Erie BayHawks' Acquisition of Jeremy Tyler to Come Prior To NBA D-League Draft?

Earlier this week, Marc Berman of the New York Post reported that the Knicks were attempting to acquire recently cut big man Jeremy Tyler's NBA D-League rights. RidiculousUpside.com can now confirm through our own sources that such an attempt is (still) going on.

Interestingly enough, however, such a deal wouldn't technically be brokered through the Knicks and Warriors, but rather each one's respective NBADL affiliates. The (Santa Cruz) Warriors own Tyler's rights from last season, when he helped lead the way towards his team's D-League Finals appearance.

The tricky question now is, what do the BayHawks have to trade, and what might the Warriors desire back in return to have in Santa Cruz? Erie's best player from last season, Henry Sims, is now a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

With that in mind, the hours leading up to Friday's NBA D-League Draft may be the best possible window for the two sides to orchestrate a deal. Erie has a draft selection in each of the draft's eight rounds, for the exception of the third. That pick was previously traded to the Iowa Energy in a deal for Terrence Jennings. As talented as the forward is, he participated in NBA Summer League this past July with New York, and is already back in Erie getting ready for training camp.

What all this means is, perhaps packaging together a couple of draft selections, or a pick and a player together instead, will be the BayHawks' (aka the Knicks') best chance at getting Tyler formally back into the fold, at least at the minor league level. This would give New York the opportunity to monitor the big man's rehab efforts closely, and be more comfortable calling him up if/when the time is right later this year.

Many believe that Tyler would have otherwise made the Knicks' opening night roster, if not for his injury nor the team's favoritism towards Chris Smith. Thus, the big man is undoubtedly a worthwhile candidate to be an NBA player. In this case, the Warriors asking price could be steep. They've got him (or, his rights, rather) and know the Knicks want him. You do the math.

Having said that, the Golden State Warriors actually traded Tyler to the Atlanta Hawks on February 21st of this year. They were only able to subsequently retain him for their D-League squad after Atlanta waived him. Still, the NBA team wouldn't be able to re-sign him again (if so desired) until next February anyway (as per the new CBA). In this case, perhaps it's worth it to pick up something of value for Tyler while they can.