Off-Season Trade Options - Billups' Extension Must Be Decided On By June 20

“Donnie Walsh isn’t the only person whose Knicks’ future is in limbo. Just as owner James Dolan must decide by April 30 whether to pick up his team president’s option for next season — and possibly reward him with an additional extension — Chauncey Billups’ 2011-12 status must be settled by June 20.

Should the Knicks not fully guarantee Billups’ $14.2 million salary by that date, he’s owed $3.75 million in the form of a buyout and becomes an unrestricted free agent with a new, less player-profitable Collective Bargaining Agreement on tap…

★ What makes the matter even more stressful is that Billups campaigned publicly and privately not to be included in the trade. A homegrown hero, he repeatedly talked about prolonging his association with the Nuggets in their front office once he retired.”

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Sans Billups Trade Options & Flexibility

What options do we have for trading to make our team more complete and complementary to our 2 stars without Chauncey Billups?

Not a whole lot, actually.

Next season we have a mere 7 players that are signed for the entirety of the season.

Carmelo @ $18.5M
STAT @ $18.2M
Balkman @ $1.67M
Douglas @ $1.14M
Fields and Rautins @ $788k
First round pick @ approximately $1-1.8M

That rounds out to just over $48M with the exclusion of Ronny Turiaf, who has a player option on his $4.36M.

Thanks LJ for adding the cap holds.

Point being, if we have roughly $10M (approximate estimation under new CBA) to upgrade the roster as best as possible, where do we get our players for the next season?

HERE IS A LIST OF FREE AGENTS, BOTH RESTRICTED & NON-RESTRICTED FOR NEXT SEASON:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=FreeAgents-11-12

Let's talk about the future.

★ Chris Paul is exempt from this thread

Our math is different. I have the Knicks roster salary at $50.4 mil (without Billups and Walker)

Melo: 18.5
Amare: 18.2
Turiaf: 4.36
Balkman: 1.675
Douglas: 1.145
Rautins: .788
Fields: .788
Billups buyout: 3.75
1st round pick: 1.2

Buying out Billups will put us under the cap, so the minimum roster of 12 cap holds will also need to be added. 8 players on the roster. 4 cap holds at $475,000 per = $1.9 mil

$50.4 mil + $1.9 mil = $52.3 mil


$52.3 mil in team salary this summer (without Billups and Walker)

The cap this year was $58 mil. It went up $1 mil from last year.


Ok. Proceed....

T-Mac
Kurt Thomas
Reggie Evans
DeAndre Jordan

If only Ray Allen didn't have a player option I'd sooooooo go after him (not that he'd come).

I'd totally go for Beno Udrih in 2012.

DeAndre Jordan and Beno Udrih would be GREAT.

To me it seems pretty clear. Keep Billups. I don't know how we could fill both the starting PG position and C position with the little cap space we would have by buying out Billups. This would give us a roster salary of $61 mil with 9 players on the roster.

Then just pray to the basketball gods that the MLE will not be eliminated with the new CBA. Otherwise, we're f*cked.


*Edit - We could also resign Shawne Williams, Anthony Carter and keep Bill Walker. Though this would put us monumentally over the cap. But the hopes here would be that we were only an MLE worth Center away from competing for a championship.

LJ4ptplay said:

Our math is different. I have the Knicks roster salary at $50.4 mil (without Billups and Walker)

Melo: 18.5
Amare: 18.2
Turiaf: 4.36
Balkman: 1.675
Douglas: 1.145
Rautins: .788
Fields: .788
Billups buyout: 3.75
1st round pick: 1.2

Buying out Billups will put us under the cap, so the minimum roster of 12 cap holds will also need to be added. 8 players on the roster. 4 cap holds at $475,000 per = $1.9 mil

$50.4 mil + $1.9 mil = $52.3 mil


$52.3 mil in team salary this summer (without Billups and Walker)

The cap this year was $58 mil. It went up $1 mil from last year.


Ok. Proceed....

Click to expand...

Oops. I've had a brain fart. I excluded both Billups and Turiaf from my total and still Gumped it on the keyboard.:lol:

LJ4ptplay said:

To me it seems pretty clear. Keep Billups. I don't know how we could fill both the starting PG position and C position with the little cap space we would have by buying out Billups. This would give us a roster salary of $61 mil with 9 players on the roster.

Then just pray to the basketball gods that the MLE will not be eliminated with the new CBA. Otherwise, we're f*cked.


*Edit - We could also resign Shawne Williams, Anthony Carter and keep Bill Walker. Though this would put us monumentally over the cap. But the hopes here would be that we were only an MLE worth Center away from competing for a championship.

Click to expand...

LMAO!

Please tell me you are joking...

