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For Knicks, To Lee or Not to Lee

by Tommy Dee on July 3rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Give Mark Bartlestein credit, the guy knows what being an agent is all about. Rumors have swirled that the agent for David Lee has been campaigning to try and get his client top dollar. In essence, that’s his job.

At the same time, what you have to love about Knicks president Donnie Walsh is his patience, and the gamesmanship between the two has been something to watch over the past year. Walsh’s experience, it would seem, has given the Knicks great positioning.

Walsh knew that his focus when he took the job in New York was going to be clearing cap space so the team could be players in the 2010 free agent market. He also knew that he had some talent here, particularly in Lee and guard Nate Robinson, and his job was to evaluate them moving forward. Without question, their play — along with their free agent positioning — would have an impact on the Knicks.

But let’s stick with Lee. They guy is a workhorse who brings the energy that you need to make it in this league. He’s got all the tools to be a real player in this league year in and year out.

Almost.

Lee is the type of player fans can grasp on to, as in someone who you know will give you an effort even if the team loses by a ton. It’s that effort that sometimes disguises his weaknesses and often gets ignored by fans who are fascinated by stats and double-doubles.

Lee is a solid player on a championship team. His agent is kidding himself if he thinks he’s a player who puts teams over the top for a championship. Is Lee the missing piece in Cleveland or Orlando? Is he the guy that gets Denver over the rocky mountain? The answer, it would seem, would be no.

In this economy and this market, the fact that no team has reportedly given Lee an offer he can’t refuse tells you all you need to know. Granted, Lee has said all along that he wants to be here and I don’t think, in the end, that he’d be upset if he comes back here for far less than what his agent is asking for.

Advantage Walsh.more.
  • bob go knicks

    Once again we have overrated our own KNICKS talent,nobody wants lee and we will be stuck with that yakking chaterbox pest NATE ,cuz it looks like nobody wants him either

  • Jeff Cykiert

    He really is a very good player. His rebounding and finishing skills are very good, and he has a great work ethic and attitude about the game… he knows how to play the game right, as some of us would say.

    If the only bad thing you can point out in his game is his suspect defense, then we should definitely stick with him. he is a professional athlete, if he really wanted to (needed to, was instructed to) he could easily learn how to throw his body in their and play some D. With some other big men in the rotation this year, he will be able to do that, because foul trouble won’t be as big of an issue.

    Just watch, if we get a good veteran and all of a sudden have a good season and make the playoffs, David lee will have been instrumental in that push, and we will all be sweating him. Stats may get inflated by the system, but he had one of the top few field goal percentages in the league, while scoring around 15 points, and he had ALOT of rebounds, more than anyone on the suns ever did. Plus, i trust his work ethic and i bet you their whipping his shot into shape as we speak.

  • bob go knicks

    jeff,cant say anything bad about d.lees work ethic,but sometimes you just cant will a guy nto shoot,make him faster than he is ,or make him play defense IF Z-BO had stayed nobody would be talkin bout how gret a season D.LEE HAD just alot of rebounds and as CLYDE SAYS “a lot of MATADOR DEE.NOTHIN PERSONAL against david but he aint worth 10 million and every G.M. in the league knows it

  • EQ1217

    The problem with Lee and Nate so far is that they have never won anything. Teams value players from winning teams, not losing ones.

  • bob go knicks

    also if COACH MIKE would leave his EGO at home ,maybe he could hire a defensive specialist to show the knicks how to play some DEE while they be running,but he wont…I LOVE THE KNICKS, i swear i am patient enough to hire all young guys and wait until they gell (maybe 5 or 6 years) but what i wont do is throw millions of dollars at older ,maybe washed up players who play ok for a year and a half,and then start this crap all over again while i still have to pay KIDD and GRANT HILL THE MONEY I OWE THEM for not being able to play anymore NETS HAVE THE RIGHT IDEA
    HARRIS-PG=YOUNG GETTIN BETTER
    NEW GUY THEY DRAFTED SG
    COURNEY LEE=YOUNG GETTING BETTER
    LOPEZ=YOUNG GETTING BETTER PIECE BY PIECE THEY WILL GET BETTER,LEARN TO PLAY DEE,RUN PLAYS TOGETHER while adding parts every year.thats the way to build a team

  • nyk_realist

    i think your piece is incomplete, tommy – you didn’t bash nate.

