holfresh wrote:Finestrg wrote:I'm pretty comfortable with what's going on..Donnie has maintained interest and has been semi-aggressive without going overboard, even working overtime to bring Minnesota into the fold in an attempt to placate Denver..Hey, Lord knows it's not equal value (of course if I were DEN I'd want more but they have to realize Melo's holding most of the cards, not them) but a package of Chandler, Corey Brewer and a 1st rounder isn't completely terrible..It's not what Jersey was supposedly offering (and not nearly what we all thought we would have to offer) but it's not terrible..And rumor has it that we may have even expanded the deal to include Andy Rautins, a guy I think can play in this league, along with a 2nd rounder..Who knows, maybe we take it a step further to seal the deal (Jerome Jordan's rights, Mozgov, one of our own future 1s, etc..any of which I'd be OK surrendering in order to bring CA to the Garden--it'd still be a no-brainer & a coup). The key for me here is maintaining a reasonable offer, nothing out of the ordinary lowball, this way Melo and his advisors see that we're doing all we can do in good faith w/o breaking down the entire roster..I think that's very important..I don't understand those who are advocating sitting on our hands and waiting for FA when it comes to this matter..That's not the right move here at all: (A) We could definitely use him this year--RIGHT NOW in fact! The man's an all-star, why wait? We'd have to renounce Wilson Chandler anyway in the offseason to make the room AND (B) we'd be running a risk of Melo losing faith in NY---the guy wants NY and the money and we appear to be doing what we can to accommodate him within limits---he should have no problem at all with us. That's good imo--important to maintain that sense of appeasement..We don't want him to lose faith or trust in us..Not sure about you guys but the last thing I'd want, being this close, would be for Melo to say, "OK, forget NY. They're not serious..Let's talk to Cuban" because we played this cheap..It's not even Denver--honestly F the Nuggets, they couldn't give a **** about us and I really couldn't care less about them (if we can fleece them & come out ahead in this deal, why not? We've been on the other end of the stick plenty of times, it's about time we have something break right for us for a change)--it's about striking a deal so our hopefully soon-to-be future all-star is content with the situation and gets everything he wants or damn close to it..I don't think we have to offer the moon and I don't think Melo ever expected us to. Remember, he even commented back when Jersey was still in this that he didn't want or expect the Nets to gut their team to get him; that he wouldn't want to come to a team that traded away everything to get him (which is why NJ made last-ditch attempts to expand the deal to also bring in Billups & Rip, a once championship backcourt)..I gotta believe he feels the same way about coming to NY. I feel good about the situation. Don't know what the hell to make of Dolan's involvement..Honestly this ass-clown should probably but the F out and let Donnie handle the negotiating. No need for him to get involved in this, not when he has a pro like Donnie overseeing matters..I think Donnie's playing this perfectly. Dolan's nuts if he lets Walsh go and brings IT back, bottom line.
So you think the current offer on the table of Chandler, Curry and AR is a good faith and reasonable offer and Melo should know that we are doing all we can to get him here...U also think this is not a low ball offer, cause Melo may get offended, this is very important???..And if need be, You will also be willing to include Andy Rautins, a guy who can play in this league, along with a second rounder and that should seal it???...Am I correct??..
Read carefully my man..I said Wilson Chandler, Corey Brewer, a 1st rounder currently owned by Minnesota, Andy Rautins & a future Knicks 2 (AR & Curry would be going to Minny in the trade, not Denver), along with about $10M bucks in payroll savings for the Nuggets is not a terrible offer..Is it equal value? No, probably not. That's how good I think Melo is. And it's not what NJ was supposedly offering, an offer DEN appeared to be comfortable with before Melo put the kibosh on the whole deal by basically refusing to meet with NJ after Denver had given him permission to do so (which shows just how much leverage the man has in this---LIKE I SAID, Melo holds MOST OF THE CARDS here, not the Nuggets..He could easily dismiss the Knicks the way he did Jersey if he thought Walsh wasn't going after him hard enough. For those who don't believe that, I don't know what to tell you..I believe that to be fact esp. if teams like Dallas, Houston or the Lakers are really in play). Of course DEN's gonna try and hold out for more. I wouldn't expect otherwise. However, I don't think it's an embarrassing offer at all CONSIDERING Denver's back is pretty much against the wall here -- they risk losing him for much less this offseason in a S&T or perhaps even nothing at all. That's a substantial risk on their end for them to ponder..Like I said, we could even go a step or two further to seal the deal using a variety of other secondary assets to sweeten the pot, namely the rights to 7' C Jerome Jordan, Timmy Mozgov, a future 1 of our own, $3M in cash, etc...Now we're even talking about expanding it to include a PG swap, Felton for Billups, an idea I'm not particularly fond of at all, but yet another sign that we appear to be ready to up the ante in good faith to get it done..Still probably not equal worth for one of the league's better players but when you break it down, that's a lot of value potentially going to Denver right there.
If we're willing to go that high and include any of those ingredients, esp. Ray Felton, then absolutely no Gallo and no Landry Fields...That's where I'd draw the line..Ideally, I'd like to stick to the original plan and get Melo while keeping Felton, Gallo and Fields..We'll see if Donnie can do that..This is one big game of chicken that's gonna go right down to the wire.
