Stevo718 wrote:I’d definitely take a second round pick for Lance and a late first or early second round pick for Lee I think there’s a team out there that would do that.
As for THJ I’d take One of those picks and package THJ to a team for?
"Opportunity Cost" of the cap space implied.
I've discussed this before when some here demanded the Knicks try to trade Melo to the Celtics for Marcus Smart and a first round pick. The argument being the Celtics had open cap space to absorb Melo's salary, so you didn't need an even salary match.
The cap space the Celtics did use was on Gordon Hayward.
So it's not just Marcus Smart and a 1 for Melo, it's Marcus Smart, the 1 and opportunity cost of Gordon Hayward versus not.
The Knicks were never getting Marcus Smart and a 1 for Melo, even if Smart could hypothetically form a pure 1 for 1 salary match. But no one here in their right mind would make that trade given The Mirror Test. No one here would be OK with the Knicks trading Smart, a 1 plus what amounted to Hayward for a broken down aging anti-team ball no defense expensive Melo.
Trying to trade Lee for a POSITIVE ASSET means asking a team to forego taking that 12 million AAV into free agency, where more bargains can be had because so many teams are in the tax zone and cap locked. And losing the value of a 2nd round pick, a cost controlled rookie who has no guaranteed money obligations.
For Lee, a guy entering his age 33/34 years. Or Thomas, who is a low IQ energy guy who has no business getting a 4 year deal in the first place.
There is not a rational team out there willing to make that trade. If Lee and/or Thomas could be traded, they would have been already, as the team has tried to trade both non stop for the past two seasons.
Trying to rationalize why a non Knicks team should do something you'd never want the Knicks to do themselves if the situation was reversed is the basis of all trade rape.
When you cannot function a trade to satisfy the Mirror Test and practically consider real OPPORTUNITY COST for the implied cap space, then you can only trade the player for NET LIABILITY. A Luol Deng. A Brandon Knight. A Tim Mozgov. An Omer Asik. The Lakers would be glad to take Thomas and Lee. If you took Luol Deng and small asset off their hands. Suns would be happy to send something small to the Knicks to get Lee, if they can dump Brandon Knight and his injured carcass. This is the TAX that comes with hiring a front office guy like Jackson who had name brand value but didn't know what he was doing and had no experience doing it. Do you walk into the bakery and ask someone there to fix your brake pads? Because something that mindboggling is exactly what the Knicks did when they hired Phil Jackson.