While Walsh's plan to free up gazillion dollars of capspace deserves a "Mission Accomplished" banner, I can't imagine why any free agent would go there given equal money. I literally see no upside with this team. Yet there are so many downsides. 1. They can't develop players worth a damn. I'm not even talking about Jordan Hill. Gallinari was I believe picked over Brook Lopez and currently looks like a stiff, homeless man version of Dirk. Toney Douglas was a 1st round pick who can't get playing time. Darko, for all his fault, couldn't find court time over freaking Johnathan Bender. Meanwhile they let T-Mac and Harrington do whatever they want. What top FA would look at the Knicks roster and think they have some players to work with? Morey should send Lebron/Bosh/Wade videos of Jordan Hill before their meetings with New York, so they can understand who they're dealing with. 2. Their roster don't match the players they're aiming for. Gallinari is a perimeter big. David Lee is a soft, undersized PF, much less a center. Guess what kind of players are Amare and Bosh? If Bosh wanted to be surrounded by soft white guys, he just needed to stay in Toronto with a better team. Unless NY overpays, why would Amare want to play center with Gallinari on his side? That's not all, they have NO POINT GUARD. The one position non-existent in the 2010 FA bonanza, and they don't care to upgrade it. Do Lebron and Wade really think they're going anywhere with Toney Douglas and Sergio Rodriguez as their point? 3. The front office can't make a shrewd decision to save its life. Quick, name a trade where NY upgraded in talent under Walsh... ... ... Let's see, they dumped Zach Randolph who's blowing up in Memphis. They dumped Jamal Crawford who's blowing up in Atlanta. In return, they got ZERO PROSPECTS. Oh, and they got rid of their own prospect Jordan Hill to serve as a "salary dump". 4. THEY'LL HAVE NO FREAKING YOUNG TALENT(assuming the Rockets at least becomes a 50-win team again and picks in the mid 20s). 5. THEY HAVE NO FREAKING CAPSPACE after free agent signings. They can trade Curry for some usable players, but see #3 for the counterpoint to that. Seriously, what do the Knicks have going for them? A run-down old Madison Square Garden that used to be awesome 30 years ago? The media center of the US in a day and age where such things are no longer a big deal? If I were a top free agent and likes New York for some reason, New Jersey with likely Turner/Wall coming in seems a hell of a lot more attractive. If anyone has any inside info on how NY is going to attract big name free agents, I'd like to know. Because I can't certainly figure it out.
I kind of get the OP. I admit i've been sept up by the whole "NY is the big market" and all, but it's true that in today's global economy, it is not a big deal to go to NY. Back in the 90's, it was big. I mean, no disrespect t Ewing, he was a good player, but he was not as good as the media hype that surrounded him. All these centers were better than him, Dream, Shaq, D Robinson, Deke. Anyway, Knicks were media hype back then, now it isn't a big deal. if you want to go with the largest market, go with the chinese or indian market. That mean, join the rockets, or consider a career move into Cricket LOL.
Sorry i left something out. I disagree with one thing with the OP. MSG is a good reason to go to Knicks.
OH MY GOODNESS MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, A COMPLETELY LOGICAL REASON TO DESTROY MY CAREER IN FRONT OF RAVENOUS LUNATICS. WHILE IM AT IT, WHY DONT I TAKE A 20$ MILLION DOLLAR PAYCUT BECAUSE I JUST LOVE MSG. GOOD GOLLY GEE
There is really something in the CBA that says that sponsors can't renegotiate deals with players and give them pay increases?
Donnie Walsh knows what he's doing and he's a breath of fresh air for that organization. Even if he's just setting himself up to get left at the altar by big named free agents this summer, he understands the value of NBA contracts and how continually overpaying mediocre talent will add up and ultimately hamstring you. As long as he's in command you can expect those Eddy Curry/Jerome James type contracts to never happen again. That alone is progress considering how pathetic the Knicks have been in recent history. He's making progress, granted it's baby steps but eventually the Knicks will be a serious team again. I think it's realistic to forecast at least one or two significant max contract players changing teams this summer. Who those players will be? It's kind of early for that but you can definitely expect the Knicks to be in the picture -- especially if Amare opts out and decides he wants to be reunited with D'Antoni.
Pretty much. I know the idea is that Nike would be doing the Knicks the 'favor' of giving him an incentive to play in NY seemingly without NY's authority to do so, but I HIGHLY doubt Stern would let this fly no matter how you dress it up.
