The New York Knicks have completed a sign-and-trade deal with the Portland Trail Blazers that will send Dan Gadzuric and Jared Jeffries to Portland in exchange for point guard Raymond Felton and center Kurt Thomas, as confirmed by league sources.
This trade raises the possibility that the Knicks will not match the offer sheet Jeremy Lin signed with the Houston Rockets earlier this week.
Sources say the Knicks officially received the offer sheet Saturday night, meaning they have until 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday to match or leave Lin to go to the Rockets.
Earlier in the week reports suggested that Lin felt "slighted" that the Knicks didn't make an offer before the Rockets, but now with the trade for Felton, sources close to Lin say it took him by a bit of a surprise.
"He was very surprised," the source said. "He felt the whole time that the Knicks would just match the offer."
With reports last week saying the Knicks would offer "up to $1 billion" to keep Lin, can you really blame Lin's surprise?
Even Knicks coach Mike Woodson joined in the offer talks saying on Wednesday that Lin would not only be back but would enter next season as the Knicks' starting point guard.
Lin has every right to be confused because the Knicks seemed adamant on matching the offer, but this new trade seems like they're heading in a new direction.
Regardless of what the Knicks might or might not do, the signing of Felton was a very good pick-up.
Felton averaged 17.1 points and 9 assists per game when he was a Knick in 2010-11 before being a part of a trade that brought the Knicks Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets.
Though his stats took a drop last season with the Blazers, the addition of Kidd and Felton give the Knicks two experienced veterans at the point guard positions. Felton already has good chemistry with the team, especially with Stoudemire in the pick-and-roll offense, which neither has been good at without the other.
So if the Knicks decide not to match the offer sheet for Lin, they wouldn't really be losing much.
With Felton and Kidd the Knicks know what type of players their receiving, but with Lin, who hasn't played a full season, it's a little harder to say.
All-in-all it seems like the Knicks have made their decision and now know who their point guards are next season and maybe now can finally move on to making other moves to improve their roster.
