What if... Senario

I was wondering.

What if Nate and Lee decide to sign for cheap and stay with the knicks. Let's throw some "semi" realistic numbers and say Nate 3mil a year and Lee 5 mil a year.

Do we keep them?

We are getting some productive guys that fit D'antoni's system for a real good price. Having Nate has a sixth man for 3mil is a steal. Having Double Double Lee at 5 mil is even a bigger steal. We could still sign one of those Big FAs, and hope Gallo becomes a 2nd or even a first option. We could draft lawson for our PG. We will just be missing a big man, but this could look like a definite play-off team and hopefully in another year a contender if we can find a shot-blocking center.

Do we still trade them?

This just make them even more valuable for any team out there. Championship teams way above the cap down to the crap teams way under. I could imagine LA going after nate like crazy. I could imagine the Grizzles going after both, and having Mayo and Gay on that team could push them back into the playoffs. There could be that small small possibility that we could dump one of them with Curry's and Jefferies' contract.

What do you think?

I think considering that Troy Murphy makes $10m a year and is in the same category as Lee on a role playing basis, Lee's as good as gone.

The recession may affect his contracts over all worth, but regardless, $5m is unrealistic.

Competitive teams could really use Lee's offerings & those looking to push onward and upward next year ie: Portland, Atlanta or Philadelphia (especially in Brand's absence) will probably offer him upwards of $8m/year for 3 or 4 years.

That's not affordable for a team banking on both a need for defense and cap clear out.

Sad but true.

you know come to think of it....The Knicks may actually get both of them for the qualifying offer and let them become unrestricted FA's next year. Look Ben Gordon is better than both Lee and Nate and by all accounts teams should have been lining up to sign him to an offer sheet last summer, but nobody did, and The Bulls were not forced to sign him to an extension.

What team with the cap room this summer is really looking to add one of them to their payroll for more than 6 or 7 million. Portland could use each of them, but, the Darius Miles situation hinders their cap freedom. Plus their are a few better FA's this summer at both of their positions (Boozer and Ben Gordon) so teams may not be pursuing them as hard as we think. With everyone looking at the 2010 class, who could afford to add two expensive role players one with suspect D (to say the least) and the other who cant seem to control himself at times?

Contracts for Nate and Lee

The NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement precludes no-trade provisions in player contracts. Nate and Lee would be crazy to sign multi-year contracts for $3M and $5M respectively. If they did, they would be very valuable trading assets.

As Crazy8s noted, the current economy may diminish what teams are willing to pay them. Perhaps more importantly, the economy is likely to affect the terms of the next CBA. The current agreement expires, I believe, in June of 2011. The owners, generally, are losing money and there are likely to be player concessions with respect to player compensation in any new agreement. I understand that agents have advised players who have player options to execise when they can and to work out new contracts before the current CBA expires. For their financial well-beings, Nate and Lee should get as much as they can as soon as they can.

I had wondered whether Nate or Lee could negotiate "reasonable" contracts through 2010 with player options thereafter. The "reasonable" 2010 contracts would help with the 2010 salary cap situation and player options thereafter would permit new contracts somewhere for potentially greater amounts. However, the player option years would be under a likely less player friendly CBA.

Bottom line -- they have to get as much as they can this time around.

hefty one year deals would buy them loyalty.they want to be here.sign them for a year, and after you deal with 2010, whoever the hell that might be,
you resign them to some nice 3 year deals after that.coming off the bench, they would be pretty good.