Knicks' Walsh denies trying to low-ball Nate, Lee

8:13 PM EDT, July 13, 2009

LAS VEGAS - Donnie Walsh said talks with the Knicks' two restricted free agents, David Lee and Nate Robinson, "will be ongoing this week" and denied he is trying to use the dried-up market to force both into taking much cheaper qualifying offers.

"I'm not trying to back them into something like that," Walsh said. "There are other ways of dealing with them than that."

Robinson's qualifier is $2.9 million and Lee's is $2.7 million. But to retain the rights for both next summer, when they would become unrestricted free agents, the team would have to maintain a hefty "cap hold" of three times their salaries. For both, that's a little more than a $16-million cut out of their salary-cap space in 2010. The Knicks - who are owned by Cablevision, which also owns Newsday - could avoid this by renouncing the rights to both and giving up the Bird Rights, which lets teams sign their own free agents beyond the cap and to longer terms and higher annual raises than the rest of the league.

Walsh seemed satisfied with where the conversation is with Robinson's agent, Aaron Goodwin, but seemed a little more perturbed with the lack of progress with Lee's agent, Mark Bartelstein.

Posted by McK1:

Posted by nyk4ever:

5 years, 35 million should do it for Lee
4 years, 20 million should do it for Nate.

Both should be happy with those contracts since neither has a market and the Knicks should be happy to retain their services.

its too early in the FA process to declare they have no market. IMO Nate is worth more money than Ariza got and Lee is better than Villa and on par with Milsap.

[Edited by - McK1 on 07-13-2009 11:14 PM]

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by McK1:

Posted by nyk4ever:

5 years, 35 million should do it for Lee
4 years, 20 million should do it for Nate.

Both should be happy with those contracts since neither has a market and the Knicks should be happy to retain their services.

its too early in the FA process to declare they have no market. IMO Nate is worth more money than Ariza got and Lee is better than Villa and on par with Milsap.

[Edited by - McK1 on 07-13-2009 11:14 PM]

#s per 40 minutes last season (to equate for playing time)
CV: 24 PPG, 10 RPG, 3 APG, 1 Block, 1 Steal
Lee: 18 PPG, 14 RPG, 2.5 APG, 0.30 blocks, 1.2 steals

I don't think either has much of an edge overall statistically but CV is younger, more versatile, and 6'11". I'd take CV first.

Posted by McK1:

Posted by franco12:

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by McK1:

Posted by nyk4ever:

5 years, 35 million should do it for Lee
4 years, 20 million should do it for Nate.

Both should be happy with those contracts since neither has a market and the Knicks should be happy to retain their services.

its too early in the FA process to declare they have no market. IMO Nate is worth more money than Ariza got and Lee is better than Villa and on par with Milsap.

[Edited by - McK1 on 07-13-2009 11:14 PM]

#s per 40 minutes last season (to equate for playing time)
CV: 24 PPG, 10 RPG, 3 APG, 1 Block, 1 Steal
Lee: 18 PPG, 14 RPG, 2.5 APG, 0.30 blocks, 1.2 steals

I don't think either has much of an edge overall statistically but CV is younger, more versatile, and 6'11". I'd take CV first.

But those per 40 stats don't account for style of play - and where Lee is inflated is in his rebounds- and that is because there is no other rebounder on the team and we chucked so many outside shots, we generated plenty of opportunities.

bonn created his own faulty ratio just to derail this thread

If Charlie V was capable of putting up 24 and 10 a game with 3 assists a coach woud have been giving him 40 mpg a long time ago.

Nothing to discuss here.

[Edited by - McK1 on 07-14-2009 08:45 AM]

Posted by nychamp:

Um, why shouldn't DW low ball Nate and Lee? What exactly is the downside for the Knicks organization? The market is the market fellas. If you can go get the money you want, by all means. Otherwise, prepare to be low balled.