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TheGame
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Joined: 7/15/2006
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Make the playoffs, make a million12:32 AM By Alan Hahn
Nate Robinson said taking a one-year deal was never an issue because he was well aware of Donnie Walsh's rebuilding plan, which relied heavily on have salary cap flexibility in 2010.
"Donnie has a plan, he's on a mission and he's doing everything according to his plan," Robinson said. "I told him I'm not trying to mess nothing up."
But there was more to it than just the 2010 Cap Space Odyssey, as David Lee explains:
"The other part of it was, quite frankly, we haven't won as much as we wanted to," Lee said.
Ding!
Robinson and Lee were rookies in the 2005-06 season, which resulted in 23 wins. The following year, with Isiah Thomas on the bench, the total was 33. Thomas' second year saw a drop back to 23 and last season, under Mike D'Antoni, the record was 32-50.
That's an average of 27.75 wins per season and zero playoff appearanceas. To be fair, the two had three coaches in their first four NBA seasons. And a whole lotta drama going on in every corner of the locker room.
But today Lee and Robinson are no longer the young players who feel obligated to defer to -- or simply avoid -- the veterans in the locker room and on the court. After all of Walsh's wheeling and dealing over the past calendar year, Lee and Robinson, who were drafted in June 2005, are the most tenured Knicks.
"It's funny you should say that because me and D-Lee were talking about that the other day," Robinson said. "He was like, 'Man, it's crazy.' We're still here and now we're vets."
Sure, Larry Hughes and Al Harrington are technically the elders of the locker room, but Lee and Robinson are both home-grown talents who should start taking it upon themselves to set the example for the new crop -- Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Jordan Hill and Toney Douglas -- and take greater responsibility in the culture change that still needs to take place in the Knick locker room. It is up to them to set the standard, to raise the level of play and to enforce accountability.
Be the reason why instead of finding reasons why not.
It is up to them to sacrifice stats for wins, which you can expect because Walsh cleverly decided to add that $1M bonus if the team makes the playoffs. You want to see a guy hold his teammates accountable? Put a million bucks on the table and he'll make sure everyone around him is playing just as hard as he is. Cutting corners costs him money.
Honestly, this is the way all contracts should be structured in the NBA. Bonuses should be a combination of player performance in relation to team performance (it seems so obvious). That way, everybody wins.
In other words, follow the example of the JR Smith contract with the Denver Nuggets:
Smith gets a bonus if he plays 2,000 minutes and the team wins 42 games. So this works two-fold: to get his minutes, Smith has to make a positive impact and please George Karl. And when he's playing, he has to care about winning, because getting those 2,000 minutes means nothing if the team doesn't get to 42 wins.
The result was Smith had his best season as a pro, played 2,245 minutes and the Nuggets won 54 games. Cha-ching for everyone.
For Lee and Robinson, it's simple math: Make the playoffs, make a million dollars.
"We're going to shock everybody this year," Robinson said.
I didn't mean to stammer when he said that, but I did.
You think you can make the playoffs?
"I think we can," he said. "The only thing about our team is we just have to play defense. We can score points. That's easy. There are nights we might be off, but we can still score. It's just stopping the other team from scoring . . . We have everything else. We just have to pick up our defense and everything will be OK."
Then it's money well spent by the team. And greater value next summer for the players.
"Both sides are excited about this year," Lee said. "And if I have the kind of year I think I can have and I think the team can have, it can end up being an even bigger home run for us."
Now this is how you do business.
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This is about the best Hahn article I read (or maybe I was just happy to hear Nate talking about picking up the defense). He is right. This team can score points on anyone. The only question is can they play NBA level defense and make it difficult for other teams to score. The "make the playoffs, get a $1 million" bonus structure is a great idea and something more teams should do. I have to give Walsh credit. Signing both Lee and Nate to one-year deals, with both seeming happy, was a major accomplishment. We need both focused and playing hard if we are going to make the playoffs this year, which to me must be the goal for the season since we have no draft pick.
Trust the Process
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