I mean a capped-out team cannot acquire him straight-up, only a team with cap room can.

Wafer played five times better than Roberson last season, had a big offer from an elite European team, and has had two offers from NBA teams this season (Grizz and now Rockets) that fell through only because of an injury. It’s really, really, really hard to argue that he is not better overall than Roberson. He’s nothing more than an Eddie House type instant offense guy who never takes his eye off the basket, but he’s pretty good in that role.

Robinson’s agent
I don’t think it’s as big a deal as you’re making it out to be. His legal representative, one of the bigger agents in the NBA (he reps Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, Al Horford, and others), sat down with Walsh and presumably told him that if Nate is not going to play for the Knicks (and especially if there is absolutely no way he can earn his way back into the rotation) he would like to be traded and probably asked what the trade market for Robinson was. Maybe things got ugly, but I sort of doubt it: Walsh seems like the consummate professional and Goodwin represents other players so he knows he’s going to have to deal with Walsh again in the future.

If D’Antoni changes his stance on Robinson because his agent did his job, that’s pretty unprofessional and unacceptable in my mind.

As far as trades, there are a limited number of teams who can make a trade offer for Robinson because of his status as a base-year compensation player. His salary counts as $2 mill from the Knicks perspective and $4 mill from the other team’s, meaning only a capped out team can acquire him straight-up without including other players. The Thunder were one potential partner, since they had cap space, but I believe they blew their cap space by acquiring Maynor and Harpring. The Grizz have a bit of cap room, I believe, and have tried to sign Wafer to replace Iverson… so maybe they would be interested. Otherwise, Walsh is looking for a team that is willing to take Jeffries’ or Curry’s contract or one of the expiring contracts with Nate as a sweetener. Plenty of guys who make outright trade demands end up getting dealt, so I don’t think that’s the reason he won’t be dealt. Walsh doesn’t want to give him away since he has zero backcourt depth, but he has no leverage since so few teams (one by my count) can acquire Nate straight-up, he’s a free agent after the season, and he’s not even playing for the Knicks.

Re-signing Robinson
He was a cheap restricted free agent with Bird rights (you don’t have to pay him much, no other team wants to touch him since they think you’ll match, and his money doesn’t even come out of the MLE so you still have that if you want to sign someone else) who had produced a lot last season, re-signing him to a one year deal was a no-brainer. If nothing else you re-sign him for depth and as a possible trade chip… worse case he sits all season and walks at the end of the year or you just cut him. Nate averaged 30 mpg last season, it’s not as if D’Antoni found him completely useless.

Again, everything you read was the speculation of beat writers. That’s not something you can regard as fact. Walshtoni play their cards very close to their chest, I highly doubt they leaked any information like that. Walshtoni took as long to re-sign Lee as Nate, does that mean that they also wanted to run Lee out of town?

I don’t disagree that they had no backcourt depth. Hughes and Duhon were both cast offs from a Bulls team that is now falling apart. That’s their starting backcourt. However, I don’t think you can say that they never wanted to bring back Nate. That’s pure speculation unless you know the inner workings of the Knicks front office and coaching staff. He was one of their best players last season and they brought him back on a really reasonable deal in line with their long-term plans… Like I said, that’s a no-brainer.

”
KnickFan4Life,

A lot of people are still sore about signing Roberson over Wafer off the summer league roster. Wafer is a better player, but I don’t really care. He quit on Europe, I guess, because Memphis wanted to sign him.

“Nate might still play but at this juncture with what just happened with his agent, I don’t know anymore.”

What exactly happened with his agent?

“I think they got nervous because they didn’t know what they were going to get in Hughes or Douglas and brought Nate back at the last moment.”

Nate was one of their top 2 or 3, if not their best, player last season. Hughes was not in the rotation to start the season and there were rumors the Knicks were considering buying him out. You are speculating and I am speculating, but I speculate that you are incorrect.”

—————————————-

-Ted I don’t know if your still looking at this but I wouldn’t say a lot of people were sore about the Wafer thing. A few maybe, I think you overstated that. And as for Wafer being better, I honestly don’t think there is much difference between the two. They are both explosive scoring 2 guards, one just happens to be very undersized.

-I was referring to his agent asking for a trade. A move that has actually lowered the tradeability and value of his client somewhat. Now that every team knows Knicks are going to trade him for sure, they will be tighter with what they offer back to the Knicks. That could change but for the moment it’s looking like at least the all star break before a trade can be worked out.

-Lastly, the Knicks by most accounts I’ve read where seriously considering not bringing Nate back. In fact if they had somehow signed a vet (Grant Hill, Jason Kidd), or Sessions, Nate more than likely does not get brought back. When they didn’t sign any of those guys aformentioned they were faced with Hughes and Douglas as the remaining backcourt. Hughes was a big question makr, and Douglas was a rookie…

The efficiency number represents the season to date efter each of those games,so you see a trend line. I graphed it,also, which I cannot post here.Bit it shows a notable downward arc over the past several games. December has shown decent improvement.

