Hooped Up

I will not promise you that this is the last Tracy McGrady trade of the day because who knows at this point.

According to ESPN, the Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings and New York Knicks have agreed on a three-way deal that will have Tracy McGrady in a Knicks uniform.

The Knicks will also get Sergio Rodriguez from Sacramento. Houston will get Kevin Martin, Jordan Hill and Jared Jeffries from New York and the right to swap first-round picks with the Knicks in 2011 as well as take on New York’s 2012 first-round pick.

Sacramento receives Houston’s Carl Landry, Joey Dorsey and New York’s Larry Hughes.

Yes sir, dem trade winds are a blowing alright!

Waking up this morning the last team I expected to win the Tracy McGrady sweepstakes was the Sacramento Kings, or any other team not named the Knicks for that matter. Well after some Chai tea and some more research, there it was.

Tracy McGrady shipped off to the Kings, for guards Kevin Martin and Sergio Rodriguez, center Hilton Armstrong and forward Kenny Thomas.

The Kings also reportedly will get hard as nails forward Carl Landry, and seldom-used forward Joey Dorsey. According to ESPN.com, the dust hasn’t settled on this deal yet and the Knicks will try to acquire T-Mac from his new team.

Lets see what happens before the 3PM EST trade deadline.

Trevor Ariza sure looks like he has a bounce in his step after the All-Star break. This was a monster dunk all up in the grill of Mehmet Okur.

The glimmer in the eye Knicks GM Donnie Walsh aka Tracy McGrady, is still bright and with the mid-season trade deadline fast approaching the Knicks are kicking the tires on a complex, three-team deal that would send T-Mac to the New York Knicks, according to Yahoo! Sports.

The deal would have the Washington Wizards moving Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood to the Houston Rockets. The Knicks sending  Al Harrington to the Wizards, plus another player, possible draft picks and cash to make this deal fly.

This season Tracy McGrady is the highest paid player in the NBA earning an estimated $23 million per year.

The Houston Rockets today signed guard Will Conroy of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, making him the 10th GATORADE Call-Up of the 2009-10 NBA D-League season and the second from Rio Grande Valley to Houston.

Conroy, who was called-up three times during the 2006-07 season, joins 69 current NBA players with NBA D-League experience. In a related roster move, the Rockets assigned rookie guard Jermaine Taylor to the Vipers, the team’s NBA D-League affiliate.

Conroy, a 6-2 guard, has appeared in 13 games with the Vipers this season, averaging 13.9 points, 8.4 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals. He scored in double figures 12 times, notching four double-doubles. He scored a season-high 20 points to go with 14 assists in a 109-100 loss to the Albuquerque Thunderbirds on Jan. 13.

Press Release

You can shoot Carl Landry, de-tooth Carl Landry and you can even take away his sight line to the basket (which is far less violent) but you can never stop Carl Landry — at times.

Anyway, this wasn’t one of those times.

Tracy McGrady’s tenure with the Rockets, which began with predictions of multiple championships and “great things happening in the city of Houston,” is likely over after six seasons of highlights, controversies and great, but largely unrealized potential.

With Rockets coach Rick Adelman unable to predict when McGrady will get significant playing time, McGrady’s representatives Monday asked that the Rockets trade McGrady, according to a person with the Rockets with knowledge of the decision.

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey agreed Monday to try to trade McGrady during talks with McGrady’s representatives.

Morey declined comment Monday. McGrady, 30, was granted an indefinite leave of absence while the Rockets seek a trade. A person with knowledge of the Rockets’ talks said no trade is imminent but added the Rockets had not been aggressive in seeking a deal, a stance that likely will change.
Houston Chronicle

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Rockets guard Chase Budinger will be out two to three weeks with a sprained right ankle. Budinger turned the ankle on a drive in the second quarter of Saturday’s 95-90 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. He underwent an MRI on Sunday.

Budinger is averaging 8.2 points and three rebounds, having made 40.9 percent of his shots.

The Rockets are not expected to add a player to their roster with Budinger out. Had forward Carl Landry been out for more than just Saturday’s game, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said the team likely would have signed Mike Harris, who is averaging 26.2 points per game for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the NBA Development League.

Houston Chronicle

First off I feel it’s my civic duty to say, gross! Now that I got that off my chest / keyboard. The Mavericks could be without the services of Dirk Nowitzki, after he lacerated his elbow colliding with Carl Landry’s mouth, leaving pieces of Landry’s broken teeth lodged into his arm. Like I said, gross!

This all when down in the 2nd quarter of the Rockets vs. Mavs game and according to the Houston Chronicle, it took 30 minutes to remove shards of Landry’s teeth from Nowitzki’s elbow. Both players ended up in the ER and did not return to the game. Houston won 116-108 in OT.

Nowitzki and Landry are listed as day-to-day and I just threw up in my mouth a little bit right now.

Houston Rockets coach Rick Adelman criticized the NBA on Monday for setting up an “utterly ridiculous” schedule for his team that includes four back-to-back games over the next two weeks.

The Rockets face Detroit at home on Tuesday, then must fly to Denver to play the first-place Nuggets on Wednesday. They visit Dallas on Friday and return home to face Oklahoma City on Saturday — then have to play two games on consecutive nights twice more during Christmas week.

“We have a horrendous stretch here,” Adelman said. “I don’t know if the league really understands that they gave us four straight back-to-backs. It’s awful.” Read More »