When veteran big man Marcus Camby was scheduled to head to Toronto as one of the pieces the Knicks gave up to acquire Andrea Bargnani, we knew almost immediately that he wasn’t going to play for the Raptors.
Camby isn’t looking to finish out a career that’s lasted 17 NBA seasons by playing for a team that will struggle to make the playoffs, and it made sense to settle for a buyout with several contenders interested in his services.
One of the other players the Knicks sent over in the same trade is also not expected to play in Toronto, though the reasons are a little bit different.
From Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun:
Richardson isn’t a major factor on the court anymore, but the fact that only one of the three players the Knicks sent to Toronto (Steve Novak) will end up suiting up for the team this season just proves further what this deal was all about for the Raptors.
Bargnani wasn’t only a bad fit in Toronto due to his overvalued contract in relation to his level of production, he was a symbol of the way the front office had mismanaged the roster for years. New GM Masai Ujiri made it his first order of business to rid the team of that reminder, and did so successfully by netting a 2016 first-round pick, and second-round picks in 2014 and 2017 in the exchange.
