The Lakers, after this season, win or lose, are going to be staring at $20 plus million over the cap next season, with no expiring contracts. The only way they’ll be able to slide under that would be THIS year, and that would involve letting Kobe go. That’s not gonna happen, so Mitch Kupchik (sp?) will HAVE to get rid of an albatross for an expiring contract or two…lest he get screwed by a new CBA that imposes a hard cap.

I know Bynum’s overpaid, but he’d be a damned better center than Curry! So, do the obvious: Curry and Chandler for Bynum. The Knicks don’t lose much of their salary space and get a good all around big man (albeit one who gets hurt a little too often, yes, but it’d be worth it as LeBron bait) who can move Lee to the 4 (where he belongs) and still have enough room for LeBron and re-sign the current backcourt. So it would look like this:

PG – Sergio ($2.8 mil)
SG – T-Mac ($1.3 mil?)
SF – LeBron (~$16 mil)
PF – Lee (~$10 mil)
C – Bynum ($12 mil)

BENCH:
F – Gallo (~3 mil)
G – Douglas (~1 mil)
G – Walker (~1 mil)

Again, am I looking at this right?

PG= sergio
SG= lebron
SF= gallo
PF= bosh
C= a shoot blocking, rebonding center

Sixth man = Chandler

Your concern about salary figures was discussed at length in the post at the top of the page. I would advise reading it before you post. The writers here are knowledgeable and articulate. You might learn something.

That assumes the Knicks can get LeBron and then want to/can keep Lee and McGrady. Tough to get too far ahead as far as what they’ll need this offseason… totally depends on what they actually do.

If you’ve got an offensive player like LeBron complemented with a Wade/Bosh/Lee and shooters like Gallo, Toney Douglas, whoever else… interior defense becomes something I would pay any price possible to get. That group looks really good offensively, but weak defensively. Interior defense is not that easy to come by. It’s not like you’re looking for a back-up PG or a 3 pt specialist. Defense is fully 1/2 the game and the 5 is generally regarded as the single most crucial position defensively. Once (if) you have LeBron, Wade/Bosh/Lee + T-Mac, Gallo, Douglas… what else are you going to spend $10 million on? An interior defender would be my most important priority.

Chandler and Dalembert both expire in 2011. They will be free agents then, as will Kirilenko (who would fit into the Randolph role you envision). The Knicks can try to use the cap space from Curry’s expiring deal to land one of them. They don’t necessarily have to trade for them (unless they sign extensions, especially unlikely in Dalembert’s case but maybe if he’s traded).

“If you can think of a true five who’d make a great pairing with Lee who’s affordable and who they have a realistic shot at getting I’d love to hear it. I’d rather see them go after Randolph (a big if, I know) or even a guy like Ibaka who can really rotate, block some shots, run the floor and hit the offensive glass.”

The problem with a Lee/Randolph frontcourt on a team with championship aspirations is that they’ll get eaten up by a true center. Every real contender right now has a center who can bang down low on both ends. LA: Bynum (maybe Randolph can check Pau, but he might eat them alive too), Clev: Shaq and probably Z if/when he resigns, Orl: Howard and to a lesser extent Gortat, Atl: Horford, Den: Nene, Bos: Perkins… Over the course of the season you can sneak around those guys, but in the playoffs they are unavoidable. Most of them are under 25 (only Clev’s 2 and Nene who is 27)… they’re not going anywhere soon. They play on good teams that will find that mismatch and exploit it.
You can make up for that in other areas, but you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage. The chances of getting through a team with a top flight 5 in the 2nd round, ECF, and Finals… not good.

I’m not going to speculate on who the Knicks should get, but they at least need a legitimate defensive 5-man on the bench.

Guys like Randolph and Ibaka also are valuable to their own teams. I would not trade Randolph for Chandler if I were GS. Chandler is an entirely more common commodity (athletic scorer on the wing) and a year closer to getting paid. I think GS could get more if they choose to move Randolph. Also not sure I would move Ibaka for Chandler. He’s only 20 years old. He’s 6-10, a strong rebounder, and plays as much at C as anyone else on the #3 defense in the NBA. His offense needs work, but he’s good defensively.
In a few years those guys like be paid just as much as Dalembert, Chandler and the rest of them anyway.

I think the best outcome for the Knicks is to find their own Ibaka through the draft (without reaching for every bigman they can… not that they have too many picks to try with). Or to just make the right move (trade or FA) when it comes along, whether that’s for Randolph, Ibaka, Chandler, Dalembert, Camby, Haywood…

Z,

Disagree that Darko deserved to play (he was bad when he did play as a Knick and publicly showed a bad attitude after getting benched), but otherwise it’s a good point. If D’Antoni gets LeBron I think he has to adapt his style somewhat. Hopefully LeBron, a wingman, and some shooters all playing 1-4 will be enough for D’Antoni to play a real 5. Has to be a good player, though, and to an extent I agree with D’Antoni that feeling like you HAVE to play a 5 can be bad for your team.

As much as D’Antoni is mentioned as a selling point to LeBron, other suitors will have an easy time pointing out how his “gimmicky style” will never win championships.

This really isn’t Lee’s fault. It’s D’Antoni’s. There was a 5 D’Antoni could have put next to him who could take physical post players and help out. That guy’s now playing in Minnesota, getting 8 points and 8 rebounds in his 19 minutes (about as many minutes as he saw in his entire tenure with the Knicks (and I don’t think any of his Knick minutes came with him on the floor with Lee)). D’Antoni refuses to play Lee at PF with a traditional center, so don’t waste time thinking of which traditional center to bring in. Whoever Donnie brings in would just sit on the bench watching Andrew Bogut put up career numbers against Lee, a look of confusion on his face…