Quote:
Originally Posted by Atocep
I agree. They were going to struggle to keep KP and decided to use him to clear bad salaries which gives them about 70 mil for free agency. The New York market will attract players. This was probably the best move out of several bad options.
|
No one has ever turned down a max or near max deal and played out the QO coming off their rookie contract. It's not the same as all the other guys who were approaching UFA off their 2nd contract.
We can debate how much the bad salaries would've cost to get rid of - I really don't think Lee's $12m next year would've been hard, so it's basically THJ's $18m for the next two seasons, and while he's being overpaid he's still a competent low end starter or great bench scorer in his 20's so it's not like it's completely dead money. This just seems like a whole lot to give up (literally the best player the Knicks have drafted in 30 years since Patrick Ewing/Mark Jackson/Rod Strickland) for the hope that 1-2 max guys will sign with you this summer. (And if you actually got that commitment it'd then be pretty easy to attach your 2020/21 1st and some young guys at the positions the big name FA's play to rid yourselves of THJ's deal during the moratorium.)
Especially when we've heard almost every big name FA linked to "the Mecca" for years, and they always end up with 2nd tier guys like Amar'e, Allan Houston, Tyson Chandler, Robin Lopez, and most recently in 2016 Joakim Noah (who was stretched and is taking up $6.5m of their cap for 3 more seasons) and THJ (who they just had to give up a huge asset to get rid of.)
Kyrie had to go and feed the media ammo, but just think logically about that part - would he rather play with one of the best pick and roll big men in the league, or a 20 year old PG who has shown no indication he can play winning basketball or co-exist next to other ballhandlers?