Posted by TMS:

if i were Nate or D Lee at this point i'd just sign a Q.O. & play out the season & go for a bigger contract next year in free agency when there are a lot more teams w/dollars to spend & hope the economic conditions improve rather than signing a well below market longterm deal now.

Posted by TMS:

actually that's probably the worst possible scenario for us cuz it means we're gonna end up losing both of them for nothing after the year is over... their Bird Rights will become void if they do this so we won't be able to go over the salary cap to extend them to extensions & they will obtain veto rights over any trade... so that means they'll play out the year & walk via free agency in 2010, leaving us w/nothing.

Posted by TMS:

even if we can't get better players than Lee & Nate in trades, at the very least we should be able to use those assets to dump some bad contracts... if we end up losing these guys for nothing it's a terrible mistake on Donnie's part if u ask me.

Posted by Marv:

Posted by TMS:

even if we can't get better players than Lee & Nate in trades, at the very least we should be able to use those assets to dump some bad contracts... if we end up losing these guys for nothing it's a terrible mistake on Donnie's part if u ask me.

you can’t call nate an asset when not a single gm is offering him a penny.

Lee’s value as an asset is obviously a lot lower than anyone thought and has yet to be established.

Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by TMS:

if i were Nate or D Lee at this point i'd just sign a Q.O. & play out the season & go for a bigger contract next year in free agency when there are a lot more teams w/dollars to spend & hope the economic conditions improve rather than signing a well below market longterm deal now.

Seems logical, but, and this is especially true for Nate, what if the numbers they put up are inferior this upcoming year. Lee will have more sharing to do with Darko, Hill, and a sound Gallinari needing minutes, and Nate will lose minutes to Hughes, Sessions (if acquired), and Douglas, if he shows us anything this year. Add to that the possibility that Chandler could be playing more at SG this year, and MDA's lack of patience with Nate's decisions and behavior, and you have diminished minutes for Nate. Their market values will be greatly diminished if Lee is now talking about selling his 14/10 (and still no D) line, and Nate is trying to peddle his 10-12 PPG, 3 APG (and still out of control) line.

Both Nate and Lee are coming off career years, and teams must realize by now that Walsh is not going to overpay for them, yet they still attracted little (NO??) attention. Next year, with a lowered cap (right?) and some big names available, they may not be offered as much as they want, even though the offers made to them can't be matched by the Knicks.

The benefits Lee and Nate may find from improved economic conditions next year may be mitigated by other factors, so who knows what their value will be on the market next year.

all good & fair points but again, what motivates them to sign far below market deals w/us? why not at least explore the free agency market next year, they won't likely get any worse offers than the ones they can't even get now... in the case of D Lee i may tend to agree w/Marv, i would come begging Donnie to see if that 4 year $8 mil per offer was still on the table & sign it, but what if it's not? now that Donnie sees there's no market for D Lee don't u think he's gonna try & lowball him some more? isn't that how GM's normally operate unless we're talking about top FA's that are in demand? (Allan Houston notwithstanding)

i just have a bad feeling that these guys are gonna take the Q.O., play out their contracts & look to get "theirs" & put up as many stats as possible & try for a bigger payday in 2010 at this point... i really hope i'm wrong cuz that was the worst possible scenario that i considered when all the talk about trading these guys was going down last season.

Posted by TMS:

Posted by Marv:

Posted by TMS:

obviously he wasn't gonna sustain that level of play but i think it's naive to think there weren't teams interested in trading us some useful assets for him last year, at the very least a 1st round pick.

then why won't they offer him a penny now?

because teams have their focus set on other players & holding onto their own right now... u don't think a contending playoff team last year wouldn't have been willing to give up a mid-late 1st round pick in exchange for Nate's scoring ability off the bench? u don't think Walsh could have used Nate as a sweetener or at the very very least combined him w/Lee to try & dump Fishlips' or Curry's contract as part of a larger trade? what good does letting these guys walk for nothing accomplish? i'm not saying Donnie made a huge mistake yet cuz we have yet to see how things pan out, but if things do pan out that way then i think it's fair to say he grossly mishandled this situation.

[Edited by - TMS on 07-22-2009 12:45 PM]