  • nyk_realist

    following that logic, what has lebron won? bosh? nash? amare?

  • KBT1615

    Yeah but you just cant deal people away every year for younger player. Lopez and Harris are mad VC is gone they thought they were a good team and Courtney Lee wants to play for the Magic. The only person remotely happy is Rafer Alston who is happy he is close to home.

  • gilcher82

    is this even debatable?
    its easy to evaluate D LEE…
    great 6th man to come off the bench and infuse a GOOD team with energy, rebounding, toughness……
    undersized PF (or just a slow SF lol) who becomes a defensive liability when he must stay on the court for 20+ minutes….
    its not like no one wants him bobgoknicks …. if this was two years ago, he would have a 10mill/yr offer already … but with the economy in this state … teams are staying away from adding salary that will increase thier luxury tax

  • NYK FAN IN OZ

    why would anyone be unhappy that we are going to keep Lee… it isnt like we are gonna build around lee. As has been said Lee will be an important piece to the puzzle…

    I see Lee signing for under 8 mil for 4 – 5 years…. That should bother nobody. If we can clear curry and/or jefferies we will have max flexibility and a solid cast of young, talented players going into 2010.

    Even signing n8 is not a bad move… but i think n8 gets flipped somewhere… im thinkin phoenix for nash… with nash here we are playoff team this year.

  • EQ1217

    I’m not even talking about winning championships or even playoff series, I’m talking about actually winning games. 100+ games under .500 is something that can’t be discounted.

  • italian stallion

    I agree TD.

    Lee is one of those guys that most fans either overrate or underrate.

    The stats guys love him because he’s a very efficient scorer and rebounds well.

    But they tend to love anyone that’s an efficient scorer even if he’s only got enough skill to give you 8 points a night and makes life more difficult on everyone else. LOL Plus, as valuable as rebounding is at a team level, it’s a fairly fungible and easy skill to replacel. Good rebounders are a dime a dozen. It would not shock me if Hill is grabbing close to 10 rebounds a night (per 36 minutes) by the end of his rookie year.

    The non stats guys don’t like him because he has no outside shot, can’t block shots, doesn’t play good defense, isn’t a go to guy at crunch time at all, and feel his stats from last year were padded by the pace of the team (D’Antoni’s system).

    The truth is somewhere in between.

    It never hurts to have a very efficient scorer around the basket that can give you double digit points and rebounds every night.

    But Lee is a somewhat limited guy. He’s a mildly above average starting PF.

    So just how much is mildly above average starting PF worth?

  • Jeff Cykiert

    I think we all overestimate the rebound inflation in this system. Amare never even averaged 10 rebounds, yet Lee finds him self at 15 on a regular basis. Leading the league in double doubles and being top 3 in FG% isn’t just ‘a product of the system.’ He’s a really good player, definitely worth 7 million, maybe even 8. We have been losing for so long that no one wants to give in to any player who was a part of that losing, but when we start winning games Lee will look much much better, and as soon as we get some structure and consistency, we will win games.

    I think Donnie knows for a fact he is getting rid of Curry, so we don’t need to be as nervous about the money situation. We can’t just let everyone go and keep acquiring rookies hoping that we will be good enough by 2010 to win a ring if we sign LeBron. We need to be a good team to begin with. I trust DW, MD, and David Lee. I think we should sign Lee, shut down shop for the summer, and focus on getting a first rounder for next year and dumping curry; those should be our priorites from here on out.

  • Jeff Cykiert

    Oh and s&t nate if the price is right, otherwise let him walk. Douglass will be a good replacement for him.

  • italian stallion

    I agree with you about 7-8 milion. It’s the 10-12 million that I would object to.