Better than Denver?
Our concern should be less about being better than Denver than about being good enough never to allow teams like Cleveland or Indiana beating us.
Plainly Denver is a much deeper team than we are. We have two offensive superstars, neither of whom is known for defense. But they are athletic as hell and should be able to play defense. We got a steal in Fields, Billups has lost a step or two, but he is still very good. Douglas is erratic.
We have no post presence from the center position and we need a point guard going forward. Billups will not last forever.
We might get lucky in the draft. We will have a pick somewhere between 17 and 20. But we have virtually no chance at Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan or anyone else like that, unless we drop Billups.
If we include Billups for whom there is a team option we will have committed for next year $18.52M for Melo, $18.27M for Amare', $14.20M for Billups, $4.360M for Turiaf (Player Option), $1.675M for Balkman, $1.145M for Douglas, $788K for Rautins, and $788K for Fields. The rookie scale for a pick in the 17 to 20 range would be at least $1.1M. Including the rookie, that would be 9 players. For cap purposes we must account for 12 players. The other three spots will be filled at the $476K minimum or another $1.428M. The total is $61.175M. This is above the current $58M cap and will certainly be above a new CBA cap - unless perhaps there is a hard cap.
If we do not exercise our option for Billups and if what we have to pay him for that exercise --about $4M -- is not included in our cap, then we drop $14.2M but add $476K. The arithmetic produces $47.451M.
I trust we want to sign Shawne Williams, but he is likely to cost a couple of million.
If we want to get a promising or already producing big, we've got to drop Billups. That will leave us really dry at PG. To the extent the new CBA has mid-level exceptions, perhaps someone will come to New York at a discount.
I acknowledge that Melo is indeed a superstar and that we now have two of them. However, I was not a fan of the trade. Although by no means a certainty, I think we might well have gotten him in free agency We now have no additional assets going forward. We may well be currently better but the further improvement necessary to make us among the elite teams will require some very substantial good fortune.
Denver is now my second favorite team.
