One thing about Randolph is he’s not really a “stretch 4″ as in stretching the defense – he’s only made one 3-pointer in his NBA career. What he is is the rare 6’10 guy who actually has the ball-handling and passing skills to play on the perimeter – and still be a good rebounder.

Anyway, I’m just distracting myself while we wait for real news.

Let’s worry about the Knicks making the playoffs, then we’ll worry about interstellar domination once they do that.

@294 Caleb

I think the Warriors can make more attractive offers. Bradley is a total unknown who slipped in the draft and wasn’t good at Texas at all. Perkins and Amare would have a hard time playing together for D’Antoni. I’ll take Randolph, personally, and I have me reservations about Randolph actually. I just think him plus more is great value.

It’s largely up to Lee where he wants to sign, though. If a team with cap space makes him an offer he’ll have leverage to force the Knicks’ hand. If not the Knicks are in a good position to have some say.

@295 massive

I think GS will make a better offer than Portland, honestly. Portland has quantity, but not a ton of quality: Bayless, Fernandez, Batum and the 3,000,000 guys they hold the rights to have good shots at being solid rotation players, but not much upside above that. Randolph has really good upside. Would take several of Portland’s young players + Miller and maybe more salary… basically what they offered for Chris Paul… If that’s what they offered for a HOF PG who may retire as the best to play the position, are they going to offer that for a borderline All-Star back-up PF when they have Oden, Aldridge, Camby, AND Przybilla in their front-court?

I never said veteran’s min. I said min. You can sign rookies to deal at under 500k. Therefore, the Heat can fill out their roster with the Pittman and Varnado and Scheyer types even with a hard cap.

A hard cap would also distort player salaries in other ways you’re not considering. It would take away significantly from the pool of $ from which salaries are drawn. In the middle of any season pretty much every team is at least AT the cap, with most being over, some WAY over. Salaries would be reduced significantly.

This could end up being good for the NBA *if* it happens. I believe that dynasties and superpowers drive up ratings, not down. People don’t watch fluke teams in the finals… they watch the Celtics and Lakers. They watch the Yankees v. Red Sox.

Miami is not a big market… NY, LA, and Chicago are. This helps Miami and hurts 4 teams in the 3 biggest markets in the country… This doesn’t hurt small market teams at all.

I am not in favor of a control economy. I like the current CBA as a middle-ground between control and chaos. No matter how many restrictions you make you will never stop teams from making stupid moves. It’s going to happen.

The NBA is not just the owners, but also the players. The CBA results from a negotiation between the two sides. If the owners could do whatever they wanted, it would be a lot different. If they try an unreasonably hard-line approach they’ll find all the players starting a competing league with more star power and better basketball… that’s why they don’t have 100% control.

Do you really not think the Lakers can compete with that team? The Lakers are already blowing through the Western Conference… was that boring? Kobe, Gasol, Bynum, Odom, AND Artest. Might add Mike Miller level MLE guy or a better PG this offseason… Lakers are a TOUGH squad. So are the Celts. Miami may win it all next season, but barring major injuries to other teams it WILL NOT be nearly as much of a cake-walk as you make it seem… 4-0 series wins by 40 pts/game in the ECF and NBA Finals?????? Really? I will eat my hat literally if that happens.

I mean honestly, the only way I see this really working out to be at least a good rivalry is if the Knicks get Melo AND either pick up solid teammates for Amare and Melo now, or save the space to do it next season. I’m just worried we’ll get the wrong guys now and then either not be able to get Melo, or get him but not be able to round out the team enough to compete.

a. Defense is important. 50% of the game. You can’t do anything you want if you can’t play D. Randolph, Wright, Turiaf, and Azubuike are or can be above average defenders. That could be a significant defensive improvement for the Knicks over Lee defensively.

b. I disagree they can do anything offensively with Lee and Amare. Neither Lee nor Amare is an outside shooter and D’Antoni’s preference for a “stretch” 4 is well-known. Even in a more traditional offense–if D’Antoni finally shows the willingness/ability to adapt after years and years of refusing–you have diminishing returns with Amare and Lee. Both excel finishing at the basket either on the pick-and-roll or dribble-drive. Neither is much of a post-up threat or anything more than an average jump-shooter. They’ll end up taking more jumpers than they rightly should and dragging down their efficiency and/or one (Lee) will have a diminished role in the offense and become a medium-to-low volume scorer. You end up overpaying both for the production you get and hurting their trade values.

C. Randolph is also a good rebounder and has the ability to be a good passer. Turiaf is not a good rebounder, but he is a good passer. Both are better defenders. Combined they make 35-40% what Lee is in line to expect and have short deals.

@286 Z-Man

If Lee is a 10-15 ppg scorer (see b. above) is a 13 mill per contract movable??? I really don’t think it’s very movable. When teams look for that low-volume scorer who is a great rebounder, they expect top-notch interior defense to come along with it at a $13 mill per price-tag… Lee doesn’t provide that.