While the Knicks are wooing LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, an opportunistic rival could swoop in and snare Lee. It could be days or weeks before Knicks officials figure out how they will spend an estimated $32 million in cap space. Lee cannot be expected to wait. He could have a difficult decision to make if a great offer comes July 1.

“I don’t know how the Knicks are going to do timetable-wise, or if LeBron is going to have a decision made by July 1 or Sept. 1,” Lee said. “I don’t know how it’s going to work. At this point, I’m just going to look at everything as it comes to me and let my agent do his job.”

Ideally, the Knicks would sign two superstars, with James and Bosh the top targets. That would require renouncing the rights to all of their free agents, including Lee. But there are countless ways to spend the cap space. They could sign one marquee player and have enough left to sign Lee and another solid free agent. Or they could strike out entirely on the marquee players, in which case they will have plenty of room for Lee — and a long line of depressed season-ticket holders.

In any case, the team president, Donnie Walsh, conceded that the free-agent musical-chairs game would not proceed quickly.

“Probably not,” he said.

This will be the second straight off-season of uncertainty for Lee. He was a restricted free agent last summer and had to wait until September before the Knicks, who refused to offer a multiyear deal, finally re-signed him to a one-year, $7 million contract. Lee was disappointed but understood Walsh’s stance, and his effort to conserve cap space.

Walsh rewarded Lee with a contract that was $4.5 million more than the Knicks had to pay to keep him. Perhaps Walsh bought a little patience in the process.

“I hope the fact that the franchise treated him well and didn’t nail him means something,” Walsh said.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/sports/basketball/12knicks.html?ref=basketball

Walsh needs to seriously wake up. David Lee is no longer a RFA. David Lee and Boozer are the only 2 non max PF's and Lee is the younger of the two. We already know how Bartelstein(Lee's Agent) rolls and I dont see him doing NY any favors.

Walsh's last quote says it all. Too bad Lee says he is leaving things to his agent. Money means something to him Walsh so if you want him pay him. I dont see him taking a discount once we cant get anybody.

Fact is, we did Lee a favor by giving him the extra money this season but at the same time, we also didn't reward him for the year he had last season and give him a long-term contract during RFA.

I don't see Lee jeopardizing millions of dollars to appease the Knicks. If a team comes in and makes him a strong offer, he might not be given a window of time to wait on the Knicks. It could very well happen especially if we're waiting on answers from LeBron, Bosh, Wade, etc.

If he walks while we're still waiting on someone else, so be it, have a nice career. Personally I will be very happy to see him in another uniform and I firmly believe the Knicks will be better off not relying so much on a player like him, who totally SUCKS on one end of the floor yet somehow believes he's the greatest thing since blow jobs.

TMS wrote:if Lee gets a lucrative offer from somewhere else he should take it... if we end up losing him because we're not willing to overpay, so be it... that's a smarter play than giving in to pressure & taking it up the butt because you have no contingency plans in place... oh wait, that already happened.

If we had Hill, we could let Lee walk with no problems, but I guess we have no contingency plan.

In this wacky NBA world, their new 7-foot center, Earl Barron, has a better shot at returning next season than Lee, an unrestricted free agent who may have played so well this season to have priced himself out of a return.

Knicks president Donnie Walsh told The Post last night he is interested in re-signing Barron for next season as their backup center, probably for the minimum. His 10-day contract expired last night and the Knicks will renew that deal for today's game and the season finale Wednesday in Toronto.

"No doubt about it, I'd say we have interest in him next summer," Walsh said of Barron. "We're going to try to keep him here."

The pockmark on Lee's resume is he never has gotten the Knicks to the playoffs. Coach Mike D'Antoni wants to re-sign him -- Lee being a strong ally in the locker room -- but Walsh makes the call.

Walsh privately feels Lee needs to be a tougher defender to be worth close to what agent Mark Bartelstein will be asking -- at least $13 million per. If the Knicks get one of the fabulous five free agents, there may not be room for Lee, who knows it.

"The fact I've been here five years, you don't see that a lot," Lee said. "Nowadays you see guys trade left and right.

"It really comes down to what LeBron [James], Dwyane Wade and [Chris] Bosh do," Lee added. "There's 15 teams with cap space. They'll be three teams who get those guys and the other ones will go after guys they want to go after."

If anything, Barron's presence gave the Knicks a chance to see the 6-foot-9 Lee moved from center to power forward for the season's last two weeks. That's where they want him for next season if re-signed.

"His best position is a 4 on a very good team," D'Antoni said. "[Lee] needs a long, athletic guy at the side of him."

Said Lee, "Whether they want to experiment or not, Earl has done a good job," Lee said. "They're probably more than looking at me at the 4, they're looking to see their chances of keeping him in the future. But I played 4 early in my career with Eddy and can obviously do that a lot better because of my ability to shoot the ball now."

Barron has piqued the Knicks' curiosity in his five games because they have no legit centers. He posted a double-double yesterday (13 points, 12 boards) but had six turnovers. He's averaging 12.6 and 11.4 boards.

Before the game, Walsh and Barron huddled courtside and spoke for 10 minutes. The Knicks have been mostly on the road since Barron arrived and Walsh hadn't yet spoken with the former Heat center.

"I hadn't met him and wanted to meet him and tell him I was impressed with the way he played," Walsh said. "He's been starting and been effective. If he can do the same thing without starting, he'll be good. I've been impressed with him as a guy. I like the way he conducts himself and he's got things going for him."

"He's shown he has the ability to be able to stick," D'Antoni said.

Berman article so take from it what u will, but if Lee's agent is going to ask for $13M per then we can pretty much say goodbye to David Lee this summer.

sidsanders wrote:one thing i dont like is that they are talking about needing a big guy to play the d lee cant/wont play... why play the carnival game of covering up weaknesses?? its talked about a lot how lee needs to play with a guy to make up for what he doesnt do, yet hes gonna get 13 a year avg out of it maybe?