Yeah totally. Though Im not sure if his contract hurts us as much as it once did. I think it just killed some potential moves we could have made (Like O.J Mayo etc.)
But Correct me if im wrong, even if we had kept our amnesty and written Stat off the books completely, we would still be over the cap or really close too it. Because of all the moves Grunwald has made since then combined with carmelo and Chandler (who totally earn their contracts)
So while it hurts, Im not sure if its really the big killer it might seem like. We still have a lot of flexibility with some clever gm work to manipulate the cap, which Grunwald seems very adept at. While we could make some more moves without stats contract, it would only really be the difference between a 3 million mle and a 5 million. Which isn't that HUGE of a difference.
He designed it so that pretty much everything comes off the books after 2014 , other than novak. So until then its just a bunch of cap manipulation till then. With things like bird rights and sign and trades Im sure we will be fine. And in 2014 worst case scenario I bet we can find someone to take his expiring contract if he doesn't turn things around.
It depends on how well the season goes, and what it'll take to meet early expectation. I'm not overly sure of what moves would be possible, given Dolan's sporadic behaviour come salary time and who/what's available to us.
As far as I know, we've used up all of our exceptions: MLE, MMLE etc. I don't think signing Jimmy White to a partially guaranteed 2 year, $1.8M deal was a good move by Grun Dog, Pablo's proven to be worth beyond that already.
The Knicks know that their window of opportunity closes at the end of the 2014-2015 season with the group they've assembled, but the key will be the 2 previous off-seasons - this year's and 2013-2014, in which Brewer comes off the books (12-13), Kurt Thomas will likely retire (assumption), Pablo might return to Argentina, who knows?
The big killer is JR's Player Option. I was an advocate of holding on to him and his sky-high potential this offseason, and look how it's payed off so far.
We need to keep this guy. He's putting in a bid for a starters job anywhere in the league outside of 4-5 teams, and was denied that starting role here.
Re the cap, I think STAT's contract kills us. We've played our best ball without him, and his uninsured contract makes him immovable. The league's new injury exception will be the only thing that clears him off the books ASAP. The only other option would be something along the lines of what the Knicks did with Eddy Curry ~ pay off the majority of his contract and then move him.
If Amar'e comes back and plays well, AWESOME! I don't think I can be labelled too much of a cynic for seeing that as unlikely. Everything he sucks at the most is what we need him to excel at.