Posted by King1:

You have Varajevo getting 6 years 50 million. Bargnani getting 5 yrs 50 million and Millsap 4 year 36 million. I would think now they have a starting point with Lee and what is fair market. Lee is better than all three of these players so saying he gets 6 or 7 million is way below market value

David Lee is not better than Bargnani or Millsap. Plus the contract that Ferry gave Anderson V is just outrageous.

Lee may be better than Varajou, but not the other guys. And Varajao was resigned by his team.

Fact is, all the cap teams have blown their loads, so Lee will get the lowest "fair" offer from the Knicks and take it or leave it. Probably gonna be 7/yr with an opt out after 3. Anything higher than that and Walsh ought to be lobotomized. I like David, but the market has been set (not only based on the contracts other guys got, but on who has money left to make an offer). Lee is the odd man out. Now we will get him cheap.

I wouldn't offer Lee a contract. Let him walk.

Here's a sign David can bring to his negotiations

Posted by Bonn1997:

Here's a sign David can bring to his negotiations

Very funny post, Bonn.

I think we will offer David a bit more than the MLE (since our initial proposal to him was for $8mil/yr). But I think it will come in under that, perhaps as low as $6mil/yr. We don't want to piss him off by paying the MLE. It has to at least "seem" fair, even if it's less than he wants. ANd this of course assumes we move N8 and JJ in a S&T. Without that contract dump, Lee gotta walk. If we land LBJ and/or another FA, and assuming Lee blossoms further, he may get rewarded on the next contract. Right now, his value isn't too high. But we'll gladly take his average double-doubles today, and pay tomorrow, hamburglars that we are.



[Edited by - Moonangie on 07-10-2009 10:00 PM]

[Edited by - Moonangie on 07-10-2009 10:02 PM]

What hurt Lee was that other teams knew we could match, so why tie up their situation only to end up losing out on him. They just went in another direction that didn't have the gotcha attached to it. Plus the fact that his agent was asking for a lot. Likely more than those teams wanted to pay.

Another issue was the sign and trade options may not have been very good. We don't have great assets for trades and we didn't want to take on long term debt anymore so that kills the usual Isiah type deals.

Posted by Moonangie:

Posted by Bonn1997:

Here's a sign David can bring to his negotiations

Very funny post, Bonn.

I think we will offer David a bit more than the MLE (since our initial proposal to him was for $8mil/yr). But I think it will come in under that, perhaps as low as $6mil/yr. We don't want to piss him off by paying the MLE. It has to at least "seem" fair, even if it's less than he wants. ANd this of course assumes we move N8 and JJ in a S&T. Without that contract dump, Lee gotta walk. If we land LBJ and/or another FA, and assuming Lee blossoms further, he may get rewarded on the next contract. Right now, his value isn't too high. But we'll gladly take his average double-doubles today, and pay tomorrow, hamburglars that we are.



[Edited by - Moonangie on 07-10-2009 10:00 PM]

[Edited by - Moonangie on 07-10-2009 10:02 PM]

I agree. We have to go a little above the MLE so that we don't insult him. We can go more than 4 years but we really should NOT go to more than $8 mil per year. He has zero chance of getting an offer at higher than that per year. And if we are going above 4 years, it should be for less than 8 mil per.

4 yr 32 mil
5 yr 38 mil
6 yr 43 mil

Take your pick.

The "Market" is one whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay. Not what the seller thinks his goods should sell for. Go play in Europe if you think you have more options than the NBA market will bear.

Posted by TMS:

at this point we're probably looking to sign this guy to a reasonably priced contract & then pursuing trade options at the deadline this season.

This is definitely the move. 4 yrs/30 million, take it or play the QO.
But then look to move him.