This reemergence of Cole Aldrich gives me hope that we can potentially make a good deal going towards the deadline. Whether we hold his bird rights makes no matter because if he keeps this up--hes going to get a contract over 3mm a year from someone. I am open to trading Timmy Hardaway for 2 2's now. I think that he can be a good prospect for a club--but the disaster we are in now--his value will continue to plummet. Hopefully Dalembart and Smith can play well enough over the next 6 weeks to create some value.

ANY player on this team should be able to had for the right reasonable price. This is a dead team with NOT 1 prospect that one can be comfortable with. Can we look at other team's benches with players like Mike Muscala Nate Wolter Erick Greene and make a deal that nets a guy who may be able to help us going 4ward. We have 50 games left that have 0 meaning. We are a hot bed for players to get a shot--just like the Sixers. Contracts like Amare and Bargnani need to be cut out which gives us open roster spots for guys like Thnasis or anyone else from the d league we may deem a reasonable prospect.

The draft and free agency needs to focus on BOTh the PG spot and bigs. We will get better faster with mulitple quality PGs and a post player. We need as many picks as we get possibly acquire.

We don't have his bird rights and we probably won't be able to sign him.

yellowboy90 wrote:

mreinman wrote:not sure how the reemergence of Cole helps us and gives you confidence.

We don't have his bird rights and we probably won't be able to sign him.

He is not that valued around the league and the knicks have his early bird rights which means they can give him 150% more than his previous salary or 104% more than the league avg. So they can give aldrich a contract of around $5M. That's money they can spend outside of the cap. They ofcourse could potentially use cap space but I think 5M is enough to keep a guy like aldrich.

I would go out and use another $5-7M to go get Koufos and Ajinca. If the Knicks could pull off that it would be 3 great value signings at center that are under 27 years old. I think Aldrich and Koufos are Asik type center with more offensive skills. Meaning they are starting quality players that took time to break out. Yes they have flaws and are not stars but they rebound, protect the rim, and can score.

Aldrich has shown on multiple occasion that he can play when given minutes and not just in blow outs against back up.

Koufos performed well in Denver but has slid in Memphis but would still be a good platoon Center.

Ajinca is a project that is a foul machine but his numbers are crazy. He is the kind of player you give the vet min or slightly above on a 2 yr contract with the second yr non guaranteed for insurance and trade purposes.

Thanks for the good info (as always)

We can essentially use his contract to go over the cap and gain the FULL MLE ,which will be over 6m, could use it all on ONE player or divide it up likely to 2 players

There are many players that signed in the area of 3m that even less that hold great importance to their teams

Bayless was a complete steal for the Bucks, signing a 2 year deal, a player I hoped we would target with our MINI MLE, instead we got Jason Smith
Randy Foye holds a team option was a very good for Denver last sesaon and has been out since the start of the season

Some players I could see that could be in this range this summer include

Wesley Johnson
Ed Davis
KJ McDaniels

At times Cole Aldrich looked like he was the better fit at Center last season already, however, Woodson was unwilling to even play him just like he put Copeland in the doghouse as soon as Tyson Chandler was able to play, always falling out of the rotation despite showing they could produce when given the oppourtunity

With the way he is playing, I am not sure if he would prefer a 2 year 5m deal or if he wants a player option for 2nd
Or if he wants stability and get a 3year deal with 4th year team option
We simply do not have any leverage if another team is willing to offer him 5.5m and give him the same amount of years
Unless Fisher is going to move him in to the starting position from now on and guarantee that he will be part of the rotation and not just a 3rd stringer
However, his value could continue to climb another another team could be more interested if so
But if we do not play him, it could piss him off and he probably will not even consider signing with us unless there are no teams willing to give him close to that type of money

I would be happy with a rotation of Koufus *for similar money* and Cole Aldrich
Assuming we draft at least 1 PF/C as well

RonRon wrote:Beauty of is Cole Aldrich is we his cap hold while owning his EARLY Bird Rights

