Posted by s3231:

Honestly, I don't see why King is being bashed so much.

Yes, he repeats himself often, which can get a little annoying, but you can't fault him for pointing out that he was right about the Lee situation. We all do the same thing when we are right about something.

The truth is Donnie most likely screwed up last summer (and this is coming from someone who loves Donnie Walsh and thinks we are very fortunate to have him). We had two options that would have given us the best return on David Lee. Those two options were A) trade Lee while he was still on his rookie contract for value or B) re-sign him to a reasonable extension. Walsh failed and didn't execute either one of those two options.

Now, you can make the point that we don't know what Donnie was offered or if Lee would have even signed a reasonable deal, but that doesn't matter. In the end, Walsh's job is to make this franchise better and making sure you get a good return on your best asset falls under that umbrella.

As a result, we are now in a position where some fans actually think its ok to let Lee walk for nothing. To me, that is not a viable option. We CANNOT let a young front-court player as good as Lee walk without getting something in return. This would be similar to what happened several years ago when the Cavs got screwed over by Boozer and saw him go to Utah without getting anything in return. Letting Lee walk would be a disaster. If we are lucky, we will get Lee back at a decent price (although it will still likely cost us more than it would have last summer). To a certain degree, we will also be fortunate if we sign and trade Lee for something of value (but again, we won't get good value at this point so this isn't a great outcome).

Walsh is a smart guy, I have faith in him but I really don't think he has handled this situation as well as it could have been handled. Lee is not a great player, but he is still a good player that has shown the ability to improve along with the work ethic to constantly get better. I hope we can keep him at a decent price. With that said, if someone signs him to an offer sheet for $50 million over 5 years, I would rather match it than let him walk for nothing at this point. If we at least threaten to match, we would be a in a position to possibly get something in return for him (kind of like the Nets did with K-Mart when they traded him to Denver). Letting Lee walk for nothing would be foolish.

[Edited by - s3231 on 07-03-2009 5:43 PM]

good to see i'm not the only one who thinks this.

King is friends with Lee and is prejudiced towards his friend. That's not such a big deal. I think most of us would be.

Regarding signing Lee, I'd be happy to have him back at a salary that averages $7-8 million a year for five or six years. Lee does have holes in his game, but there are some things he does extremely well. He's improved his game every year he's been with the Knicks and he's always been a team player.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by Ira:

King is friends with Lee and is prejudiced towards his friend. That's not such a big deal. I think most of us would be.

I can respect that but I think most of us in that scenario would preface our statements with something like, "I know I'm not an objective observer since Lee is my friend, but I still think..."

On every single post? That would get annoying.

Posted by BasketballJones:

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by Ira:

King is friends with Lee and is prejudiced towards his friend. That's not such a big deal. I think most of us would be.

I can respect that but I think most of us in that scenario would preface our statements with something like, "I know I'm not an objective observer since Lee is my friend, but I still think..."

On every single post? That would get annoying.

I doubt that would be necessary