I see no big deal offering 5 years with an opt out after 3---if we have an offer of 4mm and they are looking for 5.2 or whatever the MLE is--I have to imagine that there is a middle ground--even if we up our offer 500k per year--just to appease the player a bit and get the deal done. We spent 3mm $ on just acquiring pick 30--can we spend 1.5 or 2mm more over 3 years to get this frikin deal done?
I would have to think any offer that comes up off of 4mm would be an appeasement both to the agent--who probably has him sold on 5+ and the player. 5 years 22.5m player option after 3--that guarantees him financial security for the rest of his life and the option to up the deal in 3 years

Gerald Wallace did a similar deal and it worked out for him. 500k is NOT going to have ANY effect on whether or not Lebron is coming--for the life of me the guys in the front office can work that out easily. Lets see if we can get a done deal before Sept--get the kid to NY and settled down before training camp. Moving to NY isnt the easiest thing--it's a process and we want him to get in here and learn what is going on--meet the guys get things going asap. If he is settled on the full MLE and 38mm$ than say were not doing it and move on. Either find an appeasement with the player--find a reasonable middle ground or move on. He could say F it Ill take my chances next year when 16 teams have $$$$--I think that it's too close not to find a middle ground.

one thing about Sessions that makes me doubt he will be here - we haven't heard of a visit by him. we've wooed every other guy with a visit and a tour of the facilities. the fact that Sessions has never been here, and believe me we would have heard if he visited, leads me to believe they aren't too serious about wooing him.

i don't think he'll come.

and, for the record, he's not worth jeopardizing 2010 for, either. i'd rather re-sign dlee and nate than add sessions. i seriously doubt whether sessions is a big upgrade over duhon.

well, if hahn is to be believed.... he's still a priority...

http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/the-knicks-fix-1.812055/knicks-still-in-sessions-1.1392059

Knicks still in Sessions
7:31 PM By Alan Hahn
In almost exactly a month the Knicks will open training camp and the roster is still unsettled. The situations with restricted free agents David Lee and Nate Robinson remain in limbo and the pursuit of a backcourt upgrade has yet to produce anything more than blog fodder and twitter tantrums.

But the notion that is starting to float around cyberspace that suggests the Knicks are no longer in pursuit of Ramon Sessions is completely false. A person with intimate knowledge of the situation -- yes, intimite...you know, the kind of source that buys the situation a drink, cozies up nicely and even leaves a rose on the pillow -- says that Donnie Walsh still has the unsigned Sessions high on the priority list.

Tom Petty once said "the waiting is the hardest part." (He also once said "even the losers get lucky sometimes," which could also apply here. "Last dance with Mary Jane," would apply to others unrelated to this specific subject, but certainly not the NBA...ahem).

Back on point...

Things got very quiet in the Sessions situation over the past few weeks for several reasons, none more obvious than the fact that it was all talk with no action. It seems Walsh is the only real player in the game for Sessions -- again, if the Clips were that interested, they would have made an offer already -- and Dealer Donnie is well aware of this fact. In rewriting the Knicks front office code of conduct, Walsh stipulates that negotiating against one's self should never result in overpaying (see: Thomas, Isiah).

Sessions has a qualifying offer for $1M from the Bucks on the table that he can take at any time. It would allow him to enter unrestricted free agency next summer, when more than half of the league is expected to have cap space to spend.

It would also put him back with the Bucks, where rookie Brandon Jennings is sure to see a bulk of time, Michael Redd will get his usual minutes and Carlos Delfino will get some burn as well. One would hope Sessions would be ahead of Roko Ukic on the depth chart, but Scott Skiles does things his way. Bottom line is, taking the QO would be a major gamble for Sessions.

The Knick offer, believed to be around $4M at the start with an 8 percent decline in Year 2 to preserve cap space in 2010, is still the most lucrative bucket of guaranteed money on the table. Not to mention a 500 percent raise over his previous salary.

Sessions' people may still be holding out hope that the Clippers waived Mark Madsen to clear a roster spot for Sessions (but the backcourt there is still jammed up and Baron Davis is doing P90X, just like Ray Allen and yours truly). Perhaps they're hoping Walsh calls John Hammond for a sign-and-trade deal.

But the most likely scenario at this point is that Walsh and the Knicks will wait out Sessions with their offer firm and know that as the calendar flips to September, the 23-year-old will want to sign the best offer on the table.

