Boozer

[mercury]

I was on realgm and tried a trade that worked. The deal is Mobley, Joe Crawford, and Chris Hunter to the Jazz for Boozer. This deal seems good for the Knicks since we arent giving up any core players. Boozer is on the last year of his contract, so he is a high reward low risk player. Next we could sign and trade lee for some young talent. It seems that Donnie and Lee are far apart from coming to terms on a contract.

[pearl]

Joe Crawford and Chris Hunter?

Pearl

[mercury]

The Knicks signed Joe Crawford and Chris Hunter last year and their contracts have carried over. Both make less than 1 million next year. I put them in since Mobley for Boozer didnt work straight up.

[kgooglog]

Jul 14, 2009 16:12:58 GMT -5 mercury said:

I was on realgm and tried a trade that worked. The deal is Mobley, Joe Crawford, and Chris Hunter to the Jazz for Boozer. This deal seems good for the Knicks since we arent giving up any core players. Boozer is on the last year of his contract, so he is a high reward low risk player. Next we could sign and trade lee for some young talent. It seems that Donnie and Lee are far apart from coming to terms on a contract.

Merc...

The Jazz are looking to move Boozer without taking back money, which your proposal accomplishes. The Knicks were listed as one of five teams who are involved in trade discussions with Utah regarding Boozer.

I completely agree with your line of thinking, as Utah wants nothing to interfere with their own 2010-11 cap, plus they seemingly want to cut costs for this year. A deal like the one you worked out may, in fact, help both teams.

Insofar as New York and David Lee are concerned, Donnie Walsh's comments about both Nate Robinson's and Lee's signing status are very telling. It appears as if Nate will accept the one year qualifying offer, which can help the Knicks in so many ways. Conversely, Walsh mad it public knowledge that NY and Lee are very far apart in "numbers", and David's agent needs to get it through his thick head that his client is not going to get $10-12 million a year this year.

I do see David eventually signing a "reasonable" contract, one which should be in the range of what Charlie Villanueva reportedly received from Detroit--$35,000,000 over 5 years. Bartlestein also needs to realize that Lee is a BYC player now, and a sign and trade is extremely difficult, even if there was interest from Walsh in doing such a deal.

$7,000,000 per year is the most David Lee can expect from the Knicks, and many pundits seem to think that NY will eventually sign him to the MLE, which, suffice to say, would not make David Lee a happy camper. I think that Lee, as valuable a player as the Knicks have, needs to weigh the implications of signing the one year qualifying offer of $2.7 million, which would make him an unrestricted free agent next year, but also allows NY to keep his "Bird" rights, which allows the Knicks to exceed their cap (which won't happen due to NY finally being able to get another and better PF than Dave since there will be so many terrific players in 2010). David would be wise to resign a multi-year deal, if Walsh offers it, for $6.5 million a year.

Nate is an entire different story, in my opinion. Robinson needs to repair the self-inflicted damage to his reputation as a whining, non-coachable, me-first player, and the one year qualifying offer would permit Robinson to showcase his skills as an explosive scorer, better defender, better passer, while not short-changing himself in the long run. Moreover, I think the Knicks have already decided that Robinson's value would be in a sign and trade, one which most assuredly will be attached to Jared Jeffries' cap-compromising contract which must be moved. If New York can get a 2010 first round pick for this package, and I am still thinking Sacramento, Walsh will pull the trigger, especially if NY takes back the useless Kenny Thomas in return.

One issue I do have, is using the Mobley contract in the Boozer deal, only because I think it may be better applied to an Eddy Curry package to Houston for T-Mac. This 80% insured contract is definitely the Knicks most valuable trade chip, one which I believe would be so vital to Houston. Still, I do like your thinking in using it for Boozer who is a definite upgrade over David Lee. Plus, it would then allow New York to shop Lee (when he signs a reasonable deal) possibly with Curry, and still make the T-Mac package work, albeit with another player, so that the numbers match.