mreinman wrote:WaltLongmire wrote:Of course I'm saying this with 20/20 hindsight......but you can make a pretty strong case that the Knicks would have been better off staying with Lee and not signing Amare.
Yeah, Amare was a "star" and Lee only a home grown talent, but, taking everything into account, Lee turned out to be the better player of the two if you compare them from the point in time of the trade, and especially after the Amare injury...and he would have been a better complimentary player with Anthony than Amare ever was, IMO.
I always had issues with Lee as a defender, but Amare was just as bad- maybe worse in some ways, was never the rebounder or passer that Lee was, and didn't have Lee's BB IQ. He also improved on his game every year he was with the Knicks...just wish he had made himself into a better defender.
Lee had a pretty good run in the NBA, and his "fall" was preceded by membership on a title team. Not a bad career for a late 1st rnd. pick.
duh! 
"duh!" is a Latvian word for "right on"...no?
Ahh...from what I can see there were many who did not like Lee around here...so I was also reacting to this thread and how some seemed to discount him as a player.
Do you think that going after Lee as a defender, which many seemed did here, was a "duh!" type of response?
Can't look at Lee as a Knicks' fan without pairing him with the Amare signing, and I expect that most around here were happy to have a colorful and more spectacular "star" like Amare than home grown David Lee. Given how far Lee had come as a player, and Amare's reputation as a poor defender and so-so rebounder with an uninsurable knee, I was never sure that he was a better choice over Lee. He did turn out to be a financial albatross, though.
Lee had a pretty good final season with the Knicks...his best all-around season as a pro, but it seemed there was no way whatsoever that we were going to consider him over Amare because we had to make some kind of splash in free agency.
The Amare signing was a franchise changer...or perhaps a pair of concrete shoes for the Knicks is a better way of putting things- a Max salary gamble that failed big time. It was also an example that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
We gave up a solid citizen and solid player for one spectacular season from a colorful character like Amare, and paid about $10M/yr more for this privilege.
Quite a "duh!" moment...right?
EnySpree: Can we agree to agree not to mention Phil Jackson and triangle for the rest of our lives?
