Posted by Bippity10:

I think the group on this site is far more obsessed with how many and what free agents we are getting in 2010 than Donnie is. I personally think Donnie saw we were not competing for a while so he decided to get in the game for 2010. But I just don't get the impression from him or D'Antoni that he thinks we are doomed if we don't get a couple big name free agents in 2010 or 2011. I think he just thought getting under the cap and clearing these awful contracts was an obvious first step.

Personally I agree with him. I think you had to rid yourself of these contracts before you think about competing for a title in any way shape or form. I also think if you are going to clear contracts and you don't at least try to get in position to obtain Lebron etc(no matter how remote the chances) you are an idiot. Not sure why being in this position upsets so many

Posted by Allanfan20:

So Bip, what would you do? Let Lee and Nate go or place your eggs in the 2010 basket?

Posted by JohnWallace44:


Cosmic, I hear you and that's good news, and a good point.

However... the lowering of the cap doesn't change the $ amount that Curry, Jeffries, Chandler, Gallo and our 2009 pick are getting paid. That means that if the cap goes down, their percentage of the cap goes up.

We can hope that the expectations, salary wise, of a player the caliber of Joe Johnson, will go down for 2010, but if there are 12 teams out there who are trying to make room for Max contracts... we're already asking them to give up salary and years to switch teams, but now we're going to be asking them potentially to take less money with the Knicks than they would with other potential landing spots.

Posted by Allanfan20:

So Bip, what would you do? Let Lee and Nate go or place your eggs in the 2010 basket?

Posted by JohnWallace44:

Let's reduce this to an SAT question...

The cap is $10.00 total and you have Gallo, Chandler, Curry, Jeffries and the 2009 pick counting $4 total against the cap leaving you $6 left.

The max amount any team can offer is $3 per player. (plan is to sign two players at this max amount)

The economy crumbles and the salary cap has to be dropped 20% to $8.

Now the most that any team can offer is $2.40 per player (also down 20%).

We now have $4.00 left.

How do we sign two Max players now?

Your math is way off; the max contract for an individual player is nowhere near 30% of the salary cap. We have about $20 mil locked for 2010; if the cap is $54 mil (the new reduced projection), that's the same as having roughly $3 spent and $5 left in your example. Then a max contract would be somewhere around $2

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by JohnWallace44:

Let's reduce this to an SAT question...

The cap is $10.00 total and you have Gallo, Chandler, Curry, Jeffries and the 2009 pick counting $4 total against the cap leaving you $6 left.

The max amount any team can offer is $3 per player. (plan is to sign two players at this max amount)

The economy crumbles and the salary cap has to be dropped 20% to $8.

Now the most that any team can offer is $2.40 per player (also down 20%).

We now have $4.00 left.

How do we sign two Max players now?

Your math is way off; the max contract for an individual player is nowhere near 30% of the salary cap. We have about $20 mil locked for 2010; if the cap is $54 mil (the new reduced projection), that's the same as having roughly $3 spent and $5 left in your example. Then a max contract would be somewhere around $2

I don't know man. We should detail the exact numbers once the dust settles from today, but from what I know we were tight with the projected cap when it was supposed to go up. Now that it's expected to go down, how can the Max players fit?

I'd stand up and cheer if you're right.

Posted by CrushAlot:

44 were you campaigning last year for Zach and the pick to be traded at the draft to get cap space? I think Walsh has demonstrated that by being patient he has been able to do some remarkable things. I think you have to wait at least until this time next year before you count Walsh out.