According to the Daily News, the Knicks are in negotiations to buyout the final year of former Clipper Maurice Taylor's contract.
Now, a couple of things struck me about this.
One, if you're the Knicks, where do you even BEGIN with contract buyout talks? You've got Mo Taylor, Malik Rose, Jalen Rose and Jerome James all making way too much, and all of whom figure to be buried on the depth chart. But why Taylor? He's in the final year of his deal. That $9M in salary is solid gold at the trade deadline. (As we've discussed in the past, the Knicks are so far over the salary cap, it makes no sense for them to try to shed salaries, as it will be a good five years before they could get under the cap. So they can and should trade expiring contracts for talent.) If you're going to buy out someone, what about James? He's got years left; admit the mistake, move on.
Two, it is a chance to give a little credit to Elgin and DTS. Most of it was driven by penny-pinching, pure and simple, but Mo is a good example (maybe the best example, along with Kandi) of a player the Clippers didn't pay. Mo was a nice player, a really terrific offensive player, but never a good rebounder at the 4, and clearly not worth what the Rockets and Knicks ending up paying him.
And speaking of former Clipper first rounders, rumor has it that free agent Lamond Murray has been working out informally with the team at their practice facility. As far as I know, he has not been invited to camp. I would still like to see one more three point threat on the Clippers roster. I don't know that Lamond is the guy, but I'd rather have him than yet another 7 footer. Alas, I suspect it's going to be N'Dong taking the 15th spot, unless they decide to start the season with 14 contracts.