Posted by misterearl:

General Feeling

"Lee remains the most likely candidate to be traded because the general feeling is that he will receive a lucrative contract offer from another team after July 1. If the Knicks decided to match such an offer, it could jeopardize their plans for the following summer."

"Signing David Lee doesn't hurt the Knicks for 2010," said one rival general manager. "It screws them."

"We talk about (the roster) every day," D'Antoni said.

- Frank Isola

Posted by 4949:

Posted by Uptown:

Posted by Vmart:

If the KNicks sign Lee you can kiss 2010 good bye. Walsh is putting to much into Lee he is an OK player but give me cap space over him any day.

I dont disagree but if by some miracle we can package Curry and say Nate....then we can afford Lee. I think Lee is a really nice piece to have when your putting together a contender. Now if we can't move Curry, then Walsh has a tough call on his hands.

I have great difficulty understanding why Lee is such a HUGE key to the Knicks having cap space?

Coming off the books after 2008-09 season:
Stephon Marbury $21 million
Malik Rose $7.6 million
Total: 28.6 million

Sign 2 players, one year contracts each


Coming off the books after 2009-10 season:
Harrington 10 million
Mobley 9.5 million
Q 9.3 million
Jerome 6.6 million
Tim 6.4 million
Duhon 6 million
Gallinari 3 million
Nate 2.9 million
Lee 2.6 million
Chandler 1.2 million
Roberson 800 thousand

Total: $58.3 million

Grand total: $86.9 million dollars of potential open money


The two difficult tasks is trading Curry's 11.2 million dollar contract and Jeffries 6.6 million dollar contract, because they both end in 2010-11.

If you add those totals onto the grand total of potential cap space money it comes up into the neighborhood of something like $104.7 million. If that' doesn't give Walsh flexibility then I don't know what will.

Walsh has been lining up these contracts. By signing Duhon, Roberson, Harrington, Mobley and Tim to end after next season is true to his word to make cap space. So this has no baring on wether Lee is signed or not. He's certainly not worth 10 or more million a year. I think the highest he'll go is 9, if even. And like many people have already said (and been pushing), including a writer who has an inside word, Lee's not going to be a Knick anyway, so why worry either way?

In the end, Walsh should go after the big boys first, get them signed and then' make offers to players Walsh and D'Antoni still want on this team. Because once you fill the big money, each players agent will be able to see what kind of money you have left over. And they won't be asking for a whole lot by then.

Your math is ridonkulous. Instead of counting backwards (money coming off the cap) you need to count forwards.

On the cap for 2010 when approaching free agents (assuming we sign 2 FAs and we waive the LLE and MLE)

Curry ($11M)
Jeffries ($6.8m)
Chandler ($2.1m)
Gallo ($3.3M)
2009 1st Rd Pick (Approx 2.5M)
2009 2nd Rd Pick ($500k)
2010 2nd Rd Pick ($500k)
and place holders for 3 minimum contracts at $400K each ($1.2)M.
= $27.9M

We have been using $64m as the cap based on the projections, so $64m - $27.9 = $36.1.
Max contracts for LBJ and/or Bosh cost 30% of the cap each. ($19.2m * 2 = $38.4m)

Without even talking about re-signing Lee, the Knicks need to clear $2.3M more (or convince FA to take less) in order to sign two Max contracts.

Lee and any other FA contract has to come from clearing Curry/Jeffries. That wasted $17m is not really coming back to the Knicks as it expires due to pay increases/ resigning of existing players. This includes trading for prospects, future 1st rounders etc... there is no room for additional salary in 2010 until they move JJ2 and Curry.