A Few Quick Hits

As an Orangeman, I’d love to see Hak play for the Knicks…and then maybe get Melo in a few seasons when he’s a free agent?! Just like my NBA Live squad: Hak, Melo, LBJ, me at point, and…

Anyway, here’s the infamous Texas Teabag. Enjoy! :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cWtw8DWFGg

Man, the new Newsday site is awful

What the hell is Donnie doing? I really hope he has a plan. He might be waiting t o long and bring in 2 upset players into the new season who feel dissed.

Lee is worth 7-8 over 4-5

i’m all confused

I wouldnt be excited about Nate for Sessions AT ALL.

Offer him 4.5/4.1/4.5 ETO/4.9 PO tell them if they match they can have em.

with the Lux Tax level at 71 and falling maybe they’ll get spooked.

chris,can you expand on the ESPN rumor?

I think David Lee will have to be traded. He knows what Donnie Walsh’s plan is, if he’s not willing to get $7.5 million per year then he should just SHUT UP and try to get sign-and-traded.

Either Jerryd Bayless or Rudy Fernandez would have to be included in a package from the Blazers.

I’d love to see the Knicks get Tyrus Thomas plus a 2010 first round draft pick. I’d immediately ship Lee to Chicago for that deal (if possible).

What about Jeff Green? I wonder if Sam Presti is willing to trade him for a traditional power porward.

I couldnt see the Bulls trading Ty Thomas for Lee straight up, let alone with a 1st round pick. Thomas is 3 years younger, cheaper, more athletic, with a much bigger upside than D Lee. I would sign up for that trade in a second obviously and think Thomas would be a monster in this system

i love the ridiculous trade ideas posted here…save it for the ny post website, right behind page six.

tyrus thomas and a 2010 first round pick for lee and his $8-10 multi year contract? sign me up for that.

Mucha, I respect everything you say so much, but this is absurd. For a guy who says is not a fan of DLee you certainly think we can get the world for him. Tyrus Thomas is up and coming and a flat out stud.. so you expect the Bulls to give him up with a first rounder for DLee, who would make way more money than thomas and when their lookin at DWade in 10……. It just doesnt make sense. IMO DLee will end up remaining a New York Knick.

Sessions & Ridinour FOR Duhon, Jeffries & ’12 protected pick

Duhon gives them an upgrade over Ridinour for a stop-gap to groom Jennings, plus Skiles knows him. JJ gives them much needed depth up front on only a 2yr deal.

Dealing JJ would make signing Sessions to the full MLE a wash in 2010 $.

They let Villanueva walk because they couldn’t afford to give him $7 million per year, why the hell would they add Jared Jeffries?????? The Bucks are in a cost-cutting mode, your scenario is totally unrealistic. If only it was that simple…

Yeah it is annoying. I think they have to work out kinks. But the black background is kind of funky. It is a news site. I think it will improve. Transition phase I guess.

Lee is like one of those girls who think shes cuter than she actually is. I would LOVE Bayless and Rudy for Lee or a three way deal that could get us Ty Thomas and Bayless that would be good value for Lee.

from ESPN.com:

“Before they committed to Miller, the Blazers made a strong push for the Knicks’ David Lee, a power forward. On Tuesday night, Blazers coach Nate McMillan and front-office executives Pritchard and Tom Penn had dinner with Lee in Las Vegas to make their recruiting pitch.

One source said the Blazers offered Lee a variety of options, including an opt-out clause that would have made him an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2011.

But the Knicks and Portland could not agree in discussions Thursday on any kind of a sign-and-trade deal, and the Blazers did not want to risk losing Miller over the seven-day waiting period had they chosen to use their cap space to tender an offer sheet to Lee, which New York would have had the right to match.

Lee, attending Team USA’s minicamp in Las Vegas, confirmed the Tuesday night recruiting meeting and said he was intrigued by the possibility of playing for Portland, although he never thought a deal was close.

“At this point it’s going to come down to sign-and-trades versus trying to get something worked out with New York,” Lee told ESPN.com. “Sign-and-trades, with base-year and compensation and all that stuff, can get complicated. But I think there’s enough teams out there that we’ve had contact with that are excited about trying to get something done that it’s a possibility we can do it.”

David Lee is MUCH better than Tyrus Thomas. Thomas is just great help-defender who’s athletic enough to get a few buckets on the offensive end. He’s not strong enough to stay in the paint, he has a poor (but improving) jumpshot and he’s not even a good finisher! David Lee’s a better finisher, a better passer, a better rebounder, he has a stronger body, he doesn’t have to rely on his athleticism to be effective and he has a higher basketball IQ. And Thomas is a poor/overrated one-on-one defender as well!

