If You were Donnie Walsh would you lower your offer to Lee due to lack of interest?

New New York

Quiet Storm
You cant blame David Lee's agent too much for not accepting Walsh's intial contract offer because after all taken 7 million per season seemed awfully low for a 16 and 11 guy (albeit he plays hard on D about as much as Ellen Degeneres) so you could not at all blame him for not taking a very calculated risk and not having Lee sign the initial offer from The Knicks.

But the gamble did not pay off to say the least! Memphis flirted hard, but decided on Zach Randolph and David Lee has one team who can sign him to an offer sheet worth more than The Knicks want to offer and that is Portland who is now rumored to have an interest in the cheeper alternative in Millsap. OKC and Minny can too, but, I think 7 million in NY is better than 10 in Minny or OKC

So what was supposed to be the big payday for Lee has not worked out yet. And now Lee's options are not too pretty, one is he plays for the qualifying offer of -ouch- less than 3 million, or he takes the best offer Donnie throws at him.

Which brings up my next question, with the interest in Lee not being what is expected, do The Knicks drop their offer of 7 million per down to 6.5 or so? Now, in all likelyhood he should make more than that as an unrestricted next year, but, not if an injury occurs and not if the NBA cap is expected to shrink even further the League's revenue dips teams will be much more consevative in their spending and 10 million to non defending Low post player is a bit expensive. And after all Lee may feel "a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush".

So do you think if/when negotiations resume with The Knicks and Lee's camp, Donnie will offer a little less than he did before. Or even better do you think he will structure the contract differently? For instance, what if they only guaranteed the first four years of the deal and made the fifth a team option. Or what if he shortens the length of the contract extension, again if the ball was in his court David Lee and his agent can all the shots, now they may get to a point where they have to take the best offer out there and so far there has only been one, and that is from The Knicks!

Now if Lee signs the qualifying offer, it makes him a lot easier to trade in a package with a player like Curry or Jefferies.


One thing for sure is Donnie showed more poise than Isiah who wouldve signed both Lee and Nate to extensions last October for more than they wouldve even been considered for elsewhere.

Well Played Donnie!
 

Crazy⑧s

Evacuee
I think $8.5m is reasonable. Any less would be borderline rude. If Donnie offers too little, the Blazers will swoop in with $1m more/year and Lee will no doubt bail with a hot head, hating NY. I would!

But if he gets that ($8-9m or more) with the lowered cap in 2010, it's down to 1 star not 2, and the plan takes a nasty blow.

That wouldn't bother me too much, but as we've seen, 1 star (LBJ + Dwade) no matter how awesome they are, doesn't cut the mustard.

If there were no Jeffries + Curry, make it $9-10m for sure. But, that reality is a ****er for us & David Lee. The other looming cloud is hindsight. I just hope the latter doesn't hurt once this is finalized.
 

donchris

Next season, keep waiting
You cant blame David Lee's agent too much for not accepting Walsh's intial contract offer because after all taken 7 million per season seemed awfully low for a 16 and 11 guy (albeit he plays hard on D about as much as Ellen Degeneres) so you could not at all blame him for not taking a very calculated risk and not having Lee sign the initial offer from The Knicks.

But the gamble did not pay off to say the least! Memphis flirted hard, but decided on Zach Randolph and David Lee has one team who can sign him to an offer sheet worth more than The Knicks want to offer and that is Portland who is now rumored to have an interest in the cheeper alternative in Millsap. OKC and Minny can too, but, I think 7 million in NY is better than 10 in Minny or OKC

So what was supposed to be the big payday for Lee has not worked out yet. And now Lee's options are not too pretty, one is he plays for the qualifying offer of -ouch- less than 3 million, or he takes the best offer Donnie throws at him.

Which brings up my next question, with the interest in Lee not being what is expected, do The Knicks drop their offer of 7 million per down to 6.5 or so? Now, in all likelyhood he should make more than that as an unrestricted next year, but, not if an injury occurs and not if the NBA cap is expected to shrink even further the League's revenue dips teams will be much more consevative in their spending and 10 million to non defending Low post player is a bit expensive. And after all Lee may feel "a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush".

