Posted by VDesai:
First off, Isiah should not be allowed to move Lee.
Problem with dealing Lee- he's by far your most valuable piece, but he's making a rookie scale contract. You can't salary match him for anything as valuable unless its for a player with a similar contract, thus similar experience, youth, value. Bottom line, those players don't get dealt very often. Guys we've identified that would make sense like a Jose Calderon may not be on the block.
Now since you can't deal him one on one, you have to package him with another guy. Package him with virtually any one on our team and it decreases his value b/c of the decreased values of most of the overpaid scrubs we have. Maybe it pries a little more out of another team when you're dealing Curry, Craw, Randolph, Marb etc. but its not nearly enough.
Or maybe you deal him with Fred Jones and some more youngsters. Now how many pieces are you giving up in the same deal? And even adding all these salaries you're not getting a max guy. How many players out there that are making mid-range salaries are out there on the block. Ron Artest? Who else?
Deal him for picks? Picks yield a lot of uncertainty. He will be worth a higher pick than what he was drafted for, but the player you draft at that position has a high chance of not being worth as much. Now the question becomes how high of a pick do you need to justify the risk. Late lottery? Are late lottery teams going to want to acquire David Lee- they don't need him for a stretch run, so unless they view him as a major piece it will be hard for them to line up to do so.
So its a very tricky situation and absolutely not one you want Isiah Thomas to be dealing with. You cannot afford to make a mistake with our best asset and the options for what you can do with him are cloudy. The decision the next GM makes with a player like him could be the most important indicator of where we'll be headed.
Part of the reason I'd advocate trading him for a lotto-type pick is because there is a POSSIBILITY to obtain a player who you can build around. Lee is very good, but I wouldn't call him a building block. He's an outstanding third option or sixth man. This draft is going to be deep, so I'd like as many significant picks as possible. Likewise, I think getting our pick back from Denver is a good idea so the franchise can focus on rebuilding during the next three drafts, as opposed to trying to avoid giving up ANOTHER top lotto pick.
Of course trading him is contingent on Isiah getting axed. Isiah shouldn't be allowed to make any changes, because he's obviously a moron.