Maybe Thomas has more upside than David Lee but Lee has proven that he can be an efficient player in the NBA, Tyrus Thomas hasn’t. The word “upside” defines underachievers.

Maybe a 2010 first round draft pick would be too much but many Bulls fans believe that Tyrus Thomas wouldn’t be enough in a David Lee deal because they know how ineffective Tyrus is.

dino, you do have a point with Dwyane Wade though.

Personally, I do not think that Mucha is too far off-base with his idea. First of all, the Bulls want to win. Ty Thomas has not proven that he can be a consistent player for them in the three seasons he has been there. Forget about potential and youth when you are trying to compete for a title. The Bulls need a legit PF to get to the next level. They need an elite rebounder at the 4 to compliment Brad Miller and Noah, neither of whom are great rebounders. David Lee is a great rebounder. There is no denying that.

There is no guarantee that Thomas becomes the star everyone thought he would be. The Knicks have the time and the ability to bank on youth and potential. The Bulls have banked on that for too long.

Again, the idea of Ty Thomas for David Lee is not out of the realm. And to be honest, if the Bulls feel as though Thomas is too much, then Walsh can simply find another trade partner.

By the way, if Lee gets traded for a non-forward, I think Leon Powe would be a good player to target in free agency. he can probably be had on the cheap and he is absolutely fierce. He is a good rebounder and has shown the ability to even be a starter. I like Leon Powe a lot. Maybe it is because I went to BC and watched him play a bunch. But he is tough and he can bring a new kind of element to our front line.

I like Powe a lot. I forgot to mention him in my earlier post.

I think alot of people put way too much emphasis on the athleticism “xfactor” so to speak…i’ve talked to endless non knicks fans who feel rubio will be a bust because of his lack of athleticism…david lee went from “he cant hack it as a starter especially in dantonis system due to his lack of athleticism” to “he only put up numbers due to the system he was in”….jeez, chris wilcocks is a much more athletic 4 who has a similar size/body type/playing style yet we all know lee is much better in all aspects of basketball…athleticism goes a long way but c’mon give me a break…compare their stats. watch him play more then 4 games a year against a thirty win team before you rip on one of the more respected commenters on the site when countless people still post everyday that the knicks are gonna get rubio an that walsh sucks for not trading up to get curry at the 5….its a blogsite…people post opinions and in my opinion callin mucha out on that was uncalled for

I’m seriously curious as to what the deal that donnie wanted entailed. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were somethign along the lines of D-Lee and JJ for Bayless, Rudy, and Outlaw, which is why portland declined. Then again, I’m pretty sure that if donnie could acquire bayless and rudy without sacrificing wilson, gallinari, j-hill, and ghostface, we would all jump for joy.

So if we get Nate and/or D Lee to take a qualifier or a small one year deAl.. We obtain thier bird rights…
Does that mean next year we can use our cap space to sign the big guns then go over the cap to resign them?
Still trying to understand bird rightS

I just graduated Syracuse in 2008 and I’m the biggest Cuse and Big East fan around. Hak Warrick is nothing but a cool dunk once in a while. Cant shoot 3s, cant shoot 20 footers, cant shooter 15 footers, cant shoot free throws, can play defense.. I’ve played with hak warrick in pickup games at cuse and if you didnt recognize his face you wouldnt know he played college ball. Nothing more than another stronger D Miles. Mad cool dude though baller goatee

Miller signed for 7 M$ py and Sessions being offered 3 M$ py … at last consistent thinking

I think the Knicks don’t want Lee at these prices. I think Plan A all along was to move him in a S&T. The Knicks want to fill the roster with complementary players to surround two “superstars” of which Lee is not one.

btw, why did we talk so much about Sessions and so little about Ray Felton ?

very similar situations though : both RFA playing on below-the-average and money-cautious teams, both young PGs being challenged internally by even younger ones (Jennings / Augustin)

Ray actually has a far better track record than Ramon (14 ppg & 7 apg over 320 games)

Would the cats match a MLE 4 year offer ?

If we cant get Bayless by S&Ting Lee to Portland I’d love Donnie make such an offer to Felton.

Tyrus Thomas is the same age right now that David Lee was when he was coming out of college. He is coming off a year where he averaged 11-6 in 27 minutes a game for the Bulls. That would translate into unreal numbers for the Knicks if he got the 35 minutes a game that Lee got. The kid has a much improved jumpshot, much better than Lee, and unlike Lee he plays a lot of defense. To think you can get him, along with a first round pick, for a guy making twice as much as him is crazy.

