Knicks Clean House for James?

st days ago, the NY Times discussed the courting of Lebron James as he made his stops to play against the Nets and Knicks. It was discussed that even though Lebron is friends with Jay-Z, part owner of the Nets, that their move to Brooklyn was delayed, which would be a deal-buster. Today the Knicks did some serious house-cleaning which analysts believe could be the start of bringing a star like Lebron James to Madison Square Garden.

In today's moves, the Knicks offloaded star players Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford. Power forward Randolph, along with guard Mardy Collins, was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas while guard Crawford was exchanged for Golden State Warriors forward Al Harrington. Crawford and Randolph were the Knicks two top scorers. That leaves Marbury, who hasn't played all season. He was cleared to play, but declined to. In an interview later, coach Mike D'Antoni told the media that he sat with Marbury and told him with Crawford gone he had 30-35 minutes if he wanted them. Marbury said he was told the team was going in a different direction without him, and that's it. The moves today are in anticipation of the hot free agent market in 2010, so NY may have to wait even more.

So does this spell LEBRON for NYC? If not James, there's also the possibilities of a Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudamire, or Chris Bosh being available to the team that needs to really appease its fans right now. Stephen A. Smith of ESPN believes that Knicks fans will receive two of the aforementioned talents, with Jalen Rose speculating it will be the Lebron-Bosh show in NYC>

Read more about the Knicks trades here.