Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News hears that Marcus Camby wasn't expecting to land a contract worth quite as much as the three-year, $13.151MM deal he got from the Knicks as part of a sign-and-trade with Houston this summer. The 38-year-old center reportedly also had talks with the Nets and drew interest from the Heat over the offseason, and considered the Spurs, Celtics and Mavericks as well as the Rockets, with whom he ended the 2011/12 after coming over in a trade at the deadline in March.
The Knicks initially appeared hesitant to use their $3.09MM mini mid-level on Camby, but wound up exceeding that amount by an average of more than $1MM per season to land the veteran big man. New York also gave up Toney Douglas, Josh Harrellson, Jerome Jordan and a pair of second-round draft choices in the sign-and-trade, and agreed to pay Douglas' $2.1MM salary for the Rockets.
Camby is out of the Knicks lineup for a week to 10 days with a strained left calf, and Lawrence points to a history of injuries that kept him from playing any more than 63 games in a season during his previous four-year stint in New York that ran from 1999 to 2002. More recently, though, Camby appeared in 59 out of 66 games this past season, and hasn't missed more than 20 games in a season since 2005/06.
Unlike most contracts that escalate in value from year to year, Camby is set to receive $4.59MM this season and $4.384MM in 2013/14, while his $4.177MM salary in the final year of the deal is only guaranteed for $1.026MM.