Money, Power, Respect In 2010?

by Ben Kopelman on August 18th, 2009 at 11:29 pm

In a thorough post to RealGM, contributor Christopher Reina lays out the Knicks’ 2010 picture in terms of how much money the team will actually have to spend come the blockbuster summer.

While his numbers are interesting and seemingly on-point, the moral of his story — at least how this fan sees it — is just how vital shedding the contract of one Jared Jeffries may be to the Knicks’ hope of luring two big names in one big summer…

“Also note that if the cap does NOT decline next summer, and stays at this season’s level (Same Cap), the Knicks would have room to offer a second max contract ONLY IF the team rids itself of Jared Jeffries. Even if the cap declines just 2%, a second max contract would not be possible.”

Dear Donnie: Please.

While it is clear that the Knicks roster will change before next summer — therefore staining the accuracy of this piece a bit — the key point that Reina lays out still rings true…

(also, regardless of what my mini-headshot says, I look just like this man — minus the wing span)
  • KBT1615

    Hmm I wonder if we shed JJ and the Cap stays the same AND If we get Lebron would Wade change his mind….alot of Big IFS but imagine if we got Rubio this offseason..

    Rubio
    Wade
    Lebron
    J Hill
    Darko

    with Ill Will, Gallo, and Toney D off the bench….WOW

  • jaknicksfan

    WOW!!! Thats an awesome lineup

  • Showstopper232

    Knicks fans have great imagination’s!!!^^

  • KBT1615

    I said a lot of Big Ifs..

  • SilentJay

    In a recent articule that’s in RealGM, Wade makes it very clear that when the time comes next july, if he hasn’t resigned (’cause he also established that’s it not about the money), he’ll go to where he thinks he can win, so it comes down exacly to all those if’s you were saying KBT. I have enough faith in DW to think he can actually make the JJ trade go through, and if Curry picks up his came and shows he can still ball, why not? (though extremely harder than JJ).

    The problem, therefore, will lie in the economy and what direction it takes in the future. And as of right now, it’s too early to say where it will be going.

    To the lists of “ifs” you were mentioning also add the possibility of adding Rubio and for him to actually turn into the beast everyone thinks he’ll be. With him, I’ll remain impartial, ’cause though what he has done in the spanish league and for the spanish has been quite appealing, the NBA style is completely different. So… for now I won’t comment, though of course I would love to see him make his debut with the orange & blue

  • DW2010

    IF the cap remained the same and IF DW got rid of JJ without taking on any 2010 money and IF we signed LeBron THEN we would have to have no further additions to the cap other than the six players (including James) who are on the team before the signing of Wade, except for minimum wage players.

    We couldn’t afford Rubio and sign Wade to a max because that would take another 4 mil off our cap space. ($17.84M – $4M (loose estimate) = $13.84M). Not enough to sign Wade to max.

    Nor could we sign Darko. In order to sign Wade we would have to renounce our bird rights to Darko and Nate and David and all our other players usung bird rights. They will all have to be renounced in order to clear their holds from our cap before signing Wade.

    Sessions is out too, even if he signed for $3M.

    So, in this best case scenario, our team would look like this if we signed LJames and DWade

    James, Wade, Curry, Will, Gallo, Hill, Douglas and 5 +1 minimum wage players.

    Not so great, huh.

    Sorry to rain on your parade, but it’s not really feasable to sign two free agents and suport them with enough talent without ridding our team of Curry (don’t bet on that). That article forgot to point all this out.

    On the positive side, we could afford Almond and Ewing Jr.

  • DW2010

    meant to write ” to sign 2 max free agents”

  • DW2010

    We couldn’t afford Rubio, James and Wade unless we rid ourselves of Curry’s contract.

    Or unless Donnie could talk LJ and DW to take far less money for the honor of playing in NY. Yea, not likely.

    See explanation above.

  • renenyg1

    I think we can move JJ easy with Mobley contract we practically pay for half his salary and if Curry plays he has value with the weight loss we might get a number one if we are lucky,we would have to trade Lee for Rubio so our core would be Gallo and HIll,Douglas and Ill Will to go along with James and Wade ,with the number one we get the best shotblocker in the draft,I would sign Duhon and Darko .We would have a nice team,maybe we can keep N8 too for our sixth man.If Gallo and Hill panout James will be happy to join us and the same for his pal Wade.

  • Magik_Trick

    Another reason we cant bring in Sessions beyond 1 year…cuz that wouldnt make sense…we wouldnt have bird rights, and he’d be gone after next season..

    Also, am I the only one on this entire site that thinks Rubio thinks we should stop mentioning Ricky Rubio all together? Damn..like, you guys wanna trade our BEST players for an overrated rookie? REALLY?

    And why the hell wont Washington agree to Jeffries for Mike James dammit..

  • DW2010

    Dream on my man.

    We are not getting a #1 pick for Curry, no matter how much weight he drops. Best case scenario, we will get one or two useless players on expiring contracts. If Donnie could manage that, he’s gm of the year, no matter how many losses we have.

    More likely, we would get an expiring and a player on a long term contract of far less cost (at least 5 million less). Hey, 5 mil extra cap room goes along way if you believe you can get two max players. It will not get us 2 max and Rubio and Duhon and Darko. In best case scenario (economically), 5M might get you Rubio and little else. We would have to renounce our bird rights to the other two and would go over the cap if we tried to sign them without those rights.

    Most likely, we will get rid of JJ and not Curry. That would, in all likelihood, make two max free agents an unrealistic goal. It would make getting 1 max and some good surronding pieces, plausable though. This article is misleading, and giving knick fans a false sense of 2 max hope.

    If DW pulls a miracle out of his hat and gets rid of both without taking 2010 salary, then GAME ON, BROTHER!

