Everyone knows Lee probably isnt the answer to a title winning frontcourt but he's got value and we would be a much better team right now. I have to say this is one that Walsh did not get right. Starting Lee at C would move Amare to PF, bring Chandler off the bench and soften the minutes from 40ish to 35ish for these guys. Instead we have 2 guys who cant get on the court and AR who isnt ready to contribute, cant, doesnt want to or the coach doesnt trust him.

We would still have cap space w/ Curry's deal coming off the books, or you just resign Chandler and use Curry's expiring to bring back a long contract, maybe OK4.

You would be looking at something like:
C: OK4
PF Amare
SF Gallo
SF Fields
PG Felton
Bench: Lee, Chandler, Douglas

Thats a big deep team thats legit 8 deep with no drop off on bench play.

Lot of pressure on Walsh to turn AR/Turiaf/Azu into something tangible because we lost an all star player that could help us with little coming back, and we could have kept him. The #s work

JrZyHuStLa wrote:He went from one losing culture to another. I like him, but I'm ok with him being gone.

Replace David Lee with Amar'e Stoudemire in Golden State and they are a winning team.

Anyway, we're terrible on D as it is. Adding Lee would only make it worse.

iSergio wrote:

JrZyHuStLa wrote:He went from one losing culture to another. I like him, but I'm ok with him being gone.

Replace David Lee with Amar'e Stoudemire in Golden State and they are a winning team.

Anyway, we're terrible on D as it is. Adding Lee would only make it worse.

I never understood the Lee over Amar'e supporters. The same way I don't understand why a Knicks fan would wanna keep Gallo and not get Melo.

martin wrote:

iSergio wrote:

JrZyHuStLa wrote:He went from one losing culture to another. I like him, but I'm ok with him being gone.

Replace David Lee with Amar'e Stoudemire in Golden State and they are a winning team.

Anyway, we're terrible on D as it is. Adding Lee would only make it worse.

Even off the bench?

I believe so. We're playing D 4 on 5 every minute David Lee is out there. Sorry, I just don't like his game and wouldn't want a $80M bench player. I would much rather have Ronny Turiaf or Brandon Bass or Hakim Warrick as my backup PF. Backup PF is just not a role I would spend $80M on.

JrZyHuStLa wrote:

iSergio wrote:

JrZyHuStLa wrote:He went from one losing culture to another. I like him, but I'm ok with him being gone.

Replace David Lee with Amar'e Stoudemire in Golden State and they are a winning team.

Anyway, we're terrible on D as it is. Adding Lee would only make it worse.

I never understood the Lee over Amar'e supporters. The same way I don't understand why a Knicks fan would wanna keep Gallo and not get Melo.

EXACTLY!! It's the same discussion we had last year regarding David Lee and Chris Bosh. And the gap between Lee and Bosh isn't as bad or as lopsided as Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler and Carmelo Anthony. I think some fans here just get too attached to players and don't look at it basketball wise. The goal is to build a winning team, not to build a team with "home grown" (most ridiculous reason for liking a player imo) talent. Nobody cares that you won a title with players that you drafted. Just like nobody would care if signed all and traded for all of our players on a Championship team.

And except for one person today, nobody was talking or caring about Lee. STAT made us all forget about that bum and Melo would do the same with Gallinari.

JrZyHuStLa wrote:You can speculate on Lee coming off the bench all you want. But he is a legit NBA starter. The discussion is futile.

But at the center position

There was a discussion where I said I would take Lee over Bosh, for the money, because $10mm +$7mm for Lee + Felton is far more valuable than $17mm for Bosh. I do not feel the same way about Amare who is simply better than Bosh at just about everything

Doesnt matter if Lee starts or comes off the bench. You can snit on his Carmello like defense all you want but he's an all star who scores at a very high %, rebounds and is one of the better passing bigs in the league. When Denver had Nene/KMart/Camby comeone was coming off the bench.

Frontcourt depth wins. Lee was an all star player who did well in this system.

At this point I'm very dissapointed we lost a blue collar guy who worked his way into an all star with very little to show for it. Walsh has been good here. Wondering how he patches this swing and miss.

1. The panic trade with the Rockets he got fleeced big time. I am willing to bet after trading for Hedo, signing Frye and Childress the Suns would have excepted a package of Lee, Hill and Jefferies anyway without giving up a draft selection.

2. Not signing Lee early for 9 million a year.

Right now Lee would have really helped out our frontcourt. Defense isn't as important as everyone is making it out to be when you have two skilled bigs that can spread the floor. Lee would have been very tradeable and could have brought us an asset in return.