Amar'e Stoudemire has been introduced and is now a member of your New York Knicks. The report now is that the deal isn't an outright signing, but a sign-and-trade with the Suns. Since I have the cognitive abilities of a starfish, I'll let the Arizona Republic's Paul Coro explain what this means for the Knicks:
The Suns will use Amar'e Stoudemire's official departure today to make a pair of sign-and-trade deals with New York and Chicago, netting the Suns a $16.5 million trade exception from the Knicks and using part of that for Hakim Warrick's acquisition, according to Stoudemire's agent, Happy Walters.
Walters said the trade exception the Suns are receiving in return for first signing Stoudemire to his five-year, $99.7 million contract with New York is for $16.5 million, equivalent to Stoudemire's first-year salary. That means the Suns would not be getting a player, like free agent David Lee in return.
It was expected that New York would receive a second-round pick in such an arrangement, as well as about $800,000 in extra salary cap space this year by being able to start Stoudemire's contract at a lower first-year salary. By Phoenix signing Stoudemire before trading him, the contract can have 10.5 percent raises to get to the same $99.7 million total as he would have by signing with New York with eight percent raises.
Coro notes that if and when LeBron James spurns the Knicks, David Lee could still be included in the deal. With that much-rumored deal with the Warriors on his plate, though, Donnie Walsh might be looking elsewhere. Anyway, if the Knicks somehow come away with some extra cap space and a pick in the deal, then that's fine by me. I won't even bother to ask how that works.
Update: I added the video of Stoudemire's press conference after the jump.