So do you think if/when negotiations resume with The Knicks and Lee's camp, Donnie will offer a little less than he did before. Or even better do you think he will structure the contract differently? For instance, what if they only guaranteed the first four years of the deal and made the fifth a team option. Or what if he shortens the length of the contract extension, again if the ball was in his court David Lee and his agent can all the shots, now they may get to a point where they have to take the best offer out there and so far there has only been one, and that is from The Knicks!

Now if Lee signs the qualifying offer, it makes him a lot easier to trade in a package with a player like Curry or Jefferies.


One thing for sure is Donnie showed more poise than Isiah who wouldve signed both Lee and Nate to extensions last October for more than they wouldve even been considered for elsewhere.

Well Played Donnie!

Good post. I doubt Walsh will low ball Lee. That would be pretty f*cked up. I guess Lee was smart to test the waters but everyone is holding back from spending due to a sour economy and 2010 'The Year of the Chosen One'. Not to put down Lee but the only people that are concerned with him are Knicks fans. Let's face it, it's not like Lee is a difference maker for a good team. He's not a Richard Jefferson or even a Zach Randolph. (Ooooh) No one is going to break the bank or sees Lee as a must have player except David Lee fans. I don't see Boston or Orlando saying 'Damn if only we had David Lee we could have won a championship'.

Lee will resign with the Knicks for what Walsh will consider a generous offer. He'll get plenty of minutes and then will be traded in a package to ship out Jeffries. We'll probably get someone great in return like Kenny Thomas and Abdur-Rahim and a spinfilled bedtime story of how we've improved defensively.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Let's get this right....

The wise move for Walsh to start the "new regime" was to give Lee & Nate an extension, for those who dont understand what Walsh did a year ago with Memphis offering Lee for their 4th draft pick was the red-flag that made Lee demand $10M.

Donnie Walsh made it clear as day last draft offseason that Marbury, Zach, Lee, and Nate was not in the Knicks future plans.

So expect Lee & Nate to do the samething Ben Gordon did last year....accept a one year contract from the Knicks to become an "unrestricted" FA.
This way if traded to the next team, that team knows in advance that Lee or Nate will test the unrestricted FA market....a team and salary inwhich they are the decision makers of (the MLE will be acceptable then).
 

LeFlume

All Star
Lee is a prisoner of his own success. D'Antoni's system made him put up numbers he couldn't even dream of a year ago. Other GM's are scared. What do they get for their money? 10 ppg 5 reb?
 

GetRealistic

Starter
The longer Lee sits out there and recieves absolutely zero interest from other teams the better our 4 year 32 million dollar deal looks. Donnie Walsh has done a good job thus far with handeling this situation. He gave Lee a respectable offer and sat back and waited for other teams to make a move. If a team actually made an offer (which hasn't happened) he could have just easily matched it. Donnie did his homework and realized the market wasn't what Lee and his agent thought. David Lee is a good player but he's a backup on a good team and backups don't make 10 mil per. Also if Lee does take the qualifying offer we can resign him next season when we have more flexibility after signing a big FA.. We'll still have his bird rights and compared to the other names on the FA list Lee will be low on other teams radar.

I'm all for a sign and trade with Nate but if Nate wants to just take the qualifying offer thats fine with me to.. We'll have him for one more year and he would be easily traded with say Jefferies or another player during the season. That or we let him play all year and hold onto his bird rights.
 

DANUTZ39

Benchwarmer
Lee is a prisoner of his own success. D'Antoni's system made him put up numbers he couldn't even dream of a year ago. Other GM's are scared. What do they get for their money? 10 ppg 5 reb?[/quote]


What are you smoking son?


Beside his rookie seasson, D Lee always had good numbers on rebounding(10.4 second year, 9 third year and 11,8 last year) no matter who was the coach or if he played alongside other big men(Randolph, Curry). What's different in D'Angtoni system is his scoring.

And btw he averaged 10.8 ppg the last 2 years before D'Angtoni. At worst he can be a 10ppg 10rpg(check his stats before D'Antogni)and no Gm is scared of that.

So stop hatting and get real.
 
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