I just think that the average person is not going to look at the situation and say the Knicks made a mistake by sitting Marbury. I was very critical of them on their handling of the situation at the time, but he’s blown it since then. They say you can only judge a heavyweight fighter once you’ve seen them get knocked down… Marbury got knocked down a year plus ago by a little jab and hasn’t gotten off the canvas since. A great fighter gets knocked down and gets right back up. You can only control yourself and your actions and Marbury’s done a really lousy job of that. I feel bad if the guy is mentally unstable, but I’m not going to cry while he sits on his NINE FIGURE nest egg.

I don’t know if he ever actively told Stephon Marbury, “hey, Starbury, you’re going to play a lot this season,” or he told him, “you’ve got a shot to earn a rotation spot just like everyone else.” After the way Marbury stunk… I mean played… in Boston it’s impossible for me to make an argument that D’Antoni was wrong. I certainly felt he was at the time, and I feel he is somewhat wrong on Nate too. If the guys he treats like turds prove themselves to be turds and especially if the Knicks win (a recent revelation) I can’t argue. I hope for his sake, and to hold on to some sort of credibility on this board, that Nate does not prove himself to be a huge turd and gets up off the canvas to throw some hard punches. I speculate he will based on the attitude I’ve seen from him to date and the fact that his nest egg is probably only 7 figures, maybe barely 8 if he’s smart/lucky.

Eddy definitely used to score. I say he’s proven himself lazy because although he finally got in shape for once in his adult life (pathetic for a professional athlete) his skills seem to have eroded. Bender had a much longer lay-off from NBA action but he came back firing while Curry, like Marbury, crawled to his feet completely unprepared to fight.
I agree that the Knicks should try to find a way to utilize Curry’s strength (interior scoring), even if it’s only to trade him. The fact that they are dying to trade him and he can’t even get on the court is an indictment of him in and of itself. His weaknesses in every other area besides scoring make it pretty hard to justify his presence on the court ever, but especially if he’s not scoring.
I think there may be something to Jon Abbey’s theory that Curry’s post game is hurt by being skinny. I would also say that he always scored in a slow, stagnant, bad offense… and now it’s a quick, decent motion offense. He may or may not be able to adjust.

I love Balkman, but I’m becoming pretty suspicious that his rasta religious habits (getting baked out of his mind) are having a negative impact on his NBA career. He still fouls WAY too much and has earned himself a spot in George Karl’s doghouse after the first week or so of the season (unless he’s been hurt). His numbers in the 8 games he did play were atrocious, and he’s never improved appreciable.

Steven, welcome. But…have you seen Curry on O lately? He looks terrible. Good point about his role in the zone, but if in fact he could score on anyone, he’d be getting minutes. I totally disagree that D’Antoni has handled him poorly.

If we all generally agree that D’Antoni hasn’t handled the Nate situation well, can we stop talking about it?

KnickFan4Life,

A lot of people are still sore about signing Roberson over Wafer off the summer league roster. Wafer is a better player, but I don’t really care. He quit on Europe, I guess, because Memphis wanted to sign him.

“Nate might still play but at this juncture with what just happened with his agent, I don’t know anymore.”

What exactly happened with his agent?

“I think they got nervous because they didn’t know what they were going to get in Hughes or Douglas and brought Nate back at the last moment.”

Nate was one of their top 2 or 3, if not their best, player last season. Hughes was not in the rotation to start the season and there were rumors the Knicks were considering buying him out. You are speculating and I am speculating, but I speculate that you are incorrect.

Frank O.,

Proceeding on the assumption that they’re cumulative defensive efficiencies and that the game on the same line is reflected in the def eff:

1. Good work, interesting data.
2. You are right that the defensive efficiency has improved lately.
3. The data does not address the fact that they’ve been playing weak offensive teams lately. They did have a great game against Portland (the #11 offense), but since the Atlanta game (where their def eff got worse, if I’m reading the data right) the other teams they’ve played are (according to B-R.com) 30th, 18th, 27th, 28th, 24th, and 27th in offensive efficiency. Including the Blazers, the Knicks average opponents since the Hawks have had the 23.57 offensive efficiency in the NBA…
4. They were playing some very good offenses before that, so you can probably show that the same thing happened in the opposite direction then. When your sample size gets large enough those things even out. I don’t know if we’re there yet with 27 observations, but after tonight’s game we’re pretty well evened out over the past 15 or so games and we might (not doing the math since the game is starting soon) be around a league average opponent on average over that stretch.
5. I swear I had another point, but I can’t remember it now. If I think of it I will post it.