While waiting for their opportunity to sell LeBron James on their team, the New York Knicks will be busy courting other stars that could potentially play with him at Madison Square Garden.

Their first such meeting will be with Joe Johnson, the Atlanta Hawks' All-Star guard, according to league sources.

When the clock strikes midnight ET in New York on July 1, Knicks team president Donnie Walsh and coach Mike D'Antoni will be in Los Angeles meeting with Johnson, who will hold all of his meetings with clubs on the West Coast. The Knicks' brass will fly to northeast Ohio to woo James at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday.

While the Hawks hope to keep Johnson in Atlanta, several sources said the Knicks have emerged as his first choice. If they must lose him, the Hawks' preference is to work out a sign-and-trade deal with the Knicks.

But if no players on the Knicks' roster appeal to Atlanta, Johnson, believing he will make up the difference through endorsements and through buying stock shares in Madison Square Garden, is willing to take less money to play with the Knicks, according to sources.

Whatever the case, the Knicks could offer Johnson a maximum-salary contract worth approximately $96 million over five years, or a deal worth $125 million over six years through a sign-and-trade.

Walsh and D'Antoni also hope to meet with Amare Stoudemire while in Los Angeles.

Johnson and Stoudemire emerged as star players while playing for D'Antoni in Phoenix, which is a large part of the reason both players are considering New York so strongly.

Johnson averaged double figures (16.7 ppg) for the first time in his career while playing for D'Antoni in the 2003-04 season. That same year, Stoudemire went from being a 13-point scorer to a 20-point scorer in D'Antoni's wide-open system.

While the Knicks' main target is James, the duo of Johnson and Stoudemire would be a nice consolation prize if James goes elsewhere. The team thinks James and Johnson would be a particularly strong tandem, and it believes that Johnson will talk to James about the benefits of joining forces in New York.

James' first meeting will be with the New Jersey Nets on the morning of July 1, followed by the Knicks and several other clubs over the next few days.

Childs2Dudley wrote:That plan B is pretty awful, no offense. Unless you're content with first round playoff for the next 3-4 years until we start asking for both these guys to be traded.

what are they going to do? no choice at this point, except to sign guys. melo's about to be locked up to another contract, i don't see howard leaving the magic, paul still isn't going anywhere. gotta get guys at this point and hope it works out.

sidsanders wrote:

nyk4ever wrote:

Childs2Dudley wrote:That plan B is pretty awful, no offense. Unless you're content with first round playoff for the next 3-4 years until we start asking for both these guys to be traded.

what are they going to do? no choice at this point, except to sign guys. melo's about to be locked up to another contract, i don't see howard leaving the magic, paul still isn't going anywhere. gotta get guys at this point and hope it works out.

why lock into a scenario where on the surface, you have little chance of winning it all? if they miss on the elite 2, go for some young guys or make some trades for potential talent over locking up guys who will be the next marbs/randolphs/etc.

could be wise, but why hope for what they aren't going to do? the money is going to be spent this summer one way or another, you can bet on it.

KnicksSince88 wrote:This is a total buzzkill but kind of what i was expecting in my head all along, i never really felt we would get LeBron and the D'Antoni connection with both makes us a logical player for both. I know some have speculated about some prior Amare-D'Antoni rift but i really don't recall any of that.

Let me just put a happy face on this though. We are not necessarily locked in to the next 4-5 years as a team who must rely on Amare and Joe Johnson as our two best players. First off, if we are somewhat smart on these contracts and don't offer maxes to BOTH, we should be able to preserve cap room to offer another max next offseason. We do have Gallinari in the fold and i happen to think he has an all star upside. Maybe we get something for Curry. Its not like we would be capped out with these 2 signings for the next few seasons, and its not like we don't have young players on the roster with a chance to really be good, particularly Gallo, and to a lesser extent Chandler and Douglas

from the players view point, why would they do this? they give up guaranteed $$$ for what considering potential labor issues (throw in the years of svc max is higher for jj).

sidsanders wrote:

KnicksSince88 wrote:

sidsanders wrote:i dont see those 2 as anything but hoping for them to play like they did for the suns 5+ years ago. pass.

Its not ideal, but what else do you want to do if other guys turn us down? I wouldnt mind sitting on the money and preserving cap health going forward, live through a few more years of sucking and get in the lotto, but we don't have our draft picks, so that would be kinda pointless. We win 30 games next year we don't even have our pick

This would be a decent start, and we'd still have room to improve. Still have some cap flexability going forward after these moves, have who I think is a potential all star in the fold in Gallo (you may disagree). It wouldn't just be Amare and JJ leading the team on their back.

this is what i would rather do if they main targets dont show. trade for some guys with potential or eat a bad contract to pick up some 1st round picks, etc... dont really see things working well going the route of adding big $$$ mid tier guys. has never worked well for the knicks. always a first for stuff, however i dont see it with the plan b -ZZZ guys.

We likely wouldn't have our picks though for the next 2 seasons because of the Jared Jeffries trade, so sucking wouldn't net us any benefits whatsoever. And why would you want to eat a bad contract in a potential trade for a lotto pick which may or may not be realistic anyway (we certainly wouldn't be able to nab a top 5 pick). That sort of defeats the purpose of having cap room, Id rather spend the money on a good player, than cap myself out with a bad contract just to get the 8th or 9th pick in a draft (which may or may not be realistic anyway).

sidsanders wrote:

KnicksSince88 wrote:

sidsanders wrote:

KnicksSince88 wrote:

sidsanders wrote:i dont see those 2 as anything but hoping for them to play like they did for the suns 5+ years ago. pass.

Its not ideal, but what else do you want to do if other guys turn us down? I wouldnt mind sitting on the money and preserving cap health going forward, live through a few more years of sucking and get in the lotto, but we don't have our draft picks, so that would be kinda pointless. We win 30 games next year we don't even have our pick

This would be a decent start, and we'd still have room to improve. Still have some cap flexability going forward after these moves, have who I think is a potential all star in the fold in Gallo (you may disagree). It wouldn't just be Amare and JJ leading the team on their back.

this is what i would rather do if they main targets dont show. trade for some guys with potential or eat a bad contract to pick up some 1st round picks, etc... dont really see things working well going the route of adding big $$$ mid tier guys. has never worked well for the knicks. always a first for stuff, however i dont see it with the plan b -ZZZ guys.

We likely wouldn't have our picks though for the next 2 seasons because of the Jared Jeffries trade, so sucking wouldn't net us any benefits whatsoever. And why would you want to eat a bad contract in a potential trade for a lotto pick which may or may not be realistic anyway (we certainly wouldn't be able to nab a top 5 pick). That sort of defeats the purpose of having cap room, Id rather spend the money on a good player, than cap myself out with a bad contract just to get the 8th or 9th pick in a draft (which may or may not be realistic anyway).

cuz adding good (at long term, high $$$) == nothing in terms of titles, minus elite talent (unless we become the second team to win with zero elite players). id rather take a chance at eating an expiring contract to get some young cheaper guys then add maxed out good players who wont bring us a title

Who's going to trade us a young potential young elite difference maker just for eating a bad contract (a young potential top 10 type player which you are craving for)? If your whole thought process is unless the guy is a top 10 player, i have no interest, we probably won't be good until like 2018 at the earliest. 2013 we finally get our picks, figure suck for a few years in the lotto, add some talent, it comes together and best case we're good by the end of this decade. You can build through the draft or through free agency but Donnie made the former a non-option when he made the rockets trade