year contract because it gives him the freedom to continue to look for head coaching jobs.

Frank might also prefer New York over returning to Boston for proximity reasons, as well, because he could be home full-time in New Jersey, where his wife and two daughters remained last season when he worked for the Celtics.

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Eddy Curry is still very overweight

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports:

Eddy Curry’s predicament is clear: If he loses at least 40 more pounds during the lockout, then the Heat likely will have renewed and genuine interest because Pat Riley remains highly intrigued by the 7-foot center. The question is whether he has the discipline to achieve that mighty challenge.

Curry, 28, reportedly topped 350 pounds during his late March workout for the Heat. He lost a lot more weight — in excess of 20 pounds — between that point and late June, when he auditioned again for the Heat over several days.

But he entered the lockout still at least 40 pounds overweight, according to a league official briefed on the situation. “You watch him shoot and he’s got great touch, good hands,” said a player source who was invited to Curry’s multiplayer Heat workouts in late June. “He’s very skilled. But it’s a question of whether he gets more serious. He’s got a long way to go.”

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Lakers rookie Ater Majok plays streetball in EBC at Rucker Park in NYC

Los Angeles Lakers rookie forward Ater Majok was in New York City Monday to play for the D.C. Power streetball team in the Entertainers Basketball Classic at Rucker Park. InsideHoops.com was at the park and watched the whole game.

Majok blocked plenty of shots, mostly as a help defender, but didn’t really stand out in other aspects, missing plenty of shots to finish with seven points and committing a fair amount of turnovers. He was solid as a rebounder as well, though simply by watching it was tough to say he really stood out on the glass.

But, this was not one of the better games, even by streetball standards, so of course it makes little sense to put much stock into Ater’s skills and future potential in the NBA based on one game in the park.

There weren’t many game highlights involving Majok worth showing, but here are two InsideHoops.com video clips.

Majok is No.12 in orange, with the mini-mohawk. Here he is blocking a shot, then rushing out to to defend a jumpshot (which misses) from the right baseline:

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Here, in the game’s final seconds, Majok gets to toss down an open dunk:

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Amare Stoudemire has no plans to play basketball overseas

Justin Terranova of the New York Post reports:

Amar’e Stoudemire will wait out the lockout in New York.

The Knicks star put an end to any rumors that he would play basketball in Europe if the NBA’s labor issues persist.

“Europe teams are calling, I think I’m going 2 stay here in the states,” Stoudemire wrote on Twitter on Saturday night. “My loyalty is with the State of New York and the NYK’s. Who’s with me?”

It came a day after Stoudemire hinted at playing in Israel on the social network site.

“Should I go to Israel an play for Maccabi Tel Aviv during the lockout?” Stoudemire asked his Twitter followers on Friday.

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Maciej Lampe signs in Spain

Euroleague.net reports:

One day after its starting center transferred elsewhere, Caja Laboral reacted with a big signing of its own by grabbing Maciej Lampe for two seasons. Lampe (2.10 meters, 26 years old) arrives from Eurocup champion Unics Kazan, where he spent the past two seasons. Lampe averaged 15.6 points and a competition best 8.1 rebounds last season as he was named to the All- Eurocup First Team. For the season, Lampe ranked second in the Eurocup in average performance index rating at 19.6 per game.