Bizarre right, Dwight Howard actually was the guy winning all those games in Orlando, not Hedo, Who would have thunk…

I wonder if Brian Colangelo loses sleep at night thinking about the fact that the Bucks are getting more from Luc Mbah a Moute and Carlos Delfino then he is getting from Andrea Bargnani and Hedo?

not sure if serious…

-I called your last comment pessimistic largely because you act as if after this offseason they can never make another move again, they are stuck with that roster. As if they have to be winning rings by next season or Walsh has done a terrible job.

-I don’t think D’Antoni is the greatest thing since sliced bread and I would agree with criticizing him for being a system coach and questioning whether he can adapt. I do not agree with your criticism of everything he does: you’ve criticized him for not playing a guy (Frye) who was traded a full year before he became Knicks coach.
Mark Jackson is as bad as any national announcer I’ve heard and has zero coaching experience, but I suppose it’s ok to assume he’d be an amazing coach and a guy who’s won 60+ games multiple times and is respected around the league is a horrible person and a horrible coach. I suppose Charles Barkley should be #2 on their list, followed by the Celtics terrible announcers.

-http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/boozeca01.html

-p.s. David Lee played the 4 his first three seasons in the NBA. You don’t have to speculate about how he would do there. He more then held his own overall and was better defensively than he has been at the 5. (He’s also been a lot better defensively this season than last according to his defensive +/-.)

I doubt the Raptors are really kicking themselves for passing on Jrue Holiday.
1. DeRozan has outplayed him: http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=1&p1=holidjr01&y1=2010&p2=derozde01&y2=2010
2. They have Calderon and Jack at PG. Jrue would have about 200 minutes of garbage time all season on that team as a PG (a role Marcus Banks presently fills), though they’d probably play him at the 2 for 15-20 mpg if they had him and no DeRozan.
Knicks? Maybe, but they may have traded him for cap room just like Hill. Anyway, he’s got a long way to go still. At the moment (this season and next)–as ess-dog points out– I prefer Douglas, though it’s fair to say Holiday has a higher ceiling down the road. Hill, by the way, has also outplayed Holiday this season; although, he’s 3 years older and has played only 1/3 the minutes: http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=1&p1=holidjr01&y1=2010&p2=hilljo01&y2=2010
It fascinates me that his parents decided to name one kid Justin and one kid Jrue… Justin is a totally common name and I’ve never heard the name Jrue one other time in my life.

Z re: 26,

I believe the NBA has a minimum payroll numbers teams must surpass, instituted to make sure Donald Sterling actually fielded a team. Meaning NO has to pay someone. When they get to the point where they can’t pay anyone, they’ll sell the team.

BBA,

Owen was referring to their collective salaries (Gordon + Villanueva) equaling one max contract. Saying that even Gordon + Villanueva combined do not produce as much for your basketball team as one max player. When you consider that few max players would consider signing in Detroit and how much better both played last season than this season, I don’t think those contracts are in the same league of stupidness as Bargnani’s though. I think Dumar’s biggest mistakes recently have been not trading Hamilton the second he signed Gordon and deciding Stuckey was the second coming of Billups before the guy had even played in summer league. Stuckey is pretty bad.

Massive,

Okur would be an interesting possibility I never considered. I don’t think it’s that likely between Utah having Millsap and maybe bringing back Boozer, and from the Knicks perspective Okur being 30 already. Utah has two

re: 36– I like Walsh a lot, and he certainly won’t intentionally overpay:
-He declined to pay both Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic, for example. Walsh maxed out Jermaine O’Neal, though. O’Neal was a very good player, but his offense in Indiana was about as bad as Bosh’s defense. Brad Miller’s contract ended up being a better value than O’Neal’s, even if O’Neal never gets injured that might be the case (neither was a great contract, though I don’t think Miller’s was that bad… his decline just coincided with a general decline of the Kings’ roster). Passing on Stojakovic was definitely the right thing to do.
-He got good value when signing Artest (and rightly so given his mental condition), but overpaid Bender.
-He didn’t pay Harrington, paying Stephen Jackson a similar amount instead. Good move. (He… or Larry Bird?… eventually sent what would be a #11 pick to get Harrington back, though.)
-He overpaid Jalen Rose, but quickly unloaded him in a great trade.
-He overpaid Austin Croshere.
So I don’t think he’ll run out and give Rudy Gay a max contract and there is definitely reason to be optimistic, but I wouldn’t say that he definitely won’t overpay. He has a tendency to overpay “his guys” for sure. Since Joe Johnson and Amare have been “D’Antoni’s guys” they might become Walshtoni guys and therefore Walsh guys and therefore be overpaid by Walsh.

Ben R,

How much are you assuming Lee will get?

Owen,

I agree that Boozer is probably underrated at this point because of his character/injuries. I would say it’s because of his production more than Utah’s wins, though, as they won 48 games last season when he missed more than 1/2 the season and played relatively poorly when he was out there. Missing huge parts of 3 out of 8 NBA seasons can hardly be ignored, though. You have to question whether he can stay healthy if you’re going to max him out. He’s solidly better than Joe Johnson. Considering that Johnson is a SG and Boozer’s health is a question, I wouldn’t put him too far behind Boozer.

StevenU,

That’s a seriously pessimistic outlook.
So you assume the Knicks cannot sign LeBron, but you assume they can sign Wade???

d-mar,

The All-O, No-D European player is a myth. Kirilenko, Biedrins? Those are the biggest guys to gain the reps to break the stereotype because of gaudy possession stats (blks and stls), but plenty of other Europeans have played solid defense on good/great defensive teams.

Biedrins, by the way, is a legitimate trade target for the Knicks with Curry’s deal or extra cap space since he’s fallen out of favor with Don Nelson and has four more years at $9 mill a pop. He’s only 23 this season, and, Brian, I think he’s a center D’Antoni might have to play. Too good at what he does not to play him and mobile. Easier to say that about someone with no jump shot now that Lee’s shown a mid-range game (even easier to say if the Knicks sign Bosh, who is a good jump shooter). He’s improved his passing drastically the past 2 seasons, too. I don’t know if D’Antoni would like it, but I think he’d have to give him decent minutes and if he couldn’t adjust Walsh could fire him. I know this is crazy fantasy talk, but maybe Knicks could somehow get Wright or Randolph in a deal… robbing GS completely. More likely with Wright probably and especially if GS drafts Favors. If they draft Favors I think they almost have to trade Wright.

Another guy who might make a good C for D’Antoni is Baylor’s Ekpe Udoh. A bit undersized for the 5, but projects to be a much better defender than Lee. Great shot blocker. Moves very well, passes very well, good rebounder, and a decent scorer with range out to college 3. Right now nbdraft.net has him at 24, but draftexpress.com has him 13. At 24 the Knicks could definitely trade up or buy a pick, if they have the cap space to spare.
Pretty remarkable the steps forward both he and Wesley Johnson played this season after transferring. I guess Steph Curry’s little bro (Dell Curry #3) is a candidate to take the transfer star torch from them next season for Duke.

Wade and LeBron by far are the best players to sign but after that I am not sure if anyone will be a better value than Lee. Bosh is better but his contract will be much larger and both Amare and Boozer are too fragile to really be upgrades on Lee. As for Johnson and Gay they are both fine players but will be overpaid this offseason and I really hope we are not the ones overpaying them.

I think we should chase the big two and probably Bosh as well, though I am unsure if he is a huge upgrade on Lee, but after that I would vote to resign Lee and make smaller, smarter moves. No one else is worth the huge paydays that await them.