Sigh! Under the assumption we shed no salary and make minimal moves here's the stuation...
iyamwutiam David Lee is gonna get paid you might as well come to grips with this or else he's a goner. He'll be in the second yr of a new contract that will pay him approximately $10mil/yr(6yr $60mil). Add $9mil 2nd yr salary at least for Lee now we're at $55mil. Nate he's gonna get a tad more than the MLE his first yr salary will be around $6mil possibly $7mil. Add that to $55mil now we're at approximately $61-62mil. You then have to add a Top 7 pick salary in there not in case you're thinking about trading it that pick will be in the 3rd yr of his contract add at least another $3mil to the $61-62mil now we're at $65mil. We probably won't make the playoffs next yr and if we don't trade that pick add another $2mil in salary from a Top 12 minimum lottery pick, now we're at $67mil. Now do you honestly believe we allow our MLE to remain dormant for 2yrs straight? If not pick a yr from now till 2010/2011 in which we exercise all if not a portion of it and add at least another $3-6mil in salary to the $67mil. The MLE will rise more than likely over the next yr or so and be pretty much $6mil in value.
Look you've spent all this time trying to paint I SAY UGH as a GM who has set us up with a nice future financially but in actuality he hasn't.
Personally - I don't see David Lee as a 10M a year player much less Nate at a mid-level especially when you look at Haslem around 6.5M. Same goes for Nate.
Also - in a sign and trade- you can give them players back. As I pointed out - say you sign Dwayne Wade as an example - for a max contract- 100 M for 6 years or so. You can send them back Curry and Randolph - and hava front loaded contract that pays Wade 29M in his first year and still be under the rules. Miami would get two expirings -Curry and Randolph - so this is what I meant. So if you were at the cap before you signed - you could still be at the cap with the addition of a big time free agent. You can obviously give up some picks - 1 first and say a second rounder.
So as I see it :
1. Randolph/Curry/Crawford/Jeffries are all expiring - and you can basically match anyone. Say Cleveland offered Le Bron 120M for 6 years - we can beat that with say 150M for 6 years and pay him 40M in his first year. It can be done.
I am not sure about the MLE - but why should we not allow it to be dormant.
You have one of two strategies - not be over the cap or be over the cap. We have already tried the former (didn't work) and now we try the latter. IT's statement' regarding the cap/trades etc - would have to imply that this is the direction we are going. In addition- at some point -its about bloody well time -we did go in this direction since the last 25 years or so - we have been under the cap like once. So about time - the Knicks go with this strategy- so I guess - the answer would be -no- no signing MLEs. No overpaying for Lee or Robinson.
Lee at 10M a year is a joke !!! That's David West money - and I doubt David Lee will become David West. I really know -so many people would love for him to become a member of the over-paid (because I look like the fans) poster boy club such as Troy Murphy, Croshere, Dunleavy etc- but other than that universal American ethic - I see no real reason for it.
So the answer is :
Expiring contracts 4 - can help us land a player because salaries have to MATCH - and so we would not be over the cap - we would just be exchanguing expiring contracts for long term contracts. Also I don't believe the Lee and Robinson are worth that kind of money- maybe Montae Ellis, Josh Smith etc. -- so I am not expecting that kind of cap situation.
Lastly- it is still possible - to trade someone for an expiring - either Crawford or Randolph. We don't know. As I said -every one feels like a gennius because of hindsight - but that doesn't make you one. The future is uncertain.
2/25/2008 7:53 PM
