New York receives center Samuel Dalembert, point guard Jose Calderon and shooting guards Shane Larkin and Wayne Ellington. The Knicks also receive the 34th and 51st picks in Thursday’s draft.
The trade was announced Wednesday night.
This move appears to help the Mavericks, who will pair Chandler, a defensive-minded center, with franchise star Dirk Nowitzki. The two played together on the 2010-11 Mavericks team that won an NBA title at the expense of LeBron James’ Heat.
But the biggest benefit of the deal for the Mavericks is that Calderon’s new contract, which is for $29 million over four years, will come off the books when he moves to New York. Felton has two seasons at just under $9 million left on his contract, but the second year is a player option.
Dallas is making one concession in that it will take on more salary for the 2014-15 season with the final year of Chandler’s deal, which amounts to about $14.5 million. But Chandler will become a free agent at the end of the season.
DIRK ‘THRILLED’
Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki says that bringing Chandler back to Dallas would be a boon for the team.
“He helped me get a championship, so we had great chemistry together,” Nowitzki said Wednesday in New York, where he’s taking part in Steve Nash’s Showdown in Chinatown charity soccer event. “So if it is true, I will be thrilled.”
Nowitzki himself is a free agent, and though he is 36, he once again led his team in scoring, averaging 21.7 points and 6.2 rebounds last season. He said he still intends to play two or three more years, but fret not, Mavs fans — Nowitzki has no intention of leaving Dallas, and he made that clear Wednesday.
“I will probably meet with Cubes (Dallas owner Mark Cuban) since I am a free agent myself on July 1, and I will go from there,” Nowitzki said. “I mean, I don’t want to go anywhere, he doesn’t want me to go anywhere. Hopefully, it will be a short, quick meeting and we’ll get it over and get better as a franchise.”
The bigger question for Nowitzki is whether the Mavericks can finally get another top-flight star player to join him. Nowitzki was an active part of trying to bring point guard Deron Williams to the Mavs in 2012, and was involved once more last summer when he helped Dallas make its pitch to big man Dwight Howard. Dallas struck out on both accounts.
“I was active the last couple of years but it didn’t do anything,” Nowitzki said. “I was active with D-Will, but he stayed here. I flew to LA last year to meet with Dwight, but he signed with Houston. I guess they don’t like me much.”
There is an outside chance that free-agent small forward Carmelo Anthony will consider Dallas this summer. Anthony will be wooed by the Knicks, but he also will get pitches from the Bulls, Lakers and Rockets, and perhaps even the Hawks and Heat.
“For sure, if Dallas is on his radar, he is one of the best forwards we have in this league,” Nowitzki said. “He can score with the best of them. If that’s really a possibility, we would love to have him.”
MELO’S PLANS
Anthony has compiled a list of three teams to visit once the free-agent market opens July 1: the Bulls, Mavericks and Rockets, ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard reports.
No dates have been set for the meetings because teams are not allowed to speak with Anthony until the official open of free agency. But Anthony, who Sporting News learned wants the “Dwight Howard treatment” as a free agent, will give each team a chance to recruit him, ESPN.com reports.
The Bulls have been mentioned as a top candidate for Anthony’s services, but there is no clear favorite at the moment, according to the report. And the Knicks, who can offer Anthony $125 million over five years, remain in play. The other teams can offer Anthony $90 million over four years.
The Lakers are not on Anthony’s original list, but Kobe Bryant plans to personally recruit Anthony. He will meet with Anthony, who is a close friend, Bryant told ESPN.com in a text message.
Anthony was rumored to be part of a plan to establish a Big Four in Miami, but there are no current talks between the Knicks and Heat, ESPN.com reports.
MORE ROOM IN HOUSTON?
The Rockets again are signaling that they’re serious about signing Anthony or LeBron James.
Houston is prepared to trade center Omer Asik to the Pelicans for a 2015 first-round draft pick. The Rockets will also include $1.5 million in the deal, news of which was first reported by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski.
Asik, a 7-0 defensive asset, was set to eat up a larger chunk of cap space next season as his contract jumped from $5.2 million to $14.9 million. Last season he averaged 5.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Two years ago, as Houston’s starting center before Dwight Howard, Asik averaged 10.1 points and 11.7 rebounds.
The move should give the Rockets more room to offer a bigger contract to Anthony or James, who both will be free agents this summer. Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin could be on the move next, leaving James or Anthony to pair with Dwight Howard and James Harden.
The Pelicans, meanwhile, gets star big man Anthony Davis some help and insurance as he takes on a bigger role.
NO TANKING
It is has become the source of much predraft speculation, and according to Jabari Parker, it’s just not true.
Parker, as was reported by ESPN, supposedly went into his workout last Friday with the Cavaliers, holders of the No. 1 pick, overweight and uninspired. One source was quoted anonymously as saying Parker “tanked.”
The motivation? Parker, a Chicago native, could be closer to his family playing in Milwaukee, which holds the No. 2 pick and has targeted him as its preferred choice.
“That didn’t happen, I have a pretty competitive nature when it comes to the court,” Parker said Wednesday as he met with media in New York. “I have too much pride to just waste other people’s time. I come from Duke. And most important, I come from a family with good values.”
Still, Parker — who averaged 19.1 points and 8.7 rebounds as a freshman forward at Duke — said he thinks he is destined to go to Milwaukee, because the Bucks flat-out told him they would take him if he were still on the board. In meeting with the Cavaliers, he said, there was not a solid commitment that he would wind up there.
No. 1? No. 2? Parker said he understands he is in a very talented draft class and can’t go wrong either way.
“This is a really good draft, we have a lot of veteran players and a lot of young players at the same time,” he said. “We all represent something, whatever it is, we need to embrace it. I wouldn’t feel no pain to go No. 2, or to go No. 1. I am not too worried about that.”
What’s more, Parker said he would like the opportunity to discuss the tanking rumor with the source who originally passed it along.
“There’s going to be a lot of speculation and a lot of negativity,” he said. “But honestly, I would be glad to look that person in the eye that wrote that stuff and can give me those assumptions.”
CAVS CONNECTION
A former Cavaliers coach is one of the few men currently around the NBA who has some experience against the current Cavs coach.
That would be Mike Fratello, who coached in Cleveland from 1993 to 1999 and who has had the reins of the Ukraine national team since 2011. It was shortly after taking the job, in fact, that Fratello first ran into David Blatt, who will be the Cavs’ new coach. At the time, Blatt was coaching the top-seeded Russians against Ukraine in the opening game of the Eurobasket championship.
Fratello’s team was a vast underdog in that one, but was just three points behind with 2:53 to play. “It was a hell of a game,” said Fratello, an analyst for NBA TV. “It was close with two minutes to go, and Andrei Kirilenko got a big offensive rebound, we missed a couple of open shots, they made a couple of free throws and they won by nine in the end. … They were very good, he does a great coaching job. We played our hearts out, we were not good enough. ”
Fratello points out that how Blatt will fare in the NBA has a lot to do with how the rest of the offseason goes for the Cavaliers — especially, you know, if Cleveland somehow lures back LeBron James. The Cavs also have the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft.
“As with most coaches, it depends on who’s there,” Fratello said. “And who is going to be there depends on which rumor you want to believe on which day. You could instantly inherit a whole lot of wins depending on what happens — if the right guy (James) comes in. But they have got to make sure they do the right thing with that No. 1 pick — keep it, use it, use it on this player or that player. They have got to get it right.”
Contributors: DeAntae Prince, Sean Deveney, Greg Garno
