D’Antoni and David Lee

by TKB Staff on July 1st, 2008 at 7:12 am

During yesterday’s Olympic function Mike D’Antoni addressed David Lee and his perceived “dislike” for the forwards game. In this morning’s NY Post article by Marc Berman D’Antoni is quoted as saying he “would love to coach him next season but admitted Lee is the subject of trade talks”. He did point out that one of the issues surrounding Lee is his contractual situation, but that he would never turn down a player “who can  score 10 points and grab 10 rebounds”. D’Antoni admitted that the backcourt is thin and help is needed which could potentially lead to Lee’s departure.David Lee

I think we are all resigned to the fact that David Lee is going to be the sacrificial lamb of this rebuilding effort. Whether it be to obtain a point guard or package with another player to pare down the cap, Lee is probably a goner. I agree with Alan Hahn who has pointed out that you should not just trade Lee for the sake of it. If you could acquire a point guard like a Raymond Felton fine, but I would not be in favor of trading Lee for a second tier type of guard that you could get via the mid level exception and free agency.
  • vino

    Would packaging Lee with a Curry or Randolph be trading him for the sake of trading him? No, but I don’t want to do that. We should trade Lee to fill a hole, not create cap space for two years from today. Like Alan Hahn said the other night though, Lee does things that matter on a winning team. Last I checked, we were not that type of team.

  • vino

    Stephen A. Smith says that Baron wants to come to NY, but that is not going to happen and it shouldn’t. I like Baron. I always have. But a 4 year deal for 11-13 a year just does not make any sense for this team.

    I hope he goes to the Clippers, and then the Clippers turn around and bring in another good player to slot in at the three (or the two, with either Thorton or Gordon coming off the bench). Elton Brand said he was inspired by the Celtics and how those three stars came together for a common goal.

    If we can get Ellis this offseason, then maybe we can work something out sending Crawford to LA. LA would have to get another marquee (not necessarily super star) talent to team with Baron and Brand.

    If Baron goes to LA and both stay healthy (which probably won’t happen), then their team stands at:

    Baron
    Gordon
    Thornton
    Brand
    Kaman

    That could be a good team to watch for and hopefully a good team to eventually become the go-to team in the Staples Center.

  • Deadpanwalking

    Yeah, there’s no way around it, Lee is pretty much gone. He has pretty good trade value and who wouldn’t want to add him to a team that’s more thin up front than the Knicks (although I’d take Lee over most of the Knicks inside crew any day.) Baron would be fun to watch, but for that kind of contract I’d rather just go young with a point. The contracts on this team are so frustrating, I can imagine Walsh is hating it as much as I am.