Stephen Curry Slipping Away from the Knicks

From Adrian Wojnarowski:

The Washington Wizards have agreed in principle to acquire Minnesota Timberwolves guards Randy Foye and Mike Miller for Etan Thomas, Oleksiy Pecherov and Darius Songaila and the fifth pick in Thursday’s NBA draft, a league executive with knowledge of the deal told Yahoo! Sports. The teams are still working out details but the deal is expected to be consummated.

So if this goes through, the possible Larry Hughes and/or Jared Jeffries deal to Washington will be nixed. That leaves the Knicks with limited partners do deal with. Minnesota probably won't flip the pick for beans and the teams surrounding the 5th spot don't have much desire to trade with New York.

So no 5th pick means no Stephen Curry for the Knicks, unless, of course, the unlikely occurs and Curry slips to pick number 8.

With Jonny Flynn a possibility at number 4 to Sacramento and the high stocks of Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday, the Knicks could be picking with Ricky Rubio on the board, and that scares me.

Frank Isola wrote today that the Knicks are most definitely interested in Rubio:

There have been reports that Rubio, because of his $6 million buyout with his European team, could fall to the Knicks at No. 8. Walsh did not rule out that scenario, saying Monday that Rubio and UConn center Hasheem Thabeet could both drop.

"I'm not confident that they will be in the top four," Walsh said from the Knicks' training facility in Greenburgh. "They could. It's possible. I'm not saying it's going to happen."

Rubio's agent Dan Fegan has told Memphis and Oklahoma City, second and third overall, respectively, not to select his client. However, those teams have the right to draft Rubio with the intention of including him in a deal.

If the Knicks were to trade for Rubio, they likely would deal their first-round pick and at least one player, perhaps Wilson Chandler. The Knicks could also trade free agents-to-be David Lee and/or Nate Robinson.

That last part is unsettling. Chandler and Lee need to stay. I'm against trading them, especially for a player with major questions about his offensive game.

--By the way, Adrian also says that the Bucks traded Fabricio Oberto for Amir Johnson. Milwaukee just got Oberto today in the Richard Jefferson deal.


--Max Caster