Tracy McGrady’s knee doesn’t look anywhere near 100% and the Knicks’ newly acquired guard has been getting limited minutes because of it.  He had microfracture knee surgery over a year ago, yet he is still “working his way back.”  His knee bothers him most when the Knicks have games on back to back nights.  His first game with the Knicks was on February 20th, and he had 26 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal in 32 minutes of action.  The next game was the 22nd, and he was able to play 30 minutes and finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist.  The very next night the Knicks played the Celtics, and McGrady looked a step slow.  His shot was off and he played 27 minutes, finishing with 6 points, 8 assists, and 1 rebound.  He bounced back very nicely after the Knicks had a few days off, playing 26 minutes with 23 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in a win over the Wizards.  The Knicks had another game the very next night against the Grizzlies, and T-Mac could only play 15 minutes and sat out the second half.  His knee was still bothering him in the Knicks blowout loss to the Cavaliers, but he was able to play 24 minutes for 6 points, 5 assists, and 2 rebounds.  TMac seems to be a different player when he gets enough time to rest his knee, but whenever the Knicks have back to back games he is almost useless with his sore knee.

The Knicks have traded 25-year old SG/PG Nate Robinson and 24-year old forward Marcus Landry to the Celtics for 31-year old shooting guard Eddie House, 25-year old shooting guard J.R. Giddens and 22-year old SG/SF Bill Walker. Robinson played in 30 games (2 starts) for the Knicks this season and he averaged 24.4 minutes, 13.2 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He finishes his career with the Knicks having played in 312 games (61 starts) in his career and he averaged 24.8 minutes, 12.5 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Robinson will be missed whether the Knicks want to admit it or not. Marcus Landry has played in 17 games (0 starts) for the Knicks this season and he has averaged 6.4 minutes, 2.6 points and 1.1 rebounds per game. He is in his rookie year.

Eddie House played for Mike D’Antoni in Phoenix one year so he will likely get to gun the ball a lot for the Knicks the rest of the season. House played in 50 games (0 starts) for the Celtics this season and he averaged 16.9 minutes, 7.2 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game. J.R. Giddens has played in 21 games (1 start) for the Celtics this season and he averaged 4.7 minutes, 1.1 points, 1.0 rebound and 0.3 assists per game. He has now played in 27 games (1 start) in his NBA career and he is averaging 4.0 minutes, 1.0 point, 0.9 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game. Bill Walker has played in 8 games (0 starts) for the Celtics this season and he averaged 3.6 minutes, 1.0 point, 0.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game. Walker has played in 37 games (0 starts) in his NBA career and he is averaging 6.6 minutes, 2.6 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game.

The Knicks really must have wanted to rid themselves of Robinson as they didn’t get much from the Celtics for him.

The New York Knicks have acquired Tracy McGrady in a three team deal that also involved the Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets.  The Knicks also get Sergio Rodriguez from the Kings, while the Rockets get Jordan Hill and Jared Jeffries from the Knicks, as well as Kevin Martin and Hilton Armstrong from the Kings.  The Kings get Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey from the Rockets, and Larry Hughes from the Knicks.  There were also some agreements made about future draft picks in this deal, with Rockets getting the Knicks first round draft pick in 2012 along with having the option of swapping their first round pick with the Knicks in the 2011 NBA draft.

These were some great moves by the Knicks, as it freed up even more salary cap space for the big 2010 free agent class coming up this summer.  The only problem is if a lot of the big-time free agents decide to re-sign with their teams, then the Knicks are stuck with no big draft picks the next two seasons.  McGrady could help the Knicks some this year, even though he has been a disgruntled player battling knee problems and has played in only 6 games this season.  It was his expiring contract that was the biggest thing to lure the Knicksthough, as his $23 million contract expires July 1st.  Another $16 million will also come of the books with both Al Harrington’s contract and Chris Duhon’s contract expiring. That means the Knicks will have over $30 million to go after LeBron James and possibly another big free agent like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, or Joe Johnson.  If LeBron doesn’t stay in Cleveland, the Knicks are pretty much a lock to land him this offseason.

The Knicks have acquired 32-year old forward Brian Cardinals from the Timberwolves for 24-year old power forward Darko Milicic. Cardinal has played in 27 games (0 starts) for the T-Wolves this season and he was averaging 9.0 minutes, 1.7 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game. He has now played in 354 games (32 starts) in his NBA career and he is averaging 15.7 minutes, 5.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. Cardinal has also nailed 36.9% of his shots from three point range which is pretty good for a forward. Darko Milicic was a bust in his only year with the Knicks. He played in 8 games (0 starts) for the Knicks this season and he was averaging 8.9 minutes, 2.0 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game. At least Coach D’Antoni won’t be scared to give Cardinal a few minutes per game off the bench the rest of the season so for that reason I consider this a small win for the Knicks.

UPDATE: The Knicks have released Brian Cardinal without him even playing in a game for them. They must have really wanted to ditch Darko Milicic.

Coach Mike D’Antoni finally decided to demote Chris Duhon not only from the starting lineup but the playing rotation completely. This has got to make Knicks’ fans happy as Duhon has been pathetic this season. Duhon has played in 48 games (all starts) for the Knicks this season and he is averaging 33.2 minutes, 8.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. But, it is his putrid shooting which is earning him his spot at the very end of the Knicks’ bench. He is shooting only 34.8% from the floor this season and 33.8% from three point range and that just can’t be tolerated out of a starting point guard in the NBA, period.