I guess this could be continued old news.....

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The Clippers are "in striking distance" to acquire Ramon Sessions but the Knicks have not given up their pursuit of the Bucks' restricted free-agent.

New York is reportedly trying to complete a trade that would free up the room to sign Sessions without impacting the team's 2010 plan.

It's all we got. There sure isn't much else in the way of "news" on the Knicks front.

Doesn't sound like we are about to do anything. We are "trying" to trade Jeffries or Curry but nobody wants them.

It is about one year for Lee or Nate or both.

Suppose we didn't get Sessions but instead found a way to draft either Nic Wise or Sherron Collins in next year's draft. Two good, talented PG prospects right there.. I mean I won't even waste anyone's time talking about John Wall or even Willie Warren for the Knicks as those guys will wind up going high lottery but I don't think that means we can't get a solid PG next draft. I know it's early and the lack of PG talent in next summer's draft class may hurt us a little thus inflating Collins and Wise's value come draft day, but as of right now, Wise and Collins are projected to go much lower and could be available for us provided (1) we got lucky with our 2nd rounder and either guy was still on the board or (more likely) (2) we executed the same plan we did this year & purchased another low 1st and picked up either guy at the end of the 1st round a-la Toney Douglas.

Between the two, Collins seems to be more highly thought-of, however IMO, it's Wise that's actually the slightly better player. It's very close though and bottom line, I'd be happy with either guy on the Knicks. As of right now on draftexpress.com, not only is Nic Wise's name curiously omitted from their early 2010 mock but his name isn't even in their database when you perform a search. In other words, he doesn't even have a profile. I find that incredible. I know he's a little on the small side, but this guy's highly skilled on both sides of the ball, not to mention a senior. He's been around for awhile now & he did a hell of a job at Arizona last year running that team. Weird, but hey, whatever... For us, I kinda hope it stays that way. I don't think it will however, as I think Wise will step his game up this season now that he's returning for his senior year. Without Hill and Budinger around, I could see Wise's production soaring to the point where his name will be in discussion at the end of the 1st round before it's all said and done - no doubt he goes for 20 a game this year for Arizona. Ditto Collins who most seem to prefer anyway. I'd just like to see the Knicks target either guy and put themselves in position to get one or the other next year. Pound for pound I think either guy flat out brings more to the table than Ramon Sessions and we wouldn't have to blow the $5-6 mil. a year it would take to bring Sessions here. Instead, we can keep that money available to us for free agency, where we'll need every penny. It's against the grain - I know a lot of people like Sessions and want him, but if someone told me that drafting Wise or Collins next year was a realistic possibility, I'd sign up for that right now and scrap the whole Sessions signing...

[Edited by - finestrg on 08-15-2009 10:29 PM]

Posted by Bippity10:

It's August of 2009 and you are talking about who we are going to get with our 2010 second round pick? I have got to find that ban button.

Try using the search function

Just going over alternatives pal. I mean what the hell kinda comment is that anyway? Are you a Knick fan fella?? You wanna see your team do the best they can for themselves or what?? LMAO! Bottom line is throwing MLE money at Ramon Sessions may have a negative impact on the amount of money we can offer LeBron James and to me, until the fat lady sings and he goes back to Cleveland, he's top priority for us right now. There will always be another Ramon Sessions out there. James is a different story entirely. You wanna say I drink the Kool-Aid, fine, I drink the Kool-Aid. Whatever brah, I still remain hopeful that he's coming here. Unless we F it up somehow. I just wanna see us in a position to eventually offer James the max. available that any team can offer him besides the Cavs and make a fair offer to what amounts to the league's best player. If Donnie opens up that amount of room (which as of right now, he has) and keeps it open, he did his job. Let LeBron say no then... At that point, we'll re-group and go in a different direction. And I'll be OK with that. I know some of you have been over the future salary figures already but for laughs, let's take another look. Here's what the salaries could look like going into the 2010 season:

Curry $11.27 million
Jeffries $6.88
Gallo $3.3
Hill $2.66
Chandler $2.13
Douglas $1.07
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That's roughly $27.31 million. Those are the definites but that's only half a roster, not even. You're still looking at filling another 6 spots at least to make 12. A full roster's 15. Let's keep going:

Sessions $5.8
Darko - say he plays well and we wanna bring him back, I'll low ball it and say $3 million (if he plays well there will be competition for his services so it could be higher. I mean look at what Gortat just got from Orlando to re-up.)
Almond or Joe Crawford $736,000 (could be more - this would be the 2nd year on the team)
Tskitishvili $736,000 (could be more - this would be the 2nd year on the team)
2010 2nd round pick $500,000?
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That's another $10.77 million right there for only 5 more players (only 11 total). Total now at $38.082 million (and that's a rounded-down figure btw). And we're still gonna need to come up with another couple of players to fill out the roster. There's a ton of reasons why you'd want a full complement of players on a roster: game-to-game fatigue esp. later in the season, potential injuries, potential suspensions, etc...

If the cap is reduced to the rumored number, $50 million, what are we supposed to offer LeBron, less than $12 million? When you take into account that the Cavs will be able to offer him in upwards of $17, 18 million a year, $11-12 mil. looks a little insulting doesn't it? Maybe 'insulting' is the wrong word but you get the idea. It'll be a lot to expect him to leave $5-6 mil. per year on the table to come to NY, a team that will still need to add a few more pieces after he gets here.

This is exactly why we haven't offered Ramon Sessions a contract yet. Everyone understand now why this Sessions thing hasn't gotten off the ground? Sessions is a good young player, don't get me wrong. I would love to add him. But I just don't see how we could give him the full MLE or close to it and also bring LeBron here. Just going over the numbers, it looks like a Sessions signing could very well jepordize this opportunity in fact. So for all the experts out there that are saying 'why nickel & dime Sessions? Bring him here already - we'll still have enough money to offer LeBron...," just looking over the numbers, I don't see how it'd be possible. In a way, we should be thankful that Kidd, Hill and whoever else chose not to come here. Multi-year deals for those guys would've jepordized our LeBron James chances as well.

Sherron Collins and Nic Wise are 2 PGs who may be available to us in the 2010 draft one way or another (either later with our 2nd round pick or a little earlier provided we can get back in the mid-late 1st round somehow like we did this year). These two may not be as big as Sessions but they'd make for a cheaper alternative (lower picks on a rookie pay scale vs. a multi-year MLE contract) and I happen to think they both have a higher overall skill-level than Sessions anyway.

Hope this clears up where I'm coming from. Btw Bip, let us all know if you find that ban button. Good luck with your search buddy.



[Edited by - finestrg on 08-17-2009 12:55 PM]