GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The Knicks will acquire Tracy McGrady in a three-team deal with the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings, according to ESPN.com, which cited “NBA front-office sources.”
The Knicks will get McGrady and his $23 million expiring contract and Sergio Rodriguez from Sacramento, while the Rockets will acquire Kevin Martin and Hilton Armstrong from Sacramento and Jordan Hill and Jared Jeffries from the Knicks. The Rockets and Knicks will swap first-round picks in 2011 and the Rockets will also receive the Knicks’ 2012 first-round pick.
The 2011 pick is top-1 protected and the 2012 pick is top-5 protected, ESPN.com’s Chad Ford reported.
“Houston bound now,” Hill, the No. 8 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, wrote on his Twitter feed
Carl Landry, Joey Dorsey and the Knicks’ Larry Hughes will head to Sacramento.
Hughes is out four weeks with a broken finger (fractured left fourth metacarpal).
If the deal goes through the Knicks would have four players under contract for next season: Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Eddy Curry and Toney Douglas.
By shedding Jeffries’ $6.9 million deal for next year, plus a $2.5 million commitment to Hill, the Knicks would have another $9.5 million in salary cap space.
That would give the Knicks more than $3o million in cap space to pursue two free agents beginning July 1 from the group of LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Joe Johnson.
The Knicks have already surrendered their 2010 first-round pick, now owned by the Utah Jazz.
McGrady has averaged 21.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists over his career but has played in only 101 games over the last two years.
He had microfracture surgery on his left knee in February and played in just six games this year with Houston, averaging 3.2 points and 0.8 rebounds.
A seven-time NBA All-Star, McGrady was reportedly unhappy with his diminished role.
How much can he give the Knicks this year?
“I think those are all questions that need to be asked and answered as best you can,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni told The New York Times in December. “You don’t have a crystal ball, so you don’t know all that. You just try to make the best decision you can make and hope it’s the right one and go with it.”
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