Explain the situation whereby David Lee and his probable 7-9 million contract costs us the chance to sign Lebron or one of the other high profile free agents who will be available.

Even I (leader of the man-love) would trade Lee at this point if it meant getting rid of Craw and Curry, but frankly, its really really unlikely that anyone will take those guys off our hands, not to mention Randolph….

Well, I meant no offense to you and don’t know you well, but it appears that many here don’t quite grasp the Knicks situation and Walsh’s thinking on Lee at all. So perhaps I made a poor assumption about you, but the fact remains that I believe Walsh is attempting to do the right thing for the right reason and others don’t. So either Walsh and I are idiots or some people are not thinking out the situation properly.

Zach – 17.3mil
Eddy – 11.3mil (player option)
Crawford – 10.1mil
Jeffries – 6.9mil (player option)

Totaling up to $45.5million. Both players are pretty much locks to take their player options considering how unlikely they are to make money elsewhere. Add in the draft picks between then and now (likely two lottery picks, plus present youth). Then there’s David Lee’s extension which will likely cost 7-9mil per annum. This is with no free agent signings going past the next two seasons.

There would be no substantial cap space. A couple million maybe. No marquee free agents arriving.

Is there any mistake on the figures there? Some bad collection of information by Hoopshype by any chance?

The year after – 2011/12 – they’d be in good shape with only David Lee and draft pick contracts on the books.

Caleb,

This is exactly correct, but I’d like to add one thing.

One of the problems the Knicks had in Curry’s 2005-2006 season was that other teams “were able” to double and triple team him easily because the Knicks did not have enough fire power from the outside. Qrich was better than last year, but still very mediocre. Crawford was, well Crawford. He’s streaky but not high % overall. Lee had no outside shot at all that year. In fact, his defender routinely sagged off because he knew Lee woundn’t shoot even if he was open.

IF (granted big ?) the Knicks are stuck with Curry longer term, the way to make him more effective is to have a PF that rebounds well, plays good help defense, and that has enough of an outside shot to keep his defender honest. In addition, you need a high percentage shooter or two at the other positions.

As currently situated, that means QRich can’t get much time. He’s a horrible outside shooter. We desperately need a a SF with a good outside shot if the plan is to play Curry at center. If not, then the point is moot.

The goal is to not only find statistically skilled and efficient players, it’s to find players that compliment each other in ways that maximize their strengths and mitgate their weaknesses.

This is a reason why some analysts and fans were wrong about the Knicks last year in giving them a shot to make the playoffs (including many former top players). They looked at the roster and saw a lot of talented players without realizing how terribly mismatched they were in terms of complimenting each other.

Funny that Walsh is considered a brilliant GM and he’s trying to move Lee but you purely stats guys can’t understand why.

1. The Knicks have a flawed center with some health and character question marks that no one wants. It’s going to be hard to move that contract to get shorter ones back.

2. The Knicks have a reasonably good but flawed PF that is wildly overpaid, that has a very long contract, that also has some off the court issues that no one wants at all. It’s going to be hard to move that contract to get shorter ones back.

3. Almost every championship caliber team has 3 all stars and a good supporting cast or 2 superstars and a good suporting cast. The Knicks have neither an all star or super star.

We are likely to move either Curry or Randolph as soon as a reasonable deal makes itself available (probably Zach). But the reality is that we are probably going get stuck with one of them. Most likely that will be Curry.

Regardless, please explain to me how the Knicks are going to be able pay Lee 7M-8M for a long term contract, attract or accumulate 3
all-stars, and stay under the cap when we also have a series of other bad contracts (besides Curry and Randolph) that extend past 2010 that no one wants.

I am sorry to say that IMO the best option is to trade Lee and not make a huge expensive long term commitment to him that will further kill the cap space plan.

He’s neither an all-star or super star. He’s a very solid and likeable PF. He would be great as part of the supporting cast “IF” you could somehow pay him all that money and still fit in 3 all stars, AND and a bad contract or two. But it can’t be done.

That’s why Walsh is dangling him as trade bait. He isn’t thinking emotionally. He thinking about dollars and “sense”.

If you trade Lee and get equal or better value back in terms of player quality via the draft (or some other value), the cap issue becomes less of a problem because we can pay a low salary to a draft pick for several years. In addition, considering we may get stuck with Curry we can eventually look to fit in a PF that will better offset some of Curry’s major weankesses if we do get stuck with him.

The situation is a financial and mismatched player mess. Until people come to grips with the numbers and what it actually takes to win (the number of very high quality players that compliment each other properly), you are never going to understand why Walsh is considering moving Lee and why he is 100% correct to do so.

He rebounds very well, has some nifty post up and inside moves, and has enough of an outside shot to draw players to him and prevent double teams on the inside. That’s not everything, but it’s enough to call him a good player.

Most of his his flaws are mental.

Primarily, on court, he takes too many poor shots. However, IMHO, on the Knicks his poor shots were often a better option than a lot of the alternatives (like a Qrich brick or Crawford chuck) or actually allowing one of the other “no shot at all players” on the Knicks to heave one up from outside as the clock was running out.

It remains to be seen if he could behave himself on court with good coaching and team that made him less of a scoring option.