Just not to full max deals of course.

Why go this route? Because in 2011 we have another nice chunk of change to add that third "2nd tier player" and now suddenly you have a trio of very nice players - along with our nice remaining youth.

Now you have a good team. And that was the point of all of what we're doing.

We will not stand pat if the top 3 guys don't want to come here. We can't afford to.

I also trust Donnie "A guy is great at one number and not so much at another." Walsh not to just hand JJ and Boozer max deals. He won't.

Uptown wrote:

TMS wrote:i wouldn't be so quick to assume he won't sign Joe Johnson to at least very close to the max... whatever MDA wants he gets & u know he'll be pining for Joe Johnson if we miss out on Lebron & Wade... not so sure about Boozer cuz he's more suited to a half court style game, so he probably won't have as big a boner to sign him... DW would probably re-sign Lee than spend the bucks on Boozer.

I'd sign someone like Rudy Gay who wont command a max deal, package Chandler and maybe Curry and make a play for Rubio who would still be on a rookie contract which should still leave us a nice chunk of change for 2011.

what do we have left to make a play for Rubio with if you're trying to use Wilson to dump Curry's contract?

TMS wrote:

Uptown wrote:

TMS wrote:i wouldn't be so quick to assume he won't sign Joe Johnson to at least very close to the max... whatever MDA wants he gets & u know he'll be pining for Joe Johnson if we miss out on Lebron & Wade... not so sure about Boozer cuz he's more suited to a half court style game, so he probably won't have as big a boner to sign him... DW would probably re-sign Lee than spend the bucks on Boozer.

I'd sign someone like Rudy Gay who wont command a max deal, package Chandler and maybe Curry and make a play for Rubio who would still be on a rookie contract which should still leave us a nice chunk of change for 2011.

what do we have left to make a play for Rubio with if you're trying to use Wilson to dump Curry's contract?

Typo...my bad. Thought I deleted Currys name while typing. Edited my post.

Uptown wrote:

TMS wrote:

Uptown wrote:

TMS wrote:i wouldn't be so quick to assume he won't sign Joe Johnson to at least very close to the max... whatever MDA wants he gets & u know he'll be pining for Joe Johnson if we miss out on Lebron & Wade... not so sure about Boozer cuz he's more suited to a half court style game, so he probably won't have as big a boner to sign him... DW would probably re-sign Lee than spend the bucks on Boozer.

I'd sign someone like Rudy Gay who wont command a max deal, package Chandler and maybe Curry and make a play for Rubio who would still be on a rookie contract which should still leave us a nice chunk of change for 2011.

what do we have left to make a play for Rubio with if you're trying to use Wilson to dump Curry's contract?

Typo...my bad. Thought I deleted Currys name while typing. Edited my post.

man, the more i think about it, the more it becomes evident that we still need to dump Curry's contract if we want to put together a serious contender this summer... even Lebron & 1 other max FA is not going to be enough with just Gallo & Wilson & a collection of minimum salary guys... Curry would have to come back & be productive again in that scenario & that's not something we can lay our hats on... if we can figure out a way to dump his contract, we can then offer Lebron the prospect of coming to play with 2 star calibre talents if what T-Mac was saying yesterday was true about him being willing to sign here for less if Lebron & another star were to come here this summer.

TMS wrote:i wouldn't be so quick to assume he won't sign Joe Johnson to at least very close to the max... whatever MDA wants he gets & u know he'll be pining for Joe Johnson if we miss out on Lebron & Wade... not so sure about Boozer cuz he's more suited to a half court style game, so he probably won't have as big a boner to sign him... DW would probably re-sign Lee than spend the bucks on Boozer.

i love how you act like it's a bad idea to give a coach players that he wants. that was the EXACT problem we had with isiah/larry - isiah wouldn't let go of his players and get larry his own players. look at larry in charlotte with players HE is picking. he's winning.

if you hire a coach, especially if you are rebuilding, the only way that makes sense is to go out and get the players the coach wants.

crzymdups wrote:

TMS wrote:i wouldn't be so quick to assume he won't sign Joe Johnson to at least very close to the max... whatever MDA wants he gets & u know he'll be pining for Joe Johnson if we miss out on Lebron & Wade... not so sure about Boozer cuz he's more suited to a half court style game, so he probably won't have as big a boner to sign him... DW would probably re-sign Lee than spend the bucks on Boozer.

i love how you act like it's a bad idea to give a coach players that he wants. that was the EXACT problem we had with isiah/larry - isiah wouldn't let go of his players and get larry his own players. look at larry in charlotte with players HE is picking. he's winning.

if you hire a coach, especially if you are rebuilding, the only way that makes sense is to go out and get the players the coach wants.

i dunno WTF you're attacking me for, i'm just stating facts... MDA gets what he wants... it's been proven since he took this job... we drafted Gallo cuz that's who he wanted... we passed on signing AI cuz MDA probably didn't wanna deal w/his baggage... we signed Chris Duhon cuz MDA wanted him... he gets what he wants.

Uptown wrote:Its crystal clear that Curry is the key. I'm not even banking on Curry ever playing here again, with his constant health issues and the fact that his game naturally clogs the middle, and MDA is like Daino, he likes to have the paint cleared for penetrators to snake through.

I doubt we will be able to flat out dump his contract. Like I said in the other thread, our best bet with Curry is to move him to a team thats looking for slary cap space next year, in exchange for a player with a bloated contract (Brand, Maggette, Ellis, Arenas, etc...) Of course we are going to have to attach Chandler or Gallo aswell.