Let's see, they get to play in a big market that is New York. As bad as their team has been, fans still fill up the arena. On top of playing for a big market like New York, Knicks also have MAX money they can offer to a player. Plently of NBA players will take more money, regardless of the team's championship hopes. Sure you can talk about a paycut but if a player doesn't like being with their team that holds their bird rights, why wouldn't they go to the next team that can offer them the most money? The folks that don't think the Knicks will land any good free agents are delusional. Espeically with the amount of good talent that will be available. The city itself is very attractive to NBA players. Many want to live the "city that never sleeps" lifestyle. Maybe they won't land a Lebron or Wade but they can still come out better than they are currently doing.
This is something that most people never even consider. "Oh, they figure something out" or "Sure, there is a line of veterans dying to play with them" just doesn't sound good enough for me. I just can't see how they are going to assemble any kind of depth assuming they happen to sign two max guys. If they renounce everybody on the roster to have maximum cap space, they won't have any exceptions. No MLE, no Bi-Annual exception, nothing. Sure, they could buy some late 1-rounders/ early seconds, but those guys just don't pan out at the rate we've been enjoying here in Houston lately. As you said, the PG spot is their most glaring weakness. Where are they going to get a competent point guard if they sign 2 max deals? When Boston first assembled their Big Three, they where lucky as hell that Rondo blew up the way he did. Nobody ever predicted Kendrick Perkins to have that kind of an impact, either. Glen Davis has overachieved and Leon Powe before hin knee injury was a great find, too. That is some major "stars aligning" -stuff right there, can't really expect it to happen too often. Bottom line IMO is that New York needs a great deal of luck to have a chance at contender status EVEN IF they manage to lure 2 of the coveted free agents there.
This only applies if there is evidence that the KNICKS were complicit with the plan to increase Lebron's Nike contract. And I don't think there will be any such evidence. Nike clearly benefits with Lebron in New York over Cleveland. I honestly think the Knicks would have no involvement in that deal. Hence, there would be no penalty under the CBA. Maybe an investigation. But no violation will be found. I've been saying exactly this for almost a year now. In fact, I was posting as far back as nine months ago that I thought the Rockets (whose cap room was never going to net them a star free agent) should bite the bullet and trade for Jared Jeffries's contract and a future Knicks first round pick. Citing the very reasons in your post and in the OP, I reasoned that that pick would likely be a lottery pick and would make it worthwhile to eat Jeffries's $6.88M contract in 2010-11. I just never imagined that Morey would ALSO be able to get Jordan Hill and the right to swap picks in another year on top of the 2012 pick I thought they could easily get. That's why Morey is the master.
Are you saying Walsh is a good GM or that he's better than Isiah/Layden? Is Walsh better than his predecessors? Probably. But the guy dumped Zach Randolph, Nate Robinson, Jordan Hill, and Jamal Crawford for no ZERO ASSETS besides cap space. Not even a freaking 2nd round pick, if I'm not mistaken. The guy obviously has no idea about the concept of buy low and sell high. Incorrect. The Knicks cannot offer the most money to anyone except for David Lee. The CBA prevents them from doing so.
The Knicks can offer the same STARTING salary as any team, including the player's current team. It's just that the team's current team can offer higher annual raises (10.5% versus 8%) and a sixth year on the contract. I know YOU know this, but I wanted to clear it up for those who didn't.
Looking back at some of your posts, your predictions seem remarkably prescient. Back in November, you said that if the Rockets were to trade for Jeffries they would have to demand a future pick as well. And subsequently, you even offered this trade which was pretty close to the mark on the Rockets end (minus the inclusion of Landry and Hill+picks): http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=4987338&postcount=623 Nice job.
Both and 3/4 of those players you just listed definitely qualify or qualified at that point in their careers as talented black holes. Consequently, their hefty contracts only magnified the fact that they weren't contributing to a winning cause thereby making the decision to dump their contracts/problems on somebody else quite the easy decision. Luckily for Z-Bo and Crawford, they're both having strong seasons and finally contributing to winning causes, but you're being incredibly naive if you're only living in the now and completely overlooking their past issues and shortcomings. If you were a Knicks fan you would have wanted to dump these guys too. P.S. Crawford was traded for Al Harrington and Z-Bo was widely regarded as one of the least desirable contracts/players in the NBA at the time of his trade to the Clippers. As for Nate, the Knicks knew they were losing him this offseason anyway and parlayed him into a guy that's 3/4's the player he is in House plus two young guys. And Hill, as we all know, was the price Walsh had to pay to dump Jeffries' contract. This isn't like Walsh is just randomly dumping talented players without cause or direction.
Too bad the CBA wouldnt be inaffect until after. Lebron could eventually make more Nike endorsement money than Tiger Woods himself.
