D'Antoni ???

[ironman95]

JB, I gotta disagree with you a little bit on the acquiring of draft picks. For free agents we are probably about to lose. We have had plenty of mid-round to late-round picks, and look where it has gotten us. We Lee and Chandler and Nate and Hill and Douglas, and Gallinari. What we need is a HIGH 1st round pick. Like the one the Jazz have from us. We need an impact player. The college season hasn't really started yet, but I know of three really good players out there(so far). We need one of THEM. John Wall, Cole Aldrich or Jerome James. There may be others, but those three WILL make a difference. I don't know how to go about getting that HIGH round pick, but another mid-round pick, just gives us another role player, like the above mentioned five. We have enough of them. The whole team is like a list of supporting players. Maybe Gallinari, Douglas or Hill will emerge and prove me wrong, but right now, no one stands out as a difference maker. I'd rather hold onto Lee, say, than trade him for a MID-round pick. Just doesn't make any sense to me and won't make the team any better, other than lowering the payroll. Put Lee next to LeBron and a decent center, like say Dalembert, and he becomes so much better. And right now the 76ers have no takers at all for Dalembert whom they are trying to get rid of. We need a top 5 pick, nothing above that will matter, even in this supposedly deep next draft. Get that draft pick, plus sign LeBron and trade for Azubuike and the Knicks have all but one piece in place. Still will be missing either a PG or a Center, but not both. The more I think about it, I think Azubuike is a better choice than Joe Johnson. A lot cheaper too, as well as younger.

[ironman95]

I meant Jerome Jordan, I don't want Snacks back.

[jbnewyork162]

Hey Iron I get where your coming from but maybe what I MEANT was worded the wrong way in the point i was trying to get across. I accidentally wrote mid to low first and i meant HIGH to MID first and that meant a modest 9th the lowest I'd go for trading Lee or Nate or whatever.

But here is the meat of what I was trying to convey. If we hypothetically sign Lebron for 18 mil of our 25 mil cap room then if David Lee doesn't like the 7 mil a year we have left to offer him and he tries to sign elsewhere then we will have lost him for nothing. Now to lose Mr intangible for a lack of trying to at least get some pick or picks in the first round would be a shame. Same with Nate and at least a second rounder for Duhon.

By 7/1/10 it will be too late to trade any of them as they'll be unrestricted and really just signing Lebron and Lee AGAIN alone will STILL leaves us with holes and no assets aside from Gallo, Chandler, Douglas and Hill. Youth at a bargain basement deal are restricted free agents for that same reason making it a waste of time to offer them tracts. If we settle for a consolation prize of Amare and Joe Johnson then we wont need Lee or Harrington but still a PG and trading Lee to a team with cap room and no need for extra picks could at least let us have something.

I'd love us to have ONE pick aside from the second rounder in the Balkman trade, we have next year. Do you have another suggestion of how we just don't let all of our expirings walk without getting something besides cap room for then? I don't think what i propose is being greedy but then again i don't think any team would be willing to help us out either so, it is what it is.


-Jason

[ironman95]

I believe we retained the "Bird" rights to Nate and Lee, by signing them before some kind of deadline. So we can match any contract they sign. Not that we will keep them, but will then turn around and trade them to the team that signed them or some higher bidding team. I think that is how it works, but I could be wrong.