TMS wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:HELL NO!

Not even for the minimum.

i realize Al has his faults but u gotta give it up for a guy who's willing to play through injury the way he has & hasn't complained at all about it... he hasn't exactly been MDA's favorite player either but he's handled himself like a professional ever since he's been here, accepting a role off the bench backing up a scrub like Jeffries without complaint... he's also produced offensively all season leading all bench players in scoring average... if he were to be open to accepting a 1 year $3M type deal i think he'd be a tremendous value... where else can you get a player to give you 18-20 ppg off the bench at that level money?

i'd easily take Scola & Al Harrington combined over just 1 David Lee at the same dollars for example.

i agree
Al shows up hurt and plays. Even ill, you gotta commend Harrington for that

personally i wouldn't even consider bringing Al back unless he'd sign for something around $3M for 2010 & we already missed out on our max money targets.

TMS wrote:if we got Lebron & Bosh we won't have the space to add Al... i'm just proposing this as a possible option if we end up missing out on those guys, which there is a very good chance we do this summer... we might have to consider options like overpaying to keep D Lee in NY or to sign guys like Joe Johnson or Carlos Boozer, or dividing up the cap space among veterans on manageable contracts that won't kill our flexibility going forward to make other acquisitions.

personally i wouldn't even consider bringing Al back unless he'd sign for something around $3M for 2010 & we already missed out on our max money targets.

This may sound like evil talk, but if we're out of options, I'd rather bring Nate back then Al. Al seems to be going downhill, and I really like the guy. However, his game is what it is, and in a system designed for ball movement, Al doesn't really fit.

Finestrg wrote:

TMS wrote:if we got Lebron & Bosh we won't have the space to add Al... i'm just proposing this as a possible option if we end up missing out on those guys, which there is a very good chance we do this summer... we might have to consider options like overpaying to keep D Lee in NY or to sign guys like Joe Johnson or Carlos Boozer, or dividing up the cap space among veterans on manageable contracts that won't kill our flexibility going forward to make other acquisitions.

personally i wouldn't even consider bringing Al back unless he'd sign for something around $3M for 2010 & we already missed out on our max money targets.

OK I gotcha. Even so, I'd probably still pass. I don't know man -- If we lost out on all of our first choices, I don't know if I'd compromise the cap with a bunch of Plan D & E guys, you know what I mean? If it came down to us missing out on the top guys, I might switch focus and start by bringing David Lee back (Lee's more of a play B guy for me, still very much in my mix), then maximize the **** outta this draft, maybe make another low-grade smart FA signing or two (I have to look over the whole list but I'm sure we can get some bargin role players, guys capable of taking the next step, etc.) and then just keep cap room available to absorb a real good star-type player in a trade or keep it open for 2011 free agency (Melo possibly and whoever else). It would suck to wait yet another year but what are we gonna do? I definitely don't wanna go the Isiah Thomas route and just start throwing money at the next best things and then be stuck in limbo for the foreseeable future once again (I know that's not what you want either TMS, I'm just sayin' as a general philosophy move forward. Doesn't sound like Donnie wants to do that either, so that's a plus). I know the team sucked ass this year but Al still did his job for the most part. He's not gonna settle to stay. He could be the 6th man of the year - probably not because we blow the big one, but he'll at least be in consideration. He's gonna want to get paid, don't ya think? On the other hand, you did say a 1 year contract, so maybe I might consider it, as long as it's not too outlandish. Then I'd still have a chance to clear him off the cap the following year and continue the FA hunt in 2011.

i agree in principle about building back up through the draft but u know damn well the Knicks won't settle for another crappy season, & we pretty much know what they feel about building up through the draft at this point... IMO they're going to do whatever they can to make sure they at least make the playoffs in 2010... if we miss out on the bignames, i think it's almost a guarantee we're going to end up overpaying to sign at least 1 player... whether that is D Lee, Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer or someone else, i think we're pretty much guaranteed to go that route this summer... my point is i wouldn't want to eat up all the cap with bloated overpaid contracts when there's viable productive players like Harrington, Scola, etc. out there who we could likely sign to reasonable contracts at less money that won't represent much of a downgrade in overall talent.

for example if we miss out on Lebron & Bosh, wouldn't u rather divide the cap among 3rd tier FA's on reasonable contracts that won't kill our flexibility going forward rather than overspending for 2 2nd tier FA's that won't make us a viable contender anyway? i would... & at the core of that i would keep the focus on developing guys like Gallo, Wilson & Douglas until the day comes when we can land ourselves a legitimate franchise guy... the absolute last thing i want to see happen this summer is going all in on talent that i know will never win us a championship.