We can essentially use his contract to go over the cap and gain the FULL MLE ,which will be over 6m, could use it all on ONE player or divide it up likely to 2 players

There are many players that signed in the area of 3m that even less that hold great importance to their teams

Bayless was a complete steal for the Bucks, signing a 2 year deal, a player I hoped we would target with our MINI MLE, instead we got Jason Smith
Randy Foye holds a team option was a very good for Denver last sesaon and has been out since the start of the season

Some players I could see that could be in this range this summer include

Wesley Johnson
Ed Davis
KJ McDaniels

At times Cole Aldrich looked like he was the better fit at Center last season already, however, Woodson was unwilling to even play him just like he put Copeland in the doghouse as soon as Tyson Chandler was able to play, always falling out of the rotation despite showing they could produce when given the oppourtunity

With the way he is playing, I am not sure if he would prefer a 2 year 5m deal or if he wants a player option for 2nd
Or if he wants stability and get a 3year deal with 4th year team option
We simply do not have any leverage if another team is willing to offer him 5.5m and give him the same amount of years
Unless Fisher is going to move him in to the starting position from now on and guarantee that he will be part of the rotation and not just a 3rd stringer
However, his value could continue to climb another another team could be more interested if so
But if we do not play him, it could piss him off and he probably will not even consider signing with us unless there are no teams willing to give him close to that type of money

I would be happy with a rotation of Koufus *for similar money* and Cole Aldrich
Assuming we draft at least 1 PF/C as well

This is too much small change for me. These are second line players. We need to think large. Im not worried about keeping Cole Aldrich and no way do I want to be over the cap unless LBJ was coming here as I want maximum FA in 2016. I can get excess cap room by simply stretching Calderon and moving Prigs.

Really Im looking at a top tier draft pick--1 or 2 talent steals from obtaining extra draft picks and then one maximum FA. I cant spend 5-6 mm on anyone with KD sitting there unless its a one year contract.

I'm hoping that Phil takes a pragmatic approach and not one based on the hope that we can lure KD one day. We have a 1st rd draft pick that is more and more likely to be a top pick where we can get a cornerstone player at PG or PF/C. That's a huge plus for trying to rebuild a team. Then depending on how that draft works out you get either a PG or PF/C in FA that can be part of that new core. After that you can start targeting a higher level of role players to fill out the rest of the team. If i'm Phil I focus on the PG and PF/C spots 1st.

Sounds like Reed/DeBushere/Bradley/Barnett and Frazier to me.
What better model to follow?

RonRon wrote:Beauty of is Cole Aldrich is we his cap hold while owning his EARLY Bird Rights

We can essentially use his contract to go over the cap and gain the FULL MLE ,which will be over 6m, could use it all on ONE player or divide it up likely to 2 players

There are many players that signed in the area of 3m that even less that hold great importance to their teams

Bayless was a complete steal for the Bucks, signing a 2 year deal, a player I hoped we would target with our MINI MLE, instead we got Jason Smith
Randy Foye holds a team option was a very good for Denver last sesaon and has been out since the start of the season

Some players I could see that could be in this range this summer include

Wesley Johnson
Ed Davis
KJ McDaniels

At times Cole Aldrich looked like he was the better fit at Center last season already, however, Woodson was unwilling to even play him just like he put Copeland in the doghouse as soon as Tyson Chandler was able to play, always falling out of the rotation despite showing they could produce when given the oppourtunity

With the way he is playing, I am not sure if he would prefer a 2 year 5m deal or if he wants a player option for 2nd
Or if he wants stability and get a 3year deal with 4th year team option
We simply do not have any leverage if another team is willing to offer him 5.5m and give him the same amount of years
Unless Fisher is going to move him in to the starting position from now on and guarantee that he will be part of the rotation and not just a 3rd stringer
However, his value could continue to climb another another team could be more interested if so
But if we do not play him, it could piss him off and he probably will not even consider signing with us unless there are no teams willing to give him close to that type of money

I would be happy with a rotation of Koufus *for similar money* and Cole Aldrich
Assuming we draft at least 1 PF/C as well