HOUSTON (AP)—The New York Knicks have acquired disgruntled guard Tracy McGrady(notes) and his massive expiring contract in a three-team swap with the Houston Rockets and the Sacramento Kings, a person with knowledge of the negotiations tells The Associated Press.

The person spoke Thursday and requested anonymity because the deal has not been officially announced.

The Knicks will also get Sergio Rodriguez(notes) from the Kings, though the lure of the deal was McGrady and his expiring $23 million contract.

The Rockets will get guard Kevin Martin(notes) and forward Hilton Armstrong(notes) from Sacramento and forward Jordan Hill(notes), Jared Jeffries(notes) and draft considerations in 2011 and 2012 from New York. They’re also relieved to have finally found a taker for McGrady, the troublesome seven-time All-Star they’ve been trying to trade for almost two months.

The Kings will get New York guard Larry Hughes(notes) and Houston forwards Carl Landry(notes) and Joey Dorsey(notes).

The Knicks have been courting McGrady—or at least the financial benefits of his contract—almost since the moment in late December when the Rockets granted him an indefinite leave and announced they were trying to trade him.

While interested in seeing McGrady play for the last two months of a lost season, New York is more interested in dropping their payroll and becoming a major player in this summer’s free-agent sweepstakes.

Jeffries and Hill will make almost $10 million together next year so by including them in the deal, the Knicks will open enough salary cap space to offer nearly two maximum contracts to the free agents available after the season, starting with LeBron James(notes).

The Knicks and Rockets had reportedly been working on a deal for a while, but couldn’t finish it without involving another team.

Early Thursday morning, Houston traded McGrady to Sacramento for Martin, Rodriguez and Armstrong. The Kings acquired Landry, Houston’s most productive bench player this season, and the seldom-used Dorsey in that deal, first reported by KRIV-TV and the Houston Chronicle.

The Rockets wanted to maximize what they could get for McGrady and ended up with two players they’ve coveted—Martin and Hill.

Martin is the Kings’ second-leading scorer (19.8 points per game) after missing two months of the early part of the season with a broken left wrist. He played two seasons for Houston coach Rick Adelman when he was in Sacramento from 2004-06, and he adds some much needed perimeter shooting to the Rockets’ lineup.

And the 6-foot-10 Hill will slide into Landry’s role, bringing energy and rebounding off the bench.


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T-Mac has one hell of a contract (the highest in the NBA for one season to be exact) to not be playing at all.  I hope he gets on the hard wood when he puts on the Knicks jersey....if he's in fact a Knick.  Earlier this morning, he was a King, but it appears that this Knicks deal may be confirmed soon.  I hope he's ready to play.  Not saying that the Knicks are a powerful team, but there's a part in the article that I didn't post (because it was rather lengthy) that says they're making cap room to offer major contracts to not one, but two players, starting with Lebron James.  That should be a VERY interesting summer.

And does anyone recognize any of the other names in the article besides Larry Hughes and Jared Jeffries?  I recognize Jared because he used to play for the Wizards, but other than these two, those other folks' names are German to me.   Larry Hughes has been bounced around the league since he got traded.  He's another one that's forever got an injury.