[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

Kidding.
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NY Times

The Nets have a Russian owner in Mikhail D. Prokhorov. Across the river, the Knicks will soon have a Russian center in Timofey Mozgov.

The arrangement arrives in the aftermath of the summer’s free-agent frenzy of LeBron, Dwayne and Amar’e. Mozgov, a 7-foot-1 center who turns 24 on Friday, had hardly been sighted on most radars. He had been eligible for several N.B.A. drafts without being picked.

The Knicks are nearing an agreement with him in a deal stealthily navigated to the dismay of several N.B.A. teams. Few were aware that Mozgov would be willing or able to step out of his contract with Russia’s B.C. Khimki.

“No, I didn’t talk to him,” Mozgov’s agent, Bouna Ndiaye, said when asked if Prokhorov had tried to land Mozgov for the Nets. “I really focused on the Knicks. And I did not focus on the Nets because the Nets would take longer to rebuild. I liked Mike D’Antoni’s system better than the Nets.”

Mozgov played limited minutes with Khimki last season, but gained attention during last summer’s European championship when he averaged 11 points and 4.6 rebounds.

Jonathan Givony, the president of Draft Express, a Web site that analyzes draft prospects, first reported the deal. He called Mozgov a “super late bloomer” and compared him to the Los Angeles Lakers backup center D. J. Mbenga.

“He’s athletic like him, he has bad hands like him, but he’s more productive,” Givony said. “That’s the style of a guy he is. He’s a banger, he’s athletic, he’s tough, he finishes well around the basket and he can block shots.”

The Knicks dispatched the executive Glen Grunwald overseas to scout him. Later, Mozgov worked out for the Knicks at their training facility in Greenburgh, N.Y.

“I did not want to go promoting him to N.B.A. teams because I know things would go crazy,” Ndiaye said. “To me, he is the No. 1 free agent outside the United States. I did not want to have all these teams calling me and going crazy, and I wanted him to play under Coach D’Antoni. The Knicks are trying to make a turnaround, and I think he would fit in perfectly with the new New York Knicks.”

The Knicks’ deal with Mozgov is expected to be for three years and for about $9 million.

Mozgov is expected to vie for playing time at center with the newly acquired Ronny Turiaf and Anthony Randolph, and a healthy Eddy Curry.

Mozgov arrives with some curiosity and perhaps the potential to alleviate some of Amar’e Stoudemire’s work in the post. Before he signed, the Knicks pitched Stoudemire by telling him that he would play most of his minutes at power forward, leaving Mozgov to push and rebound at the center position.

“Physically, there’s not too big guys like him in the world,” Ndiaye said.

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TalkBasket.net claims the NY Knicks’ scouts first saw Mozgov in Eurobasket 2009 where they were extremely surprised and impressed by his skills and body but decided to let him mature in Europe for one more season.

Eurobasket 2009 profile and numbers
http://archive.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/player/p/pid/56224/sid/6328/tid/381/_/2009_EuroBasket/index.html

Euroleague profile and numbers
http://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?gamenumber=10&clubcode=KHI&phasetypecode=RS&pcode=LLK&seasoncode=E2009

Khimki BC profile
http://www.bckhimki.ru/mainteam/teamstaff/timofejj_mozgov/

[WillisWaltParticipant]

So we are bringing him in to START at center. If this is true, and if he is worthy, we may be in great shape. We’ll have Randolph playing behind Stoudemire, and Turiaf helping out as well at the 5. The rest of the team is pretty set, other than figuring out how we will use players at the wings.

Go Knicks!

[Author]

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