grkdiesel1:
Z…I agree with you.I was suggesting that since Dolan has been burning his money on astronomical team payrolls on absolute garbage knicks teams over the last 10 years, why not pay a luxury tax and keep billups for this year since we need a point guard and Billups is the best of the bunch available right now?

Because Chandler is a better player and fills a bigger need. The Knicks can’t have Chandler AND Billups. They need to dump Billups to get under the cap so they can sign Chandler.

grkdiesel1:
I…hate losing Billups to the amnesti provision.I believe its better to hold on to that chip for the future.

I think that there is too much being made of the amnesty provision. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the teams in the league never even use theirs. In the Knicks’ case there is no need to hold onto it. Even if Amar’e blows out his knee in 2013 while taping a guest appearance on Dancing With The Stars, we’ll probably be too far over the cap by then to make it even worth erasing his contract. It’s not like we could just free up $20 million to spend on some other superstar.

The amnesty provision is mostly for teams to get under the tax line, which we are not at, and even if we were, as fans it’s Dolan’s money not ours that goes up in smoke, so I don’t see any use in lamenting the loss of the amnesty chip (especially since it is bringing in a really really good player that we desperately need now).

Sam Amick: Source says Mike Bibby is flying to New York in the morning with the intention of signing with the Knicks.

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/new_york.htm

Subtracting Billups’ $14.2 Million, Turiaf’s $4.4 Million and Derrick Brown’s $1.1 Million, plus adding in Tyson Chandler’s roughly $14.5 Million brings our total payroll for the season to, by my estimation around $55.5 Million, or $2.5 Million under salary cap. But then they must pay the rookies Jorts and Shumpert, so I think they will basically just have that room exception of $2.5 M plus any additional cap space left over…maybe $1 million or so…for total of perhaps $2.5 M to $4 M.

art vandelay:
Yannis Koutroupis: Was just told by a source that the Miami HEAT are at the top of Chauncy Billups’ wish list if he clears waivers after being amnestied.

No way he clears waivers. At the very least a team like the clippers would pick him up. Or even Denver. They can offer him $10 and still get him theoretically. No chance he gets to Miami this year.