I love this guy. I love his energy and his emotion.He is only getting better with maturity. He could be a 6th man on any championship team. If he is traded at least get back a high lottery pick.

finally - a thread about nate.

Nate for Brad Miller would make me vomit

I think you have to keep the core of Chandler Duhon Lee Nate---you have to think about Harrington if we can keep him on the cheap. You need reaplacement parts for Tim Thomas Q Rich and Jefferies+ the back end of the bench must be rebuilt as well i.e Jerome James roberson Malik etc.. you want to get some guys who can step in in case of injury and not pay them what we pay our bench players. That is the key to keeping a balanced salary cap.

Really it's the contracts of Curry and Jefferies that kills the team for 2010. I dont think making rash decisions with good players like Lee and Nate is wise. Better off trying to trade with a Washington to try to get their draft pick so we can use our other possible lottery pick to dump atleast Jefferies or to have other options to improve the team.

Posted by franco12:

The knicks are in a catch 22- by the time we will be good enough to make use of Nate & Lee, they will be past their primes and consequently, overpaid.

I resent that remark.

Other than that, I agree. I like Napoleon Nate but if we do have to part with him - hopefully DW can get us some value while shipping him out with one of our "undesirables".

[Edited by - K22 on 2009-02-17 10:49 PM]

i like lee, nate and duhon a lot, but we can't possibly keep them and sign a max player in 2010. unless we get curry to opt or something.

Posted by arkrud:

Posted by crzymdups:

i like lee, nate and duhon a lot, but we can't possibly keep them and sign a max player in 2010. unless we get curry to opt or something.

Are you talking about second max player?
We will not be able to do this regardless.

no, i'm talking about one max player.

I think Nate could be the only keeper between him, Lee and Duhon. Lee and Duhon are more replaceable esp. when you consider the type of money that they're gonna ask for. Jeff Teague and DuJuan Blair would be likely upgrades over these guys provided we could come up with another pick in the 10-20 range. And they won't cost over $17 mil. a year between the two to keep. Nate's worth keeping however even at $7 mil. a year. Curry and Jeffries are the two killers - I don't see how we can get rid of them. I wouldn't trade for either guy if I was an NBA GM no matter how much I needed some size. We almost have to proceed like those two aren't going anywhere.

Posted by islesfan:

I think the Knicks should forget about 2010 and focus on building a great lottery team around Lee and Nate.

Interesting proposition. Without the part of building around Nate and Lee. It should be the other way around, because it's a core we need to focus on for this year and next. Duhon, Nate, Lee, Chandler, Harrington are a very good start as a core.

All others will either be gone or in question, including Mr. disk problem. Either way, I think bringing in players to replace the ending contract that will be effective on offense and especially defense, by the ends of this and next year.

Getting a defensive center 7' plus in height and good weight, is critical. Once we get a solid basic core in here, then getting two prime time stars signed will complete this roster in 2010 or 2011. The last year of curry contract should have been made team option at the least. Oh well.

We can't downplay what Lil Nate has done this season and what he is doing period as a professional. He is incredible.

Posted by Marv:

finally - a thread about nate.

If we could only find a way to create more Marbury for Shaq threads we'd be set...