David Lee, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, could reportedly ask for $10 million annually.

The Knicks will be in a tough spot, having to decide what to do with both Lee and Nate Robinson, who will also be a restricted free agent.

"A player can be a good player at one number and not a good player at another number," team president Donnie Walsh said.

Roderick Boone wrote in a piece for Newsday that "there's whispers that Lee might try to command $10 million."

RealGM Note: Lee is currently ranked 11th in season FIC and has a Reina Value of +911%, which means he 'deserves' a salary of approximately $18M

Posted by Pharzeone:

Yes. And it makes me wonder why he waits until tonight to showcase such an effort.

Posted by Cosmic:

David Lee is a turnstile. Whatever he brings you on one end he more than gives up on the other. I like him but he is NOT a franchise player by any stretch of the imagination, he is going to command an insane amount of money given his shiny box scores, and if he gets paid and is not placed alongside a Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Shaq...all in their prime years? Get ready to lose a LOT of games.

If he wants to stay here starting at 6M and ending at 9M? Fine... If he wants to stay here starting at 10M and ending at 14M? Yeah, no thanks... S&T him.

Posted by Cosmic:

Posted by SupremeCommander:

Posted by Cosmic:

David Lee is a turnstile. Whatever he brings you on one end he more than gives up on the other. I like him but he is NOT a franchise player by any stretch of the imagination, he is going to command an insane amount of money given his shiny box scores, and if he gets paid and is not placed alongside a Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Shaq...all in their prime years? Get ready to lose a LOT of games.

If he wants to stay here starting at 6M and ending at 9M? Fine... If he wants to stay here starting at 10M and ending at 14M? Yeah, no thanks... S&T him.

Agreed... the problem with the S&T idea is that the only teams that are going to want him are going to be picking late in the draft and aren't going to have a lot of young players to give up... I mean, what can SAS, BOS, or ORL give up for him that we'd want?

My biggest hope is that WAS doesn't win the draft lotto and talks themselves into a Butler/Jamison/Arenas/Lee core being good enough to compete for a chip

This is certainly the corner we have been painted into. I don't know if anyone trades us a 2010 expiring plus a young prospect or future first rounder for David Lee and his new contract. I suppose it is possible but I just don't know. It's interesting that the two worst problems that Walsh has to figure out is how to handle Lee and Nate. I guess in some respect that is a good thing for it means we are absolutely headed in the right direction when our biggest problem of the moment is whether or not to retain a couple of talented players.

In some respect I guess we would have been best served dealing one of the two at the deadline to make Curry or Jeffries go away. Whether or not that purported SAC deal should have been made remains to be seen. Walsh has done very well so far even after he turned down initial deals.

Not trading Nate was/is a mistake. Donnie fell in love with Nate's statistical deviation, as opposed to the historical evidence that indicated he wasn't/isn't a building block. I don't understand how he could give away Randolph, yet not find pounce on a sucker willing to take on an albatross contract.

Nonetheless, you're right. Things are moving in the right direction. And I suppose that's progress.

I'm of the mindset that the best thing to do, if there are no decent S&T offers, if to extend qualifying offers to get one year of cheap service, then let both walk. I've said that before and got skewered, but that may be the only way for the organization to extract more value out of both assets

Posted by BRIGGS:

Posted by rain:

yes.. excellent errrr win?

Point is .. we are supposed to tank. We could have 7th position.. we are going to end up with 9.

I dont care--I am rooting for it to come back and haunt Dantoni now. He's an egotistical guy and obviously doesnt have common sense. We play to win the game--OK Joe so when we couldve had a greta chance at moving way up in the draft or atleast hold serve you went all at it so you could say youy won 32 games instead of 31 yet the caliber of assets we go into the offseason with drops down a full peg. Maybe it will bite you in the arse when position 7 gets spot 2.

If you are to stupid to understand the most common sense things in sports--dont take the F position.

I think one big problem is these people do not realize this franchise has been very bad for a decade. If you win a game because Sims had 18 and 8--thats OK. But what value is trying to win with all of you regulars with absolutely nothing to play for when they focus should be trying to get in the best position to make improvements for the future after the season went foul. These guys have been here less than a year--weve been here our whole lives and especially the last decade. They get paid a lot of money to get that one extra win so they can say +9 from last year so Dolan can raise ticket prices. The fan--on the other hand
is begging for this team to get better NOW--there is NO reason why this decade had to go so bad. And when you are out of the playoffs with 3 games to go--play your frikin young guys and if they win they win but it's not likely going against teams who have something to play for--like Don Nelson said last night---we played hard but we lost. They accomplished everything a lottery team needs to do--keep it competitive play all of th eguys and come up short. If Dantoni wanted to win games--then he shouldve done it when we were 21-25 and in the 8th seed. he blew it--so do what is best for the team and it FANS now.

There is not 1 FAN who understands what is going on who wants the Knicks to win these games---not one. The fans pay for everything and have suffered--so why not appease the fan instead of feeding your own ego?

[Edited by - BRIGGS on 04-11-2009 7:18 PM]

Posted by arkrud:

Hmm...
So we have one sure thing on this messy team and one decent person on this garbage organization and we want to get read of him because he will cost 10M per to mister Donkey?
Some people on this board still think that 2010 free agents are dreaming to join this circus. Get real, they are not idiots.
If Walsh and coach D will be able to make this pure thing respectable - this will be inside job and Lee can be a part of the solution.

I agree with you. Unless there is a monumental deal--you HAVE to sign David Lee. IF David wants to stay here so bad--a 6 year 50mm $ deal should suffice him. Id rather have an extra year and 8mm per and live in NY or surrounding area then 9.5mm to live in Tennessee. I think KNick management has to realize the value of Lee.