The best thing to do is wait (as Donnie does) target a consolation PG under the radar- that means no clammoring, no media reports ala Deron Williams (not him but the way his deal went down) so we don't get raped

And strike when the time allows.

Putting our eggs in one basket, as well as over persuing (through the media) were mistakes we cant afford to make.

We have to target a less than well known PG or C or the same will happen. That player, agent, and/or the team will sense our desperation and we will take two steps back.

We can't allow teams or players to use us. And of course, how can we target ANY player without knowing the coach and system we will run?

Red said:

LMAO!

Please tell me you are joking...

The best thing to do is wait (as Donnie does) target a consolation PG under the radar- that means no clammoring, no media reports ala Deron Williams (not him but the way his deal went down) so we don't get raped

And strike when the time allows.

Putting our eggs in one basket, as well as over persuing (through the media) were mistakes we cant afford to make.

We have to target a less than well known PG or C or the same will happen. That player, agent, and/or the team will sense our desperation and we will take two steps back.

We can't allow teams or players to use us. And of course, how can we target ANY player without knowing the coach and system we will run?

Click to expand...

I don't think that is the route to go. But Shawne Williams, Carter and Walker did contribute. Potentially much more than any minimum salary vet that we can only afford otherwise. Just laying out our options, which are few.

Red said:

LMAO!

Please tell me you are joking...

The best thing to do is wait (as Donnie does) target a consolation PG under the radar- that means no clammoring, no media reports ala Deron Williams (not him but the way his deal went down) so we don't get raped

And strike when the time allows.

Putting our eggs in one basket, as well as over persuing (through the media) were mistakes we cant afford to make.

We have to target a less than well known PG or C or the same will happen. That player, agent, and/or the team will sense our desperation and we will take two steps back.

We can't allow teams or players to use us. And of course, how can we target ANY player without knowing the coach and system we will run?

Click to expand...

Unless I misunderstood your post. Were you implying that keeping Billups is the wrong choice? Dump Billups and go after a PG and C with about $8 mil total? Then fill the remaining pieces with D-League minimum level players and minimum vets?

Thanks for this Crazy and LJ. Pretty clear the Knicks best option is to keep Billups and use the MLE to acquire talent rather than absorb his buyout and be under the cap by about the same amount as the MLE.

I originally said he would be a goner because of his injuries and age but it's weighted more in favor of keeping him and using his expiring next year rather than cut ties with him this year.

LJ4ptplay said:

Unless I misunderstood your post. Were you implying that keeping Billups is the wrong choice? Dump Billups and go after a PG and C with about $8 mil total? Then fill the remaining pieces with D-League minimum level players and minimum vets?

Click to expand...

No, I say keep Billups. He's the best PG we can get. Unless you want to take a chance we buy him out and offer a more reasonable contract, which of course other teams will be competing for.

But here's the issue (sorry for the repetitivness)
Billups doesn't fit this dumb "system" right? And if I say well try and get a guy like Stuckey from Detroit (just an example)- then some would say he too doesn't fit this "system"

So in reality there are few options of PG's that fit this "system"

At the least Billups will be a tradable asset one a 1 year deal. If we could acquire a coach (I know, lock out, not feasable) that better utilizes our talents w CB, then maybe signing him isn't that bad for a shortened year.

As far as Walker and Williams- they are one dimensional players overused do to this system. They aren't the defensive type of players I think we need, although cheap. They are role/bench players on a normal squad. Here they are starters.smh

I refuse to keep going down that slippery slope.

We kept him . Good reasoning for it here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/sports/basketball/28knicks.html

Hey is it possible we make another trade with the Nuggetts....Fields-Billups-our first rounder to Denver for Felton=Chandler and Nene...Use Chandler as our shooting guard

petescud said:

Hey is it possible we make another trade with the Nuggetts....Fields-Billups-our first rounder to Denver for Felton=Chandler and Nene...Use Chandler as our shooting guard

Click to expand...

We wouldn't be able to afford Felton, Chandler, and NeNe. Not even for one year I don't think.

Lol, now I know where Berman gets his information from:

petescud said:

Hey is it possible we make another trade with the Nuggetts....Fields-Billups-our first rounder to Denver for Felton=Chandler and Nene...

Click to expand...

Marc Berman said:

In another scenario that Billups would love, the Knicks could deal Billups back to his hometown Nuggets this summer in an attempt to get back restricted free agent Wilson Chandler and Raymond Felton, neither of whom is happy in the Rocky Mountains. The Knicks, as reported in yesterday?s Post, have an interest in trying to woo Chandler back to New York.

Click to expand...

Berman is being silly, the Knicks aren't gonna play musical players here with a respected player like Chauncey. They picked up his contract because both Amar'e & Melo pushed the franchise to keep him around for next season.