Bobcats waive veteran Knight after three years in Charlotte

Interesting move by the Charlotte Bobcats as they wave one of the best pure point guards in all of the league. He is 31 years old and was injured quite a bit last year, but it does make sense in a money saving stand point.

Knight had a buyout clause in his contract worth $1.5 million. He was scheduled to make just over $4 million next season.

That saves the club $2.5 million by waiving Knight, but wouldn’t it have been smarter to just include him in the Brandan Wright for Jermareo Davidson and Jason Richardson deal?

If the Celtics are in fact looking to win now, Brevin Knight would be a great pickup as he would fill a huge gap at point guard for us. I’m pretty sure we have used half of our $6 million Mid-Level Exception on Scalabrine’s contract (I just threw up a little bit in my mouth), so I don’t see why we wouldn’t offer Knight the other half for two years at $3 milion a year. The real question  is would he want to come here?

I think if we trade for Kevin Garnett, Brevin Knight would be yet another big piece to a championship puzzle. A lineup of Knight, Allen, Pierce, Garnett and Perkins would be very scary, especially in the East. Time to sit back and see what Ainge cooks up in the very near future.

What do we do now?

With the roster that we have right now, I would say that we are a lock for the playoffs, but I don’t see us much higher than the 6th seed. I’m not happy with just making the playoffs year in and year out and losing in the first round. So with that said, there has to be someone acquired before the season. I think going for Kevin Garnett is too much as I’m not looking forward to giving up Al Jefferson at all. I have a few options that could work, but at what price?

First up is Andrei Kirilenko. He’s a defensive presence that would be huge for the Celtics, but that would still leave Al Jefferson at center on defense, so I’m not too big on that. He also has a hefty contract for the next four seasons, so you would have to give Theo’s deal up to acquire him. Where would the money for Al’s extension come from?

The second option would to bring in the Defensive Player of the Year: Marcus Camby. A UMass alumni (shameless plug), he fits the billing for the Celtics as a true center and he brings an obvious boost to the team’s defense. Although he does have some injury problems, this would be my first choice assuming that Pau Gasol is not available (I hate you Chris Wallace!). Camby wouldn’t demand the ball on offense, and that’s obviously a plus with Allen and Pierce going to dominate the ball on the outside and Jefferson providing the inside scoring.

Last but not least, a player that requires no trade; Jamaal Magloire. A former all-star, Magloire gives us some good defense, rebounds and a big body to allow Al Jefferson to go back to playing power forward. Obviously nowhere near Camby’s talent level, but to use our Mid-Level Exception on him would be fine with me. Let him and Perk man the middle and Jefferson, Gomes and Big Baby (hate the pick) at power forward, that would be a good rotation to roll with. Hold on to Theo’s contract to extend Al next season and I guess we build with that.

With that said, my list looks like this:

1. Pau Gasol (not happening)
2. Marcus Camby
3. Jamaal Magloire
4. Kevin Garnett
5. Andrei Kirilenko

Whether any of this happens is clearly beyond my reach, but who knows, maybe in a few years I’ll be calling the shots for the Big Green Machine…