I know it's a year away, but nate and lee will be free agents after this season. how much do you think we should spend on each to keep them here? how much do you think they'll get from other teams?

Everyone likes lee (including me) but i think we overrate him a little bit. if he has a similar year to last year, i don't think he'll get much more than the midlevel from any teams. maybe a team like houston that needs a PF like him would try to offer him a 4 year 25 million dollar deal or something. i don't think nate will command more than 3 mil/ yr but depending on the season he has, his value might go up.

lee will get much more than midlevel from other teams

we've never been a team that spent wisely. I see Lee getting very close to a max type deal. I think he will see Boozer type money.

Nate is going to be a bit tougher- but I think you could work off Crawford type numbers- where crawford is getting $8MM per year, perhaps Nate starts at $6.5MM per year- $42MM for however long.

Lee deserves the money and it will never affect his play.

Nate is a different story, though. I worry he has enough trouble focusing on playing, etc., that a big contract like that will just inflate his already bloated sense of self worth even higher.

It might make financial sense to move at least one of them before handing them the contract, or in a s&t.

Of course, nothing about this group makes financial sense.

Posted by joec32033:

Keep Lee. Trade Nate.

One more reason to worry if Isiah is still the president at that point- because he'll do the reverse.

Posted by joec32033:

Keep Lee. Trade Nate.

Agreed. Right now I see Nate being worth a four year extension at $3 million per. My suspicion is that he'll want significantly more... and likely will get it from Isiah "The Open Wallet" Thomas. Expect him to get a 6 year extension at $70 million from Zeke... but nontheless, he deserves much less than that. I would do just as Joe said and trade him. Frankly, his value to the team is less than what he'll likely get if we keep him.

If Lee is still coming off the bench and blocked by Zach and his inability to play the 3, he's going to take the Knicks 1 yr qualifying offer next year, knowing that the Knicks would match any restricted offer from another team, and become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2009.

Then he can pick a team, Orlando or Miami, where he can start and have a good chance of winning.

They're both under contract for two more years. We don't have to offer them an extension at the end of the year. We could make a guy like Nate take the qualifying offer and make him earn it.

Kam is correct. I think this is up to date:

Teams have until the October 31 preceding the player's second season to exercise their option for the player's third season. Likewise, they have until the October 31 preceding the player's third season to exercise their option for the player's fourth season (see question number 50 for more information on options). If the team invokes both options (keeping the player for all four seasons) then the player becomes a restricted free agents following his fourth season (see question number 36 for more information on restricted free agency). If the team declines either option, then the player enters free agency as an unrestricted free agent.


So after their 4th year, assuming the Knicks pick up their options, they become restricted free agents with the ability to sign a max qualifying offer with any team, that the Knicks can match, or sign another 1 year qualifying offer with the Knicks so they can be unrestricted free agents the year after (2010).

Bip, I know it's not your avenue to go down, but what PGs do you think are available for us to trade for that you're willing to take to fill that role.

I never go down that avenue because I don't know who is available. I think however with our big guys, all our resources should be put in this direction. In the meantime while we are searching and putting ourselves in position for when that PG does become available we should have a true vet PG to groom our current ones. A guy like a Darrell Armstrong would have been ideal.

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by King1:

I would think either you sign Lee next year or you sign and trade him. He is the best trading block you have. He can bring back a very good player with a decent contract. Not someone with a bloated contract with a lot of years left.

The only problem is that with 2 years to go until unrestricted free agency, Lee won't agree to a sign and trade with just anybody. And not many teams are willing to give up a talented PG for what could be a 1 or 2 year player.

I still feel during Lee's RFA yr he'll have a team that will offer him a max/near max contract they can offer him.

[Edited by - TrueBlue on 10-29-2007 1:32 PM]