Vill got paid more than $7m and alos got a 5yr deal. If he would take a 2yr $12m deal, they would’ve signed him.

I think he IS one of the complimentary players, but perhaps not good enough to be the 3rd best player on a championship team. So if they give him 10M, it’s going to be impossible to sign 2 stars and a 3rd best player.

In the new economy, where the cap actually recedes, Lee is too expensive to be a complementary player – even at $8mil/yr. That’s the problem.

I agree that Lee is not the third best player on a championship team. Though I think Gallinari can be that guy. But that’s for another thread.

I hope your not saying I was calling out Mucha… i respect what he says more than anyone else here. In fact, half the time I just look to see if he posted and only read what he says. I think you mean this for hitman, but if you mean it for me I by NOOOOO means was calling out Mucha, was just asking him to explain.

Like I said, maybe the 2010 first round draft pick is too much, but they’d definitely deal Tyrus Thomas plus? for David Lee.

I’m not a David Lee fan but come on… he’s better than Thomas who’s a weak one-on-one defender as well btw. Thomas is not a stud, he’s just a plastic diamond right now.

2010 is the only obstacle.

Multiple thoughts. I agree with Mucha that, salaries aside, David Lee is a far stronger player right now overall than Ty Thomas and for a team that thinks they can contend right now, Lee would be preferable, particularly if you have a Center that can challenge shots and your other positions play reasonable D. Lee’s rebounding and outlet passing will make Rose a very happy man.

Stallion and Jingo are on the mark that your fourth best player can’t be making $8mm per if the the top 3 are making more than that. I think the hope is that Gallo becomes one of the top 3 and that he has another couple of years making way below that. If you have all of your pieces in place within the next two years, it is not so bad to go over the Cap if you are the Knicks. The problem is not having room under the Cap before you have all of your pieces in place, in which case you are stuck in mediocrity.

As to Hahn’s suggestion on signing Sessions, I think the way he structured it, Milwaukee would have no reason not to match it and I see no reason Sessions or his agent would want that contract unless they knew for a fact that Duhon wasn’t around. If Sessions isn’t assured of being the Starting PG and getting the vast majority of the minutes, he is not in a position to fully showcase his talents and therefore, take the risk that he increases his value enough to opt out in the 3rd year. I think the Knicks would need to front load their offer to him (larger $ in ’09) to make it a little tougher for Milwaukee to want to match and to make the risk lower for Sessions in the short term.

Dino, that was more directed at hitman, but somewhat towards you and lebronorbust…i was a little upset to log on and see a bunch of posts in a row calling mucha crazy when his trade wasn’t that unrealistic (esp assumming the bulls will be in the playoffs w/a full season of miller/salmons and the addition of lee so the pick wouldn’t be as big of a pick). there are a lot of ridiculous trades proposed on this site from everybody including myself.

i guess i just felt like you guys went overboard in callin him out on the trade and then lebronbust tried to say that TT is better then lee and reverting to the knicks “system”, but yea it was mainly towards hitmans comment…

JR,

Thank you for your response. Once again, Mucha I never meant anything by it at all. Like I said, if I am in a rush I just scroll to read what you write because I feel like you are the most knowledgable fan here and I respect your opinion immensely. Once again, I feel horrible, by no means was I calling you out and I’m sorry.

Thanks for your comments dino, I really appreciate it.

And I didn’t feel disrespected, don’t worry.

Have a nice day man.

Get a room.

I agree with Mucha Thomas has not proved he has upstairs what it takes ,Lee has improved each year and has great ball skills that help the team,I think D Lee is worth 7 per,I don’t think Sessions gets 5.9 and you worry about giving Lee 7.The problem I see is his agent has hype Lee to thinking he could get 10,12 per.I wonder what the Portland deal was because Bayless and Rudy work for me ,I wonder if the Knicks ask for a pick or Lee asked for too much money ,I wonder what blew up that deal because Rudy would be perfect if we get Rubio and Bayless is IMO a great combo guard like N8,I wouldn’t mind combo guards in our system,it’s perfect together.If you have Bayless and N8 come off yhe bench for you the other team will have no leggs for the fourth quarter when Lebron and Wade come in.LOL

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[...] Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics: Out to Answer the CriticsThe Knicks Blog   A Few Quick HitsNY Times    Resurgent U.S. Team Attracting Young StarsLive From Los Angeles, [...]