You bring up an interesting scenario with Lee however. What if we attach Curry to Lee's bandwagon out of town along with Chandler in a sign and trade for say Bosh, or Amare? That should still leave us the space to sign two max freeagnets out-right.

How about something like Lebron (FA), Amare (sign and trade for Lee/Curry/Chandler), sign Tmac discount, sign a pg (Felton). This is not written in stone, just throwing up suggestions.

i posted the same idea on another thread (i tried fitting Felton too but i don't think u can fit his salary & still have T-Mac in there with 2 max guys)... here's how it could break down:

i would seriously look at sign & trade options for D Lee so we can realistically pursue Lebron & another max FA heavily this summer... if you choose to re-up D Lee for next season, you're faced with him & Curry taking up $22 mil in cap space, which severely hampers your flexibility to make other signings... Lebron is not coming to NY to play with D Lee & just 1 other FA valued around $10 mil along w/Gallo, Wilson, TD, Curry & minimum salary filler.

maybe look to move D Lee to Phoenix in a deal for Amare (rumored to be Lebron's personally preferred running mate) & try to include Curry's contract in the process... say something like Lee, Wilson, Douglas & Curry for Amare, Barbosa & Dudley... if u could swing off something like this, you still have room to sign a 3rd impact FA to play w/Lebron & Amare... T-Mac could come into the plan as your 3rd option if he works out this season & you still can re-sign Sergio & House to deals... after all that, u have the following:

C - Amare $16.5 mil
PF - Lebron $16.5 mil
SF - Gallo $3.3 mil
SG - T-Mac $5.5 mil
PG - Barbosa $7.1 mil
6 - Sergio $2.5 mil
7 - House $1.5 mil
8 - Dudley $2.1 mil
9 - 2nd round pick $450K
10 - 2nd round pick $450K
11 - minimum salary $450K
12 - minimum salary $450K

that comes to $56.8 mil in total on the payroll.

TMS wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

TMS wrote:i wouldn't be so quick to assume he won't sign Joe Johnson to at least very close to the max... whatever MDA wants he gets & u know he'll be pining for Joe Johnson if we miss out on Lebron & Wade... not so sure about Boozer cuz he's more suited to a half court style game, so he probably won't have as big a boner to sign him... DW would probably re-sign Lee than spend the bucks on Boozer.

i love how you act like it's a bad idea to give a coach players that he wants. that was the EXACT problem we had with isiah/larry - isiah wouldn't let go of his players and get larry his own players. look at larry in charlotte with players HE is picking. he's winning.

if you hire a coach, especially if you are rebuilding, the only way that makes sense is to go out and get the players the coach wants.

i dunno WTF you're attacking me for, i'm just stating facts... MDA gets what he wants... it's been proven since he took this job... we drafted Gallo cuz that's who he wanted... we passed on signing AI cuz MDA probably didn't wanna deal w/his baggage... we signed Chris Duhon cuz MDA wanted him... he gets what he wants.

Shouldn't we give the coach the players he needs to succeed?

Especially if we're in the position to do so as we are?

I mean, you hire a new coach to coach an existing team loaded with long term players - that's different - the coach has to make do until the team can get him "his" players over time.

But with a clean slate - and an established coach - the GM's job is to get that coach HIS players so he can win.

Otherwise it doesn't work. If Walsh goes and gets slow plodding half court defense priority players - then Mike will fail and the Knicks will fail.

What good is that?

Walsh's job is to now get Mike "his" players. And he will. Why? Walsh and Mike have said time and again they are on the same page. The two got together before taking on the Knicks and agreed to work together.

There will be moments when there will be disagreements, or maybe Walsh doesn't think a move Mike wants would work financially in the big picture. But for the most part? Walsh will get Mike his players.

TMS wrote:

Uptown wrote:

TMS wrote:

Uptown wrote:

TMS wrote:i wouldn't be so quick to assume he won't sign Joe Johnson to at least very close to the max... whatever MDA wants he gets & u know he'll be pining for Joe Johnson if we miss out on Lebron & Wade... not so sure about Boozer cuz he's more suited to a half court style game, so he probably won't have as big a boner to sign him... DW would probably re-sign Lee than spend the bucks on Boozer.

I'd sign someone like Rudy Gay who wont command a max deal, package Chandler and maybe Curry and make a play for Rubio who would still be on a rookie contract which should still leave us a nice chunk of change for 2011.

what do we have left to make a play for Rubio with if you're trying to use Wilson to dump Curry's contract?

Typo...my bad. Thought I deleted Currys name while typing. Edited my post.

man, the more i think about it, the more it becomes evident that we still need to dump Curry's contract if we want to put together a serious contender this summer... even Lebron & 1 other max FA is not going to be enough with just Gallo & Wilson & a collection of minimum salary guys... Curry would have to come back & be productive again in that scenario & that's not something we can lay our hats on... if we can figure out a way to dump his contract, we can then offer Lebron the prospect of coming to play with 2 star calibre talents if what T-Mac was saying yesterday was true about him being willing to sign here for less if Lebron & another star were to come here this summer.

Our GM stated Curry won't be able to be traded until he can prove he can stay on the floor. Do you think Curry gets back on the floor this with an significant playing time? If not, then he won't get traded in the summer unless we give up something else of major value.