Source: Warriors make trade offer for David
By MARC BERMAN
Last Updated: 1:45 AM, July 5, 2010
Posted: 1:45 AM, July 5, 2010
The Knicks still could get something big out of David Lee.

A league source said the Knicks have been offered Golden State's point guard Monta Ellis and Minnesota's Al Jefferson for Lee in separate sign-and-trade scenarios. But the Knicks are handcuffed on all moves until they find out what LeBron James and Dwyane Wade do.

Lee, who made the All-Star Team for the first time, is almost guaranteed not to be a Knick next season. But he is amenable to pulling off a sign-and-trade instead of an outright signing because he would get the extra sixth year -- at least $11 million.

The Knicks have eyed Ellis for awhile. Other point guards high on their list are Luke Ridnour and Raymond Felton, depending on price, according to a source. The Knicks also are interested in Carlos Arroyo -- for a lower price.

Yesterday, the Knicks lost out on Joe Johnson as he re-signed with Atlanta for the full max, but agent Arn Tellem still can deliver them Washington sharpshooter Mike Miller.

The Knicks met with Johnson and Miller Wednesday night in Santa Monica as both are clients of Tellem, whose longtime friends with team president Donnie Walsh and has an incentive to make the Knicks better. Danilo Gallinari is one of Tellem's clients, and he orchestrated the Tracy McGrady Knicks deal.

Ironically, the Cavaliers also are in the hunt for Miller, who is a friend of LeBron James. Miller actually named his son after James' manager, Maverick Carter. The Knicks and Cavaliers feel James is best when surrounded by multiple shooters to take the load off of him late in games.

The Cavaliers only can give Miller the $5.9 million mid-level exception or do a sign-and-trade with the Wizards. The Clippers also are pursuing Miller.

Tellem announced on his Huffington Post column Johnson was signing with the Hawks officially, taking the maximum $119 million salary -- $30 million more than the Knicks could offer because of an extra sixth-year.

Tellem wrote that Johnson would try to recruit free agents to make Atlanta stronger, even suggesting LeBron James. Johnson passed on the chance to team up with Amare' Stoudemire in New York, though Stoudemire has not agreed to terms yet.

"New York has Mike D'Antoni, the coach who nurtured Joe in Phoenix," Tellem wrote in his column. "Joe loved playing for D'Antoni and was excited by the possibility of joining him in New York. It seemed like a perfect match: a tenacious player who never naps oncourt in the city that never sleeps.

"When the free-agency period kicked in, Joe made a point of talking to the Hawks first. Their owners and new coach, Larry Drew, impressed Joe with their commitment to making the team championship-caliber. In turn, Joe felt equally committed to the Hawks, his teammates and the city of Atlanta."

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/source_warriors_make_trade_offer_6vVVJsRc0mKACKTmenQcFM?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

If the Knicks walk out of this offseason with Amare, Ellis, Miller and someone else it wouldn't be what I wanted, but I don't know if I'd consider it a failure.

What say y'all

Let Lee WALK if that's all we get back...and I don't want to take on either of those two garbage players even if there are 1st round picks coming back. Our luck the picks will be more 8th and 9th and we'll get more Fryes and Hills.

NO THANKS!

Ellis has considerable skills.

With Ellis we have more space to spend or save for carmello.

It's not lebron but a work in progress.

iSergio wrote:I don't like Monta Ellis or Al Jefferson. They both remind me of Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph.

I like Ellis... don't like Jefferson

fishmike wrote:Monta Ellis is 1000x better than Jamal Crawford. If you havent seen Monta play much look at his shooting %s vs. Crawfords. Ellis doesnt play good m2m defense, but he gets a TON of steals. He shoots just under 50% for his career which for a combo guard is excellent and he will give you 5 assits and 4-5 boards a game also.

He's too small for SG and will be a liability vs the big 2's that are all over the league.

Thats a big problem but the guy is a bigtime talent on a **** team, and he plays and works hard on his game.

The deal I would look at assuming LBJ is off the table would Curry/Lee (S&T) for Ellis and Biedrins.

That would use up $9mm in our remaining cap space but that would leave us $10mm to fill out the bench and get a playmaker and a guy would could defend the wings.

I would bring back Earl Barron for sure. Maybe Shaun Livingston. Maybe Raja Bell to help defend on the wing... something like that.

Your starters would be
PG Douglas
SG Ellis
SF Gallo
PF Amare
C Biedrins
bench: Chandler, Barron, Raja Bell, etc

lot of firepower there and a lot of size. 6'10, 6'10, 7'0 front line every night with Barron off the bench. Douglas is a great defender and Ellis can play the 1 or play off the ball

i would like this, still an athletic team that will run and gun. ellis is a good ball handler and he gets to the line quite a bit, something we have missed for years. however, the bad thing is if we made that trade we are stuck with this lineup with no flexibility. if we are in the process of building a championship-quality team, will this team get it done? it will get us to the playoffs and maybe the second round but we will be stuck in this tier for awhile. this lineup is good but goes against the philosophy of cap flexibility to team build especially with melo and parker potentially waiting for nxt year to join.

jazz74 wrote:

fishmike wrote:Monta Ellis is 1000x better than Jamal Crawford. If you havent seen Monta play much look at his shooting %s vs. Crawfords. Ellis doesnt play good m2m defense, but he gets a TON of steals. He shoots just under 50% for his career which for a combo guard is excellent and he will give you 5 assits and 4-5 boards a game also.

He's too small for SG and will be a liability vs the big 2's that are all over the league.

