The Big Questions in August

by Tommy Dee on August 8th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

1. The David Lee Situation
Donnie Walsh’s first huge decision moving forward will be how he handles the Lee situation. Lee has some trade value, but not as much as originally thought. Any team he gets traded to will have to be attractive enought to make him want to sign there, as Lee has openly stated his desire to remain in NY. Adding salary past 2010 is not in Walsh’s plans so how much does that impact signing one of his own? I look at a guy like Miami’s Udonis Haslem  or Houston’s Shane Battier, who are both making around 7 million per, as market value for Lee.

2. Same question for Nate Robinson
Like Lee, Robinson has a qualifying offer for 2009-10. What does this mean? According to the CBA, “for any other player to be a restricted free agent, he must be at most a three-year NBA veteran, and his team must have made a Qualifying Offer for either 125% of his previous season’s salary or the minimum salary plus $150,000, whichever offer is higher.”
This means that both Lee and Robinson will be restricted Free Agents and the Knicks have the option to match any offer. Not sure what Robinson would garner, but should he have a monster year under D’Antoni, Walsh faces a similar situation. Robinson is a fan favorite, and proven dynamic scorer, albeit without a true position. Moving forward with Robinson, dealing him, or facing the prospects of losing him via free agency, will be another decision Walsh has to make.

3. Alright, what the heck is going on with Marbury?
We’ve heard there is no chance Marbury will suit up, and that Walsh has until September to finally let him walk. It makes no sense to trade Marbury, as taking on several salaries does not make sense since the team has little roster space, so the inevitable 3 for 1 plus picks for Steph doesn’t appear likely to happen.    On the trade front would Atlanta consider moving Mike Bibby and, say Marvin Williams for Marbury’s deal considering they will have to match Josh Smith’s offer from the Grizzlies? Doubtful, but when you look at the prospects of moving the contract, there’s little more than that. Either way, the Stephon Marbury Era seems to be finally at a close.

4. Can Randolph and Curry play together?
It’s interesting that D’Antoni has given an approval for Curry, as he’s said he can see Curry being effective in his offense. And it makes sense, Curry’s best stretch this season were against Western Conference teams, San Antonio (25 and 12) and Sacramento (24 points on 10-17 shooting). If D’Antoni can create similar space, Curry should flourish in a one-on-one situation offensively. Defensively, well, that’s another story.
Randolph hasn’t received the same vote of confidence, so one has to wonder where he fits. It’s essential that Walsh moves his contract, but how can he if Curry is somewhat of a focal point on offense? Should Randolph defer to Curry, proving to be unselfish, and the team wins, maybe his trade value will increase.

5. Can Jamal Crawford take his game to an All-Star level?
D’Antoni thinks so. And having a distributor in Chris Duhon should allow Crawford to get more touches off the ball, a la Allen Iverson and Eric Snow. Crawford is not a great decision maker, but coming off screens and being forced into quicker decisions, should help. I’d like to see him get to the free throw line instead of settling for jumpshots, and so would D’Antoni, who knows how to get him in the right position in half court sets.  When you rip at 86%, it should be more of a focus. Crawford only got to the line 10 times or more six times, and consider his 12-14 FT performance against the Nets on 7-17 shooting netted him 29 points, but more importantly, it netted the team a solid W. Granted the team was just 1-5 in those games where he got at least 10 FTs, but each time except one Crawford shot more than 20 FG attempts. This shows a lack of balanced offense. High teens in shots, and double digits in FTs is a great formula for offensive balance and production out of your lead guard.

6. What can we make of Chris Duhon?
As I said on The Wheelhouse, Duhon is a Charlie Ward-type. This team needs a guy to get the ball to the right spots, even for 20-25 minutes. He can score when he needs to, but more importantly, he can’t turn the ball over. He’s a stop-gap until they get an ideal D’Antoni point guard, to which Duhon would serve as a solid backup.

7. Are Wilson Chandler and Gallinari the future?
Absolutely. Chandler, as I said last year, may be the best two-way player on the team. He’s the total package who will continue to improve. Let’s hope that his offensive skills can catch up with his defensive presence, then he’ll be something. Galli is raw, as we saw in the first half of his only summer league appearance, but he is as pure a shooter as I’ve seen in sometime. The net doesn’t even move. The good news is that at 6’10 with a high release point he’ll be able to get looks without having to rely on getting it off the dribble. at 19 he is polished in offensive sets, meaning he can post, catch in the high post, or pick and pop, so he’ll get his looks and he’ll make them. Defensively he’ll be a liability at first, but that shouldn’t prohibit him from getting 15-20 minutes a night. He makes others better too, what a concept.

8. When will Walsh dump Jared Jeffries?
There’s no question that Jeffries has been lost, and frankly he wasn’t that good to begin with. He’s a role player at best. That said, I think Jeffries could be a nice surprise and one who’s trade value could increase as the season goes on. Look, he’s horrible offensively, but at $6 million why wouldn’t a playoff team desperate for perimeter defense look to acquire JJ2? The length of his contract stinks so you’d have to get back a player with an equal deal, or one that expires after 09. But as I’ve always said coaches covet length, particularly in this day and age, so Jeffries, who has playoff experience, could be an important piece to a team that needs a guy to guard a perimeter big for 10-15 minutes a night. And Jeffries is willing to. We’ll see, but I think because this Knicks team has been so scattered, Jeffries real value as a “glue guy” has diminished tremendously.

Glue doesn’t stick on sh*t.
  • hot stove chef

    Great post, but “Circa” is specific to a period of time.

  • Chris Alvino

    Great post. But that Hawks deal would never, ever happen. I think the only two people they would take for Marvin Williams would be Chandler or Lee.

  • Isa Soulstar

    Marvin Williams has proven that he simply doesn’t have the onus to perform on the level of expectation. I would give neither Chandler nor Lee for Marvin Williams.

  • Arputter

    I agree, that was a great post…my one gripe is with the Z-bo thing…why is it so essential to move his contract NOW? His value is at an all-time low…the team needs to get under the cap in TWO YEARS, not now, why not give him a little opportunity to rebuild his value…either way, his value will go up as the number of years and dollars remaining on his contract goes down, so keeping him around will only help his trade value…if he has a decent season, he will be a lot more valuable with 2 years left on his deal than coming off a bad season with three years left on his deal…so why is everyone saying it so essential to move him now?

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