Sure, but haven’t we’ve had a mind-bogglingly hideous team for almost a decade now?! What’s another year? (Especially if it makes the team better in the future!)

1. Nate 2. McGrady 3. Chandler 4. Harrington 5. Curry

I would almost like this trade to happen just so we could put this team on the floor. It should somewhat resemble Cirque de Soliel combined with the Washington Generals. I think it might cause time to invert itself.

Chicago gets Lee and Nate
Houston gets Ben Gordon, Jeffries, Harrington
Knicks get McGrady, Ty Thomas, #16 pick

or

Chicago gets Lee, JJ
Houston gets Brad Miller, Q, Ty Thomas
Knicks get McGrady, #16

Rockets need insurance for when Yao goes down and a physical SG who can play D. They could also use anybody who can put the ball in the basket, if game 7 was any indication of need. Miller can be insurance for when Yao goes down. Q may not be useless to them. Yao can erase some of Harrington’s flaws if they play next to each other.

The Bulls need to decide what to do with Gordon before all else. Then they need a scoring big man. Not sure if Lee fits that need, but they showed interest at the deadline. He’d be a nice PF next to Noah with Rose running the point. Then they can keep Gordon as a scorer. Don’t know if they could do much better with the #16 pick this year.

Z, I like the thinking in McGrady. Any thoughts on how the deal would look?
If the decision is not to resign Lee, then moving Jeffries’ contract and getting the 16 pick (plus the Knicks’ best true C since… probably Camby) would be a solid deal.

How about an offer of Lee and Jeffries for Brad Miller and one of Chicago picks?

Or maybe there is a complicated 3 way deal that lands McGrady in NY while we dump all sorts of junk on others. Gotta figure the Rockets are willing to move on without him, and if we can jettison JJ or Curry in the trade he’d be a pretty benign stop-gap until July 2010.

I for one hope that Gallo becomes AT LEAST a Turkoglu but expect that he becomes a poor man’s Nowitzki. I know that’s a lot to expect out of a guy out of whom we’ve seen very little, but we know the shooting ability in there, we know the ball-handling is there, and we know the defensive effort, at least, is there. Even with a back injury that made him play at probably 60% of his normal athletic ability he posted a TS of 62% as opposed to Hedo’s career ~54-55%. The other thing with Gallo that I was so impressed with last year is how smart he is on the floor as opposed to Hedo, who always seemed like sort of a knucklehead out there. With Danilo– no stupid shots, always makes the right pass, gets the ball to the guy with the mismatch. And he’s a better shooter. And still growing. And still only 20.

RE: our prospects for next year — I think we’ll end up signing Lee to a long-term deal at about 9MM per, then signing Nate to a 1 year deal a la Ben Gordon and then letting him walk after 09-10 as an UFA. Actually what I’d like to do is sign them both to 1 year contracts, see what we get in the draft, see how Chandler and Gallinari develop, then decide. I think if I were a free agent this year I might take a 1 year deal, take out some serious injury insurance, then wait for all the teams with tons of 2010 cap space (and a recovering economy) to swing and miss at Lebron, Wade, Bosh, etc., then settle on me, get a much bigger long term deal.

Tim Thomas? No way. I would hold out for Jerome James instead!

Also, If Danillo turns into a Hedo Turk. type of player that would be great! I think this is what he can become. Same height and shooting ability. Its just a matter of confidence. He needs those minutes to see that he can compete at the NBA level and contribute to wins. At 8 we can get a solid guy that can come in and contribute now. I think Curry or Lawson are solid picks for us.

The NFL just announced that its salary cap is increasing $12M. [http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/11750067]. I wonder how that will affect the NBA’s cap — will the NBA still be considering a reduction in the cap? If the NBA raises its cap, what effect will this have on the Knick’s hopes of retaining Lee? Does that change the Knick’s draft strategy?

I know the Knicks need to take the best player available. If Lee leaves however, its seems as if a player like Jordan Hill or Blair would get the tie-breaker over a player like Ty Lawson or some other position seen as a bigger need.

Raising the NBA cap seems like a double-edged sword in that the Knicks (Dolan) are not cash-strapped like some other franchises (Sacramento), but it also probably creates more of a market for Lee.

But I don’t see how Denver let’s him go…