Posted by Uptown:
Posted by TMS:
Posted by King1:
Because I think getting one big time free agent is feasible not two. I think you sign Lee at the four go get a defensive minded big, play Wilson and the three and Gallinari, and have Duhon and a free agent like Johnson or Lebron and you still have money left over to spend the next year.
i don't think u would actually... at the most u would have the MLE which we would have even if we were capped out after 2010 anyway.
max FA ~$17 mil
Lee ~$10 mil
Wilson $2 mil
Gallo $3 mil
Jefferies $7 mil
Curry $11 mil
Duhon ~$9 mil (if he keeps playing like this)
'09 draft pick ~$2.5 mil
that's ~$62 mil committed to 8 players on the roster, leaving u w/only about $3 mil leftover depending on what the cap is that year or the MLE to fill the other 4 roster spots... u can see how much of a hindrance D Lee & Curry's contracts will prove to be to any chances of landing another bigname FA in 2010.
having the flexibility to land 2 bigname FA's in 2010 is a much better attractor for any FA to want to come here than to have someone like D Lee on the roster to play with if u ask me... if we have the ability to sign only 1 guy i think there's much less of a chance we'll land any of them at all.
[Edited by - TMS on 12-07-2008 1:50 PM]
Excellent point. Forget about Chandler and Gallo, but the idea that Lebron and Bosh can play together on the same team should be very attractive to both of them, regardless of city, etc. Bosh has never played with anyone the callibre of James and vice-versa. That in itself is attratcive to both. Once those two players are in tow, with an owner like Dolan, Walsh can then overspend for role players to fill out a championship roster. That would be spending wisely.
I see everyone looking at Duhon as though he is some star player, but it is clearly the system that is boosting his game. Why assume we would pay Duhon 9m when the Knicks could sign another backup pg with potential to a cheap contract and let the system work? Basically, for the next two years, they can let players pad their stats, boost their value and trade them off without any real recourse because this they are simply building towards a 2010 free agency bonanza.
You also have 18 months to boost Jeffries and Curry's value and ship them to teams that could use their skill sets. Clear all of the dead weight and start as clan as possible in 2010.
Aim towards making an offer to James and Bosh simultaneously for $34m. Include Chandler, Gallo and draft someone like Rubio for about a total of 9m in cap space, and that leaves about $19m to fill the remaining required 7 roster spots. Hopefully, the knicks will have collected a couple 2nd rd draft picks for 2009 and 2010 at $500k each so that they can keep their allocated salary down. Say we have 3 2nd rd draft picks between 2009 and 2010. We then have $17.5 to spend on 4 more players at and average of $4.5m each.
Why would Lebron want to be the only star here? Bring in Bosh and Lebron and other players will follow in order to play with these guys. Regardless of how it turned out, Malone and Payton signed cheap to play with Shaq and Kobe. The roster will fill itself in easily if you get two stars.
If Lee, Robinson, Duhon, or any other Knick have trade value that can help get rid of Jeffries and Curry and return a draft pick, I would take it in a heartbeat.
12/7/2008 8:27 PM