  • DW2010

    If we sign Sessions it would have to be a minimum of two years in order to use any part of the MLE. Only way we can get him on a one year contract is via sign and trade with Milwaukee. We would, however, own his bird rights.

    You may very well be the only one on this site, and many others, who believes that Rubio wants people to stop talking about him in connection with NY.

    The Jeffries for James trade is certainly not our of the realm of possibilities. Washington liked what they had with Jeffries when he was there. I don’t think they have much use for James and are certainly not getting under the cap in the next two years.

  • DW2010

    check out hoopsworld knicks salary page: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9155

    Look at the holds section below the salary. That’s the amount of money that we would have to remove from our cap space, for each player, in order to keep their bird rights.

  • DKA

    DW, you are spot on across the board; great posts. If Curry can be traded this year for nothing other than cap space next year, The Don is a hero. I continue to believe that JJ will be reasonably tradeable this year on his own, most likely to a contender near the trading deadline that is not going to have cap room anyway in 2010, particularly with only a year and a half (or less) left on his contract. He is a very good role player for a good team. Too expensive of a luxury for a poor or mediocre team. As for Mobley’s contract, the only way I move that is to trade Curry for expirings or a useful piece. I don’t think you have any real hope of moving Curry without it, and I’m not even sure it is likely that we can move him this year with it, even if he shows up in shape and playing reasonably well. If Donnie thinks it is not likely he can move Curry this year under any circumstances, use it to get something or someone that will be part of our core beyond this year.

    Yesterday Ben wrote that Duhon would be a very nice backup PG and that is something we could ill afford if we want to meaningfully play in the 2010 and 2011 sweepstakes. We can’t afford even $3 or $4mm per for a backup PG if we want to have cap space. It’s the same thing with Al H. People continually talk on here about keeping him beyond this year, but we can’t afford him unless he’s taking a nearly 50% cut in pay. Not sure the MLE would even be affordable for us.

    Even if we assume Donnie somehow miraculously was able to trade off Curry and Jeffries this year for expiring contracts, the Knicks would start off ‘10 with $9.2mm of payroll for only 4 players (Gallo, Wil, Hill, TD). Need a center? Maybe 2? Let’s say Milicic plays reasonably well under DA and we resign him to be our starter at $4mm to $5mm (this would be incredibly inexpensive for a starting center) and we pay a serviceable backup $3mm (btw, there is hardly such a thing as a serviceable FA center that would ever go for as little as $3mm). Let’s say $7.5mm for the center position. PF? You have Hill but almost assuredly are looking for a seriously proven player here as well. Lee at $7mm to $8mm would be inexpensive compared to the Boozers and Amares of the world. Want Al H as your backup combo forward? Say at $6mm to $7mm (that might be a steal). Your starting PG (unless its TD) will be making $3.6mm (if its Rubio) or $4.5mmish if its Sessions. Add up those figures and you are already at $34.7mm for 9 players picking the midpoints of the salaries I threw out for 5 additional players. If the Cap is at $51mm, you couldn’t even get one Max free agent with the $s you have left and you still have to add another 2 to 4 players to fill out your roster. Even if they were league min. guys, you are still talking about another $1mm to $2mm. No chance of considering Duhon as a backup for even $3mm (and he is probably worth more than that on the open market). If the Cap is $56mm, you’ve got $21mm to play with if you re-sign Lee at about $8mm and $29mm to play with if you don’t. Maybe you get lucky on can get your center position filled for $6mm instead of $7.5mm and now you are up to $22.5mm or $30.5mm to play with. That would be a great scenario, though it counts on you being able to get someone like Al H for only $6.5mm and I’m not sure it’s realistic to expect that you can get that accomplished of a scorer off the bench for that little $, particularly in a year when so many teams will have cap room and possibly $ burning a hole in their pocket.

    What do you all think? Would you be happy with a team that looked as follows next year?

    Sessions or Rubio
    DWade or LeBron
    Gallo
    Lee
    Mlicic (or $6mm replacement)

    Harrington, Chandler, Hill, Douglas + 4 other fillers

    I know I would be thrilled with this team as we would still be young and have some real developing players alongside our new star, a strong scorer off the bench and what I hope would be a strong defensive second unit with some scoring ability. The Don would be a star if he could ever pull this off, which requires trading Jeffries and Curry for expirings without giving up any of the current young core. Your thoughts?

  • MiamiMoe

    WADE IS NOT COMING TO NY!! He had NO problem sh*tting on us in the NY Post article…the knicks fan in me would LOVE to get Lebron and Joe Johnson but if you want my honest opinion i think he just loves to be loved and it’s a 50/50 chance…but tommy beer from hoopsworld.com has a great article about backup plans (like a J Johnson & Amare combo which would be outstanding i think)…AND STOP THE RUBIO TALK!~! he’s not coming to NY!!! Sessions is a real possibility and i think a great option…(hypothetically) if lebron comes & J Johnson;

    SESSIONS
    JOE JOHNSON
    WILSON
    LEBRON
    HILL w/ gallo&tony d off the bench (SICK!!!!)

    PLAN B IF LEBRON DOESN’T COME;

    SESSIONS
    J JOHNSON
    WILSON
    AMARE
    HILL w/ gallo&tony off the benchop(STILL SICK!!!!)

  • HaS

    I’d rather have LeBron and Amare. LeBron at the 2 and Amare at Center Hill at the 4.

  • DKA

    I have no interest in Amare. Bad eye, bad wheel and if he loses his explosiveness, he doesn’t bring a whole lot to the table. Not a consistently great rebounder, a very lackadaisical defender and the vast majority of his points come from great Nash feeds and his explosiveness. Nash won’t be here and he has already had microfracture surgery.