And when/if he does, picture Mike D'Antoni getting the word on his celly while driving on the freeway, doing a giddy little Jerry Maguire impression: And I'm freeeeeee....free fallllin'

* * *

I tweeted this a few days ago, but worth repeating here for those Fixers who haven't yet converted to Twixerism (come the season, you're gonna want to):

I spoke with a friend in Europe who saw Danilo Gallinari recently and said he looks fantastic. Gallo apparently has spent a few weeks in Italy but also trained a little in England and his fitness levels are said to be extremely high. Gallo is telling people that he feels great and is virtually pain-free. There will be great expectations on the second-year forward from the first day of training camp and every move he makes will be scrutinized.

Why so much pressure? Because he has the talent to be a major factor in the Knicks improbable chances of being a playoff team in the East. I expect he will be a focal point of the offense from the get and we won't see the Tenth Avenue Freeze Outs we saw last season.

Yeah, I said it.

Posted by martin:

Posted by crzymdups:

one thing about Sessions that makes me doubt he will be here - we haven't heard of a visit by him. we've wooed every other guy with a visit and a tour of the facilities. the fact that Sessions has never been here, and believe me we would have heard if he visited, leads me to believe they aren't too serious about wooing him.

i don't think he'll come.

and, for the record, he's not worth jeopardizing 2010 for, either. i'd rather re-sign dlee and nate than add sessions. i seriously doubt whether sessions is a big upgrade over duhon.

I haven't heard Sessions visiting any place. That means no team wants him, right?

I think we just didn't hear about it, that's all.

Apparently no one does. Not his own team. Not the only other two teams ever rumored to inquire about him in the Clippers and the Knicks.

Makes you wonder......

Posted by martin:

Posted by BRIGGS:

I see no big deal offering 5 years with an opt out after 3---if we have an offer of 4mm and they are looking for 5.2 or whatever the MLE is--I have to imagine that there is a middle ground--even if we up our offer 500k per year--just to appease the player a bit and get the deal done. We spent 3mm $ on just acquiring pick 30--can we spend 1.5 or 2mm more over 3 years to get this frikin deal done?
I would have to think any offer that comes up off of 4mm would be an appeasement both to the agent--who probably has him sold on 5+ and the player. 5 years 22.5m player option after 3--that guarantees him financial security for the rest of his life and the option to up the deal in 3 years

Gerald Wallace did a similar deal and it worked out for him. 500k is NOT going to have ANY effect on whether or not Lebron is coming--for the life of me the guys in the front office can work that out easily. Lets see if we can get a done deal before Sept--get the kid to NY and settled down before training camp. Moving to NY isnt the easiest thing--it's a process and we want him to get in here and learn what is going on--meet the guys get things going asap. If he is settled on the full MLE and 38mm$ than say were not doing it and move on. Either find an appeasement with the player--find a reasonable middle ground or move on. He could say F it Ill take my chances next year when 16 teams have $$$$--I think that it's too close not to find a middle ground.

why would you offer Session 5 years when no other team out there is offering him more than 1 year at $1M? That is called negotiating against yourself big time.

That's almost akin to giving Big Game a 5 year contract for 1 playoff run.

Almost akin to making a huge 2004 trade for an all-star PG player and throwing in a bit 2010 1st round pick in to close the deal cause it won't matter that far into the future.

As far as I can tell, Walsh has offered Session something like $4M for first year and an 8-10% decrease in year 2. Read it somewhere. Not sure about year 3 or more.

Why did the Pistons offer a full MLE to Chauncey Billups when no one else would?--that kind of answers your question And if the player is producing at a 9mm $ level in year 2 and hes locked up for 4 more years??????? At worst your going to get contract level production sans injury at worst.

Posted by BRIGGS:

Posted by martin:

Posted by BRIGGS:

I see no big deal offering 5 years with an opt out after 3---if we have an offer of 4mm and they are looking for 5.2 or whatever the MLE is--I have to imagine that there is a middle ground--even if we up our offer 500k per year--just to appease the player a bit and get the deal done. We spent 3mm $ on just acquiring pick 30--can we spend 1.5 or 2mm more over 3 years to get this frikin deal done?
I would have to think any offer that comes up off of 4mm would be an appeasement both to the agent--who probably has him sold on 5+ and the player. 5 years 22.5m player option after 3--that guarantees him financial security for the rest of his life and the option to up the deal in 3 years

Gerald Wallace did a similar deal and it worked out for him. 500k is NOT going to have ANY effect on whether or not Lebron is coming--for the life of me the guys in the front office can work that out easily. Lets see if we can get a done deal before Sept--get the kid to NY and settled down before training camp. Moving to NY isnt the easiest thing--it's a process and we want him to get in here and learn what is going on--meet the guys get things going asap. If he is settled on the full MLE and 38mm$ than say were not doing it and move on. Either find an appeasement with the player--find a reasonable middle ground or move on. He could say F it Ill take my chances next year when 16 teams have $$$$--I think that it's too close not to find a middle ground.

why would you offer Session 5 years when no other team out there is offering him more than 1 year at $1M? That is called negotiating against yourself big time.