Thats a big problem but the guy is a bigtime talent on a **** team, and he plays and works hard on his game.

The deal I would look at assuming LBJ is off the table would Curry/Lee (S&T) for Ellis and Biedrins.

That would use up $9mm in our remaining cap space but that would leave us $10mm to fill out the bench and get a playmaker and a guy would could defend the wings.

I would bring back Earl Barron for sure. Maybe Shaun Livingston. Maybe Raja Bell to help defend on the wing... something like that.

Your starters would be
PG Douglas
SG Ellis
SF Gallo
PF Amare
C Biedrins
bench: Chandler, Barron, Raja Bell, etc

lot of firepower there and a lot of size. 6'10, 6'10, 7'0 front line every night with Barron off the bench. Douglas is a great defender and Ellis can play the 1 or play off the ball

i would like this, still an athletic team that will run and gun. ellis is a good ball handler and he gets to the line quite a bit, something we have missed for years. however, the bad thing is if we made that trade we are stuck with this lineup with no flexibility. if we are in the process of building a championship-quality team, will this team get it done? it will get us to the playoffs and maybe the second round but we will be stuck in this tier for awhile. this lineup is good but goes against the philosophy of cap flexibility to team build especially with melo and parker potentially waiting for nxt year to join.

For one thing thats a winning team. How many? I dont know... but it could easily win 50 games or more. You have a great mix of efficient high BBIQ scorers, you have some defense in the post w/ Amare, you have a great help defender in Biedrins. You have a glue 6'10 guy in Gallo who shoots, defends, handles and can finish.

Ellis and Biedrins contracts are long but the are good value and they dont escalate as they progress. Ellis gets $11mm a year and Biedrins gets $9mm. I think all those guys have good value.

You have the MLE and draft also.

TMS wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:If the Knicks walk out of this offseason with Amare, Ellis, Miller and someone else it wouldn't be what I wanted, but I don't know if I'd consider it a failure.

What say y'all

how is that not a failure?... we could have gotten that done w/o giving away assets in the T-Mac trade... if that's the outcome i'd rather we just stood pat & signed Amare & still had our draft picks to fall back on for the next 2 years if they weren't used in a sign & trade.

We had to do the TMac trade to be in the running for the big fish. There was NEVER any guarantee we would sign any of them, but with players like Lebron, Wade and Bosh, it would have been failure before the fact if we didn't free up the space.

Your point is only valid in hindsight given the proposed "failure" conditions. We're not there yet and we certainly weren't at the time that trade was completed.

jazz74 wrote:

gr33d wrote:Article regarding Monta and possible trades... We'll see about Monta.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?STORY_ID=16697

Wolves Are Trying: The Minnesota Timberwolves met over the weekend with Knicks' free agent David Lee, and word is they made it clear they'd do a major deal with Lee if they can convince the Knicks to engage in a sign-and-trade.

The Timberwolves by now have offered Al Jefferson and Corey Brewer to roughly everyone in the NBA and there is interest from a number of teams, but nothing seems likely until the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh shoe drops.

The rumor that got a lot of traction this weekend suggested Al Jefferson could be heading to the Golden State Warriors; Monta Ellis could be heading to the Knicks and David Lee landing in Minnesota.

The Knicks and the Wolves seem to like this idea, but Golden State seems less than interested.

The Warriors are in the in the middle of a franchise sale and swapping out assets, especially at this level, changes the valuation of the team slightly. There is a belief that until new ownership is in place anything more than minor roster tweaks will not get done under this ownership team and that anything major will be put off until a new owner is in place which may not happen until August to early September.

The Timberwolves have been aggressively trying to make deals since the first week of June and moving Al Jefferson seems to be at the top of their to-do list. Finding the right deal is sometimes the art of the process, but at least for now it does not look like Golden State is going to be the trade partner, no matter how interested the Knicks are in Monta Ellis.

i would take jefferson back if they add rubio's right in a heartbeat. if they want lee that bad and want to get rid of jefferson, why not ( especially if rubio is supposed to come next year and we have cap room for anthony? that is team building 101 ladies and gentlemen)? the big thing is whether or not he would fit in d'antoni's "system" which he looks like he doesn't.

Do this and add Carmelo next year.

Problem is you built it to "Win" now and Rubio is gonna need two seasons to get planted. But he could be the "future".

What we have to understand is we might not be able to build it to win a championship unless we get Lebron and bosh NOW.

Plan be has to be conference finals capable with assets going forward and keep some flex.

Why? Cuz Boston is still gonna be better next year as will orlando. Behind them could be up and coming teams like Washington, ATL and the Nets.

We all want the "chips" but that happens on the court not on paper.

We can also take on Draft picks with Cap space flex.

A work in progress. This takes time.

For many the "golden era" around here was the "Ewing era" and the reality was it was flawed in many ways. It was filled with hope, great games and "possibilities". Not "Chips".

I do think Walsh's plan "A" is valid and could yield bling.

Plan "B" will have the naysayers lamenting over losing Jordan "the Savior" Hill but we'll be a good team but it needs to have an eye on the future.

Rubio needs to tell Kahn there is no freaking way he plays in siberia and he can be happy and wealthy in Europe for a long ass time.

We can work with "Khan". IT means we take on some crap of theirs and have to wait a year for Rubio, and another for him to mature.

Wanna really build it right? Got have patience. At this juncture, at least we made a valid run at Lebron and had a legit shot.

It ain't over, but I don't think we panic yet, if at all.