Marcus Camby headlines Donnie Walsh's supporting cast in case Lebron James joins New York Knicks

BY Frank Isola
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Sunday, March 7th 2010, 4:00 AM

The Knicks' primary target this summer is LeBron James, but when it comes to the supporting cast Donnie Walsh plans to assemble, the team president has his eye on a free agent with New York ties.

The Knicks, according to sources, will make a strong push for Marcus Camby, who 11 years ago played a significant role in helping the Knicks reach the NBA Finals. Walsh has tried for two years to acquire the 7-foot Camby and last month lost out again when the Clippers traded him to Portland.

Although Camby turns 36 in two weeks, he still moves well and doesn't need the ball to make an impact. Instead, he is the shot-blocking, rebounding type of center Walsh and Mike D'Antoni covet.

"He only has great memories of New York," Camby's agent, Rick Kaplan, said on Friday in Toronto. "But he's having a great time in Portland. He really enjoys that team."

The Knicks' interest in Camby is a clear sign that management is convinced David Lee can't continue to play out of position at center. Although Lee's quickness gives him an advantage over most centers, his lack of size and girth under the basket have hurt the Knicks all season.

On Friday, Toronto scored 62 points in the paint despite All-Star power forward Chris Bosh missing the game with an upset stomach. Lee is neither a shot-blocker nor a player who is willing to draw charges. And when the Knicks' perimeter players are beaten off the dribble, Lee is vulnerable as the last line of defense.

"Sometimes I dream that I'm 7 feet tall," Lee joked with reporters following Friday's 102-96 loss.

Lee, however, did get defensive when asked about the Knicks' lack of an interior presence. The first-time All-Star seemed taken aback by the line of questioning after leading the Knicks with 23 points, 18 rebounds and two blocked shots.

"If you're looking for someone to blame I guess you can blame me for the defense," he said. "I'm doing my best at 6-9 and I'm going to continue to try and get better and control the paint better. A lot of times I'm playing guys five or six inches bigger than I am and 50 pounds heavier."

Lee is one of the league's most improved offensive players, but a fair criticism of his game is that he doesn't use his fouls judiciously, if at all. He had yet to commit a foul entering the fourth quarter against Toronto despite numerous chances to prevent layups and perhaps send a strong message.

And when it was suggested that it might benefit him to occasionally deliver a hard foul to a penetrating guard, Lee fired back, saying: "We got a Charles Oakley thing going here? I don't know what to say about that.

"We get two or three fouls on me and we have a 6-7 (guy) playing (center) and they continue to drive the ball. I see your point and I'm not opposed to it. You're right, it's definitely a weakness of our defense. It's a weakness of our team, the fact that we're not big at any position."

Lee would benefit from playing alongside someone like Camby. Of course, there is a possibility that Lee, who is a free agent, will sign elsewhere this summer.

He also agrees that he is better-suited to playing power forward, but Lee noted that during his first four years in the league he was criticized for being an offensive liability.

"People would say, 'You can put David at the four but if he plays with a (center) who is a post-up guy he can't space the floor because he can't shoot,'" Lee said. "So it's a little bit of a change. We have what, 21 games left? I'll battle at the five spot for 21 more games and we'll see what happens."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2010/03/07/2010-03-07_walsh_knicks_size_up_camby.html#ixzz0hXH48HH3

Camby's agent is letting Portland know if you want to retain me and I prove to be a difference maker in the playoffs you better pay me.

New York will continue to get used until they wise up. This is why I never wanted us to throw $12mil at Duhon because it help continue the ridiculous standard of us over paying.

TMS wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Walsh and every other team with the MLE.

we don't have the MLE, but we do have a ton of cap space to use... it will take at least $7-8 mil per to sign Camby IMHO.

The issue is the years. For all we know Camby could join Lebron in Cleveland.

Silverfuel wrote:Its a good sign. Donnie Walsh did a good job with the Pacers. I remember wondering wtf when he traded Dale and Antonio Davis who did a great job next to Rik Smits. A year and a half later they had Jermaine, Brad Miller and Ron Artest in the front court. There is a good chance he will pull a rabbit out of the hat again over the next year and half. I think we will have a pretty good team in place by midway next season when that Eddy Curry expiring deal will get us some real talent in return. I'm rooting for Donnie, hope he delivers.

No it's not. A good sign to have a player use us like Kidd and Grant Hill did, except getting a head start.

Juice wrote:

Silverfuel wrote:Its a good sign. Donnie Walsh did a good job with the Pacers. I remember wondering wtf when he traded Dale and Antonio Davis who did a great job next to Rik Smits. A year and a half later they had Jermaine, Brad Miller and Ron Artest in the front court. There is a good chance he will pull a rabbit out of the hat again over the next year and half. I think we will have a pretty good team in place by midway next season when that Eddy Curry expiring deal will get us some real talent in return. I'm rooting for Donnie, hope he delivers.

No it's not. A good sign to have a player use us like Kidd and Grant Hill did, except getting a head start.

if we had the luxury of being able to sign guys like that to multi-year deals i think they could have ended up here... Donnie was only willing to give out 1 year deals to these guys because he wanted to maintain the flexibility to make signings this summer.

TMS wrote:

Juice wrote:

Silverfuel wrote:Its a good sign. Donnie Walsh did a good job with the Pacers. I remember wondering wtf when he traded Dale and Antonio Davis who did a great job next to Rik Smits. A year and a half later they had Jermaine, Brad Miller and Ron Artest in the front court. There is a good chance he will pull a rabbit out of the hat again over the next year and half. I think we will have a pretty good team in place by midway next season when that Eddy Curry expiring deal will get us some real talent in return. I'm rooting for Donnie, hope he delivers.

No it's not. A good sign to have a player use us like Kidd and Grant Hill did, except getting a head start.

if we had the luxury of being able to sign guys like that to multi-year deals i think they could have ended up here... Donnie was only willing to give out 1 year deals to these guys because he wanted to maintain the flexibility to make signings this summer.

He offered Kidd a 3yr deal and then made the statement he was glad he turned us down to sign with Dallas. This of course was said... supposedly after the cap number was revealed around the moratorium period. Although there were several articles stating GM's knew what the cap numbers were more than likely going to be, well in advance... sometime early June at least. Kidd wanted us to offer him MLE money so he could take it back to Cuban and tell the Mavs he's worth slightly more. Portland was also on Kidd's bidding war list. We got played, and we better be extra careful this summer to make sure we don't again, now that we have money to spend.

I know you like Camby as do I, but we gotta be consistent in every situation.

TMS wrote:he tried to address it while staying w/the 2010 plan by trading for Darko... given he's not on Camby's level but at least he tried to address it... MDA never played the guy... what can a GM do if his head coach refuses to use the players he trades for & drafts (other than Gallo that is, who MDA pined for from the very beginning) - well, aside from firing him & hiring another head coach that is, which i'd be fine with at this point if it means we'd hire a coach w/a defensive mindset.

That's my point. It doesn't matter about getting Camby if the guy is not going to play because the coach doesn't like him on offense. Walsh brought in guys from the D-League that were shotblockers but how much time did they get? Is Wilcox still on this roster? We can dance around about fixing an issue that was suppose to be fixed but until circumstances or philosophies change it doesn't matter. Walsh wants more defense but he brings in a guy who isn't known to coach that. Donnie is pretty much shooting himself in a foot with some of these acquisitions. You draft a guy that you expect can help you in the post only to watch as he gets no playing time because of his offense is not up to standard. Now you watch a guy sit on the bench because he is known as a defensive player but whose offense isn't up to that same standard. They can talk about being on the same page with this roster but they really aren't.