That's almost akin to giving Big Game a 5 year contract for 1 playoff run.

Almost akin to making a huge 2004 trade for an all-star PG player and throwing in a bit 2010 1st round pick in to close the deal cause it won't matter that far into the future.

As far as I can tell, Walsh has offered Session something like $4M for first year and an 8-10% decrease in year 2. Read it somewhere. Not sure about year 3 or more.

Why did the Pistons offer a full MLE to Chauncey Billups when no one else would?--that kind of answers your question And if the player is producing at a 9mm $ level in year 2 and hes locked up for 4 more years??????? At worst your going to get contract level production sans injury at worst.

well, i guess you are the only one calling Sessions a Billups like player. Big unnecessary risk when no other team is offering anything to Sessions, so why not wait it out and get Sessions at a lower number?

Which other team can offer Sessions a starting job in an offense that pumps up PG stats? No one, unless it's the stupid rumor of LAC willing to offer a bench spot and playing time when Baron gets hurt for 20 games a season.

If there was another team that was interested, they would have offered Sessions an MLE deal, and they haven't. So why buy something at full price when you can get a 20% discount or more?

Posted by Ira:

We all got sick of Layden and Isaiah ruining our cap by offering unnecessarily large contracts to players. No we have a gm who refuses to do that. That's a good thing.

Agreed. I actually think he's doing the right thing. I'm sure Donnie likes Sessions as most of us do but his hand is forced at the moment. If we can't get Sessions for our price (the Knicks, very smartly, appear to be keeping the whole picture in perspective, no doubt working as if the future cap will bottom out as rumored), I'd be fine passing on him. I understand the prioritizing & what's ultimately at stake here in 2010. It's one gigantic juggling act right now where I suspect they want their cake and they want to eat it too -- I bet their dream scenario right now is to get LeBron on board with a max. contract offer AND THEN have enough money left over to piece together some semblance of a full team right away, starting his first year - meaning the 4 or 5 core players, LeBron and at least 5 other players to help fill in the blanks. I mean if Darko plays well, I'd want to keep him. If he contributed this year and shows he can fill the role in the middle (a big if but I have a funny feeling he's gonna surprise), I'd want to keep him around if the price is right. I wouldn't want to say, sorry Darko but we can't afford to keep you here for a reasonable $3 or 4 million per... I can't picture them wanting LeBron to struggle mightily his first season here playing with only half a team. It'd be nice if these damn NBA officials gave us a bottom line on this projected cap number already this way we knew exactly what we'll be allowed to work with. It's really affecting the way we're doing business right now and it shouldn't be allowed to go on any longer. $50 mil, $58 mil., whatever, just come up with the figure already this way team's can start planning ahead and planning their futures. It's really not fair to anyone involved here - team management, players & their agents and the fans..

[Edited by - finestrg on 08-25-2009 12:56 AM]

I think Sessions will ultimately give in on this one, unless another team steps up with an offer. He could sign a 5yr deal with an opt-out after 3, and get mad burn next season. With Ridour and Jennings, his minutes with the bucks will be limited and he would only be playing for $1 mill, instead of $4 mil. In the longrun, signing with the Knicks makes the most sense even if it is not for the full MLE. So far, Walsh has pegged the situation right. But if somebody starting or backup PG gets hurt in the next few weeks, we might have some unexpected competition for Sessions.

Posted by BRIGGS:

Why did the Pistons offer a full MLE to Chauncey Billups when no one else would?--that kind of answers your question And if the player is producing at a 9mm $ level in year 2 and hes locked up for 4 more years??????? At worst your going to get contract level production sans injury at worst.

Billups and Sessions are nothing alike. Billups was the #3 pick in the draft. Sessions was regarded as 2nd round talent. Billups had problems staying healthy early, then put together two good years in Minn and established himself as one of the better defenders at PG in the league.

Sessions is a 2nd round talent that had a solid half season on a very bad team. There is a reason teams arent lining up to give him 4 and 5 year contracts.

Hey Briggs.. how much better is Sessions than Marcus Williams?

One other point. Duhon averaged double digit assists in November, December, January and February.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3855/splits;_ylt=Aq2BVXVlwmSOIPtylWkZF6kOPaB4

hate now... sorry later. All will know I am right!