KEEP DAVID LEE?

[mercury]

THIS IS AN ARTICLE FROM REAL GM.
David Lee was ranked 11th in season FIC and 'deserved' to make a salary of $18.1M in 2008-09. Generously, I think he is worth half that much, approximately $9M per season. So in honor of 42 being reduced in value two times, here are 21 reasons why the Knicks shouldn't go crazy trying to keep David Lee.

1. There is no player on the Knicks' roster worth keeping if it means compromising the odds of signing you know who.

2. The Knicks were a net 1.8 points per 100 possessions better without David Lee during the 2008-09 season, with the difference being defensively.

3. As Lee's usage rate has increased, his offensive rating has declined in each of the past two seasons after topping out at 127 in 06-07. It decreased to a still very solid 118 this season, which was 14th in the NBA.

4. His propensity to shoot jumpers increased this season and his eFG% was just 35.2%, compared to 44.5% for Amare Stoudemire, 41.6% for David West and 41.6% for LaMarcus Aldridge.

5. How will LeBron, Gallinari and Lee effectively share the floor together, particularly on defense?

6. While he is an efficient offensive player, his scoring is almost entirely predicated on assisted opportunities, with 64% of his inside shots and 75% of his jumpers (each on the very high end of the NBA).

7. A pairing of Lee and Galinari at the two forward positions will be the NBA's worst defensive pairing outside of when Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy played those positions for Golden State.

8. He is clearly a rebound stat padder; there is virtually no difference in how effectively the Knicks rebound with or without him on the floor.

9. The difference between his defensive rebound percentage and offensive percentage, further suggest he wouldn't be such a prolific rebounder if he played for another club.

10. If the Knicks are able to sign a second max player in 2010, there is a chance that the player will be either Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire.

11. He's no David Wright.

12. Lee has only blocked 94 shots in 8040 career minutes, which works out to be one for every 86 minutes of floor time. There will never be any talk about avoiding Signor Bargnani's neighborhood, but he had 97 blocks last season alone.

13. He is not an especially skilled passer.

14. The Knicks have posted 111 wins and 217 losses over the four seasons off Lee's tenure with the club. To his credit, Lee has certainly had more to do with the 111 wins than the 217 losses.

15. Josh Smith could only muster $58.5 million over five years from the Grizzlies as a restricted free agent last summer on a day in which the Dow Jones closed at 11,782.35.

16. The majority of Lee's offense comes on pick and rolls to the bucket.

17. Andrew Bogut's extension was worth $60M over five-years.

18. Lee is not a reliable offensive threat in the low-post, scoring mainly on pick and slip situations.

19. Lee's Roland Rating (82games.com statistic developed by Roland Beech) was -0.8, which was behind Nate Robinson, Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, Tim Thomas, Danilo Gallinari and Al Harrington. Overall, Lee was ranked 135th out of the 198 players that played a minimum of 35% of team minutes.

20. At the end of the season, Mike D'Antoni mentioned Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler as the two players he was 'enthused' about heading into the future, but made no mention of Lee. He has consistently appeared reluctant to anoint Lee as the right kind of player for his system.

21. There is no player on the Knicks' roster worth keeping if it means compromising the odds of signing you know who.

[irish2u2]

I agree with what the author is trying to say here though I would dispute a few of his conclusions. The fact is we like David Lee because he always works hard, never complains and because he is one of the few bright spots in another dismal season. The fact is he might be more important as trade bait then as a Knick.

[neilverson]

Bosh/Amare or not...we keep Lee. I stopped reading actively around the 6th reason. Then I just browsed. Rebuttal to 5- Lebron is the best defender in the league- thats how. Rebuttal to 6- Lebron is the best passer in the league..couple of good reasons, couple of shitty ones...couple of duplicate ones...Maybe 10 or so of those 21 are decent arguments. Keep the general.

[will1682]

You want certain players because they can do the big things, others you want because they can consistently do the small things. Thats why you keep David Lee. Now add some of those "big thing" players around him, the pieces will fit together.

[daglazer]

If Lee can bring a 1st round pick in 2010, then trade him. He is a good player, but very replaceable.

[irish2u2]

The main message here is cost versus value. 16ppg and almost 12 rpg are nothing to sneeze at but Lee's defensive deficiencies negate a good part of that value. Then there is the "system". Christopher Reina, who wrote the original RealGM article is an excellent basketball writer but he forgets Lee averaged double figure rebounds before D'Antoni became coach. The system has added 6ppg to Lee's game and possibly more if Lee continues on working on his jump shot and raising his eFG%. If those stats could be added to Lee's game they are available for others in Lee's place making Lee's stats a little less unique. It also makes it more cost effective to not overpay for David Lee but instead to use his extended value throughout the rest of the league to make the best trade possible.

Of all the people here I probably would miss David Lee the most as a Knick. ; ) But as a Knick fan the good of the team eclipses my personal feelings about any individual player.

Let me also add that there is one huge variable in all this which is Gallinari. Offensively he can certainly fill the void if Lee leaves and if he can get us 7 boards a game the rest we can make up. Gallo's health might be the catalyst on whether Lee stays or goes. Still, 10 million a year for David Lee most certainly could impact Reina's Point 1 and 21, th pursuit of LeBron. ; )