It’s official: Tyson Chandler is headed back to the North Star State. The New York Knicks have traded him, along with troubled point guard Raymond Felton, to the Dallas Mavericks for a slew of players, just one day before the NBA Draft.
According to ESPN.com the list of players includes center Samuel Dalembert, point guards Jose Calderon, and Shane Larkin, and shooting guard Wayne Ellington, along with the 34th and 51st picks in next week’s draft. Dalembert and Calderon were starters for a very good Mavericks team last season, Larkin is thought to be a star in the making, and a team can never stock-pile too many draft picks.
“The journey to build this team for the upcoming season and beyond continues,” Jackson said, per the NYDailyNews via a Knicks press release. “We have added players with this move that will fit right in to our system while maintaining future flexibility.”
Chandler remained an all-star caliber player last season, scoring 8.7 points and pulling down 9.6 rebounds per game. Felton struggled, however, as he failed to average double digits in the scoring department for the first time in his career, and his sub 40 percent shooting from the floor was his lowest output since 2007. As rough as Felton’s season was on the court, it might have been just as rough off of it; he was arrested on two felony gun charges, allegations for which he was recently punished in the form 500 hours of community service and $5,000 in fines.
Only time will tell which team will benefit more from this trade, but this certainly should shake things up leading into the draft, and make it that much more interesting to keep tabs on.