the knicks had cap space for amare, sure, but not melo. they found a way. most of these guys don't hit the open market or even if they do it's an S+T. in this day and age of players forcing deals, if a team or market or whatever is that attractive, it can happen. like ainge said, cap space is totally overrated. it's not the way you get big names. look at the big names that have changed hands since shaq. other than miami's group, they have all come via trade one way or another, either as their contract wound down or an S+T

the open market signings have been mostly crap, really. those are the moves where you need cap space.