Elsewhere, I’ve seen a theory to the effect that Presti is trying to do something for Weezy, who’s been with the franchise for years; if he has a chance to play in New York and not much chance to play here, why not give him that opportunity? Certainly Wilcox was more highly valued around these parts than, say, Mo Sene, who’s on his way to clearing waivers.

(Ron, I haven’t confirmed this yet, but the cash likely isn’t significant enough to do this deal. Rose is making $1 million more than Wilcox and the max you can send in a trade is $3 million. I doubt the Knicks sent the Thunder $3 million. If they did, that would be a generous gesture. -DM-)

Thursday, 3:55 p.m.: Bulls send Sefolosha to Thunder
Chicago is dealing Thabo Sefolosha to Oklahoma City for a 2009 first-round pick, a league source said. The Thunder own the first-round picks of the Suns and Nuggets, and will send the least valuable pick to Chicago in exchange for Sefalosha.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200…x.html?eref=T1

And how does that benefit the Hornets, don’t they have to go out and get 2 more players somewhere for some amount of salary to replace them? Is the benefit that they get players with significantly smaller salaries?

On espn.com, they list the rosters and salaries. They also show transactios by year. They show Swift was “Resigned” on Sept 11, 2008. His salary this year is 3.5 million plus. How did this happen, at best he’s a body to give 5 fouls and at worst a complete waste of bench space…

Thanks…

(Eddie, teams often like to trade for expiring contracts because the salaries come off the payroll the upcoming summer. With the Hornets, the deal would have saved them nearly $12 million in salary next season because, yes, it’s likely they would have let Wilcox and Smith walk after this season. They would have had the option of re-signing them like every other team at whatever amount of money they saw fit. The Hornets wouldn’t be obligated to replace them with two more players. The only rule is NBA teams must keep 12 players on their rosters. As for Swift, he is playing on what is known as a fifth-year qualifying offer. It’s the last year that’s built into rookie scale contracts, which are for two guaranteed seasons and two seasons with team options. Swift’s is playing on the fifth year of his contract because he didn’t get a contract extension from the Thunder in the fall of 2007 and didn’t receive any offers from other teams as a restricted free agent this summer. His salary figure is determined by the rookie scale. Here’s a cloumn of expiring contracts. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/steve_aschburner/02/17/expiring.contracts/index.html -DM-)

(Amy, I honestly can say I do not know.That’s the question I’m searching high and low for an answer to as we speak. -DM-)