Grant Hill Visiting NY

From Newsday:

While Jason Kidd spent the holiday weekend in Dallas - Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told Newsday last night that Kidd has agreed to return to the Mavericks - one of the Knicks' other free-agent targets, Grant Hill, was hooking up in Orlando with Celtics coach Doc Rivers.

Hill will be in New York Monday to meet with Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni, who are making an attempt to upgrade the talent and character of the roster with their only free-agency tools: the $5.6-million mid-level exception and the $1.99-million biannual exception.

Dallas made a three-year offer reportedly worth more than $25 million to Kidd, although the signing cannot be officially announced yet. "We are excited to have Jason Kidd back in a Mavs uniform,'' Cuban said. "He was a major contributor for us last year and we expect more of the same next year.''


Good! 1 down, 1 to go. I will hope to no end that the Knicks do not sign Grant Hill for "veteran leadership". Where the hell will he lead this team? To 35 wins and a 10th seed?

Jason Kidd was understandable. New York needs depth at point guard. It was the 3-year deal that didn't make sense. But now a team that's heavy at small forward wants to go sign another one? One who's 36 with shaky knees? Tell me how that will bettert he team...

Bringing in Grant Hill isn't more important than giving those minutes to Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari. Those are two young players who are supposed to be here for years to come.

Here's where you get your veteran leadership. Sign David Lee. Done.

But this is the other side of the situation. Could Donnie Walsh be pursuing scrubs like Grant Hill and Jason Kidd to make it seem like he isn't interested in signing David Lee? Thus, bringing down the price of his offers?

It's a strong possibility. Donnie is smart, I think he's displayed that very well. He effectively reversed almost 100% of Isiah Thomas' bad acquisitions. He got rid of Jerome James for Pete's sake! But we all know how Mike D'Antoni likes to have his guys, and Hill's career was reborn in the D'Antoni offense. It could be the favoritism factor by D'Antoni.

Either way, sign David Lee!


--The Denver Post is saying:

Denver is also in talks with the Suns' Grant Hill, a possible free-agent signee, although Hill and his family enjoy the Phoenix community. Hill made around $4 million over the past two seasons.


UPDATE: For what it's worth, I'm hearing that along with Rasheed Wallace, it looks like Grant Hill has a good chance to end up in Boston. Glen Davis is being looked at by San Antonio, which lost out on the Wallace sweepstakes.

Here's the Fanhouse link to the Hill to Boston stuff.


--Max Caster