NBA Trade Rumors: Teams with Most to Gain by Dealing for Knicks' Ronny Turiaf
The New York Knicks have all but completed a deal to sign center Tyson Chandler away from the Mavericks. In order to free up a roster spot for Chandler, New York is looking (as reported by the New York Post) to move incumbent backup center Ronny Turiaf, for whom many offers have apparently been made.
Here are three teams who could benefit from bringing in the veteran reserve:
Denver Nuggets
The only team specifically mentioned by the Post as pursuing Turiaf, the Nuggets are about to lose their own star center in Nene. Turiaf is far from an adequate replacement, but he would provide some welcome depth and muscle in a slender frontcourt.
Turiaf would also be able to take over some of the minutes vacated by Kenyon Martin, who appears to be stuck in China until the season ends there. In all, adding Turiaf looks likely to cost a lot less than the last deal the Nuggets made with New York and still bring in a potentially valuable body.
Boston Celtics
The Celtics just added Brandon Bass in a salary-dumping trade for Glen Davis, so even Turiaf’s relatively modest $4 million price tag is probably higher than they’d like. Still, Boston is desperate for depth behind Kevin Durant and Jeff Green and Turiaf is a capable reserve who can be had without giving up too much.
Like Bass, Turiaf also has at least a little bit of an offensive game, so opposing teams wouldn’t be able to ignore him as they did Kendrick Perkins when he was still in Boston.
Dallas Mavericks
Obviously, the defending champs—who have already started being ravaged by free agency—have bigger fish to fry than the backup center position. Still, the whole reason Turiaf is on the market is that Dallas’ best defensive post presence is about to become a Knick.
Turiaf is a borderline center at 6’10”, 249 pounds, but he would still bring back some of the intensity and grit that made Tyson Chandler so valuable in Dallas. Given that the Knicks want to close a deal quickly, this one probably won’t happen, but Dallas could do a lot worse than bringing in a hard-working post player who won’t complain about other guys taking all the shots.
