If Walsh trades Lee for, say, a 2020 2nd round pick… he gets an $11 million trade exception (or whatever Lee signs for).

Can the Knicks sign their two max free agents…. then bring in a THIRD star with the trade exception? Can they use the trade exception to go over the cap? It seems like quite a loophole but I don’t see an obvious rule to prevent it.

“In that case I would take Hibbert of anyone who might be available in a s&t on their roster and also Ford if the cap space can’t be better used elsewhere.”

Scratch that, would have to take Ford, huh? They can’t take on more salary than they send out since they’re over the cap. If they really want Lee you’ve pretty much got them by the balls, though, since they’re capped out. Would get some picks out of them and pull a reverse Isiah (aka a Paxson).

@95 ess-dog,

Good point about 3/5 of Indy; although they actually do have 3 more wins than the Knicks… going for the 3 win improvement in 2011 to get back to 2009 form, typical Knicks style!!!

At first I thought you were referring to MARDY Collins… haha.

If LeBron and Wade pass, Bosh AND Lee could be the best way to go from a value/asset accumulation point of view. I don’t know how they would play together. As long as they don’t cannibalize each other too much you could trade one of the them later on. Depending on who he’s looking to sign with, maybe a s&t for Lee will be one of the best ways for the Knicks to proceed on a non-LeBron path. Instead of dangling nother but cap space in a trade you’re dangling an All-Star PF. Would take the stars aligning as far as who wants to offer him the best deal/where he wants to go/their cap situation/the assets they’re willing to include in the trade.

Mahinmi would be a great player to take a shot on. There’s got to be some reason Poppovich hates him, but he has been a beast in the D-League and all 173 minutes of NBA action he’s gotten in 3 years… haha. I know he’s got some talent ahead of him, but not enough to justify not playing him with the numbers he’s put up in a very small sample. This year their frontcourt depth improved considerable with McDyess and Blair, but the previous two years it wasn’t great. He must be a real ass or something.

@92 massive,

In the best case Hibbert and Ford could be a solid improvement at those spots. I’m not really thrilled with trading David Lee for those two, though, and Caleb is probably right that they’ll give Ford away… they’ve started Earl Watson over him. It would also take Indiana being the front-runner to sign Lee (given that he’s a white American Klan Master Bird is probably dying to get him, so very possible… they’ve got Murphy and Hansbrough at the 4, though). In that case I would take Hibbert of anyone who might be available in a s&t on their roster and also Ford if the cap space can’t be better used elsewhere.
Brandon Rush has stunk his first two seasons (yet still averaged 2100 minutes for some reason, that reason mostly being that Dahntey Jones and Luther Head aren’t much better). If he’s in the NBA in 5 years I’d be very surprised.

@94 SJK,

Just depends on the specifics. A PF/C combo would be great, but depends on what players: how good are they, how much do they cost, how do they complement each other, and will D’Antoni actually play them or will Bill Walker be the PF by week 2 of the season?

If we keep Barron, that’s an 8 man rotation right there, not including the rookies that we know Coach D. never plays anyway.

Not a championship team, but a good start.

So tell me again why we are trading David Lee for Roy Hibbert.. ?

Now say we sign Stodemire and put him next to Hibbert. This should solve our front court problems. Plus the addition of of the backcourt sounds okay.

PG: Ford
SG: Rush
SF: Gallo
PF: Stoudemire
C: Hibbert

plus the bench has guys like Wilson Chandler, Bill Walker, Toney Douglas, and 2 2nd round picks. maybe even Earl Barron.

I honestly don’t like the Joe Johnson thing too much. JJ’s don’t work out for New York. Jared Jeffries, Jerome James? That’s enough for me to be afraid of JJs, besides i think signing Joe Johnson is a mistake. Quite honestly, he’s nothing too special for us to spend more than 10 mil a year on a 3yr deal.

Or maybe, just maybe. some team like Washington will be dumb enough to trade their lottery pick, and we might be able to pick them up. I mean Washington traded away what could’ve been Brandon Jennings or Stephen Curry for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. Was it worth it? No.

But in all honesty, i think the roster can’t be improved without trading Eddy Curry for a larger contract. So Iggy or Ben Gordon should be on their way, sadly, but hey. I think Iggy and Ben Gordon are heading upwards, while Johnson has already peaked/heading downwards. And i hate that Brandon Rush option

Per 36 minutes over the last five seasons:
Johnson:
19.5 pts 5.0 asts 3.9 rebs 54.0% TS%
Crawford:
18.2 pts 4.1 asts 2.9 rebs 54.2% TS%