T-Mac is being paid $22MM this year, expiring. The Rockets don’t want him around.

The Rockets are over the luxury tax line.

You can make a trade within 10%.

This means that if we were to trade them $20MM of contracts, the savings to the Rockets this year would be $4MM.  Give them another $3MM, and that’s $7 million of savings.

Is that enough to pay Jeffries $7 million salary next year?  Yes it is.

Only the Knicks have the crazy near-expiring contracts to make it work.  Hughes and Jeffries.  Or Eddy and Darko.  Or whatever combo that includes Curry or Jeffries.  Only sticking point is that the Rockets are too smart not to know how overpaid both Jeffries and Curry are.  But this isn’t a talent thing, it’s a “we need to get rid of T-Mac so he doesn’t poison the atmosphere and there aren’t many teams that will do a trade that won’t cost us money in coming years.”

Or, if the Knicks just want a shake-up, they could trade a couple of expirings for McGrady (Harrington, Darko, etc.) plus a 2nd round draft pick or something.

The Rockets have just become destination #1 for some contract jettisoning (replacing Minnesota), plus we see what T-Mac has left!  A trade with Minnesota or Houston is coming . . .