Trade Bait - David Lee

[Shapecity]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>For Mike D'Antoni to speed up the Knicks - and accelerate the rebuilding process - he will need talented, hard-working players plus one important intangible. In Italian, the new Knicks coach calls it "Fortuna."

"We need some luck along the way," D'Antoni.

The bounce of a few Ping-Pong balls in Tuesday's NBA draft lottery could instantly change the direction of the Knicks. Donnie Walsh's club will select somewhere in the top eight and if they manage to defy the odds and end up in the top two they would be in position to draft Memphis point guard Derrick Rose. A pick anywhere five to eight could yield Arizona guard Jerryd Bayless.

Where and who the Knicks select in next month's draft will determine the futures of several players, especially Stephon Marbury, Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph.

Marbury is the most intriguing case because his expiring contract makes him one of the Knicks' most valuable assets. Walsh could try to trade Marbury before the season or by the February deadline or simply allow his contract to come off the salary cap in 14 months.

In either case, it's a win-win for the Knicks: Marbury is looking to salvage his career and reputation and, if healthy, has incentive for a strong year.

"Steph is a very talented basketball player that needs to be put into certain situations," D'Antoni said yesterday. "He has strengths we have to play to and try to maximize that."

Later, D'Antoni added that "somebody somewhere thought he was real good" to sign Marbury to a max contract. That somebody would be the Suns, who 13 games into D'Antoni's coaching days in Phoenix traded Marbury to the Knicks.

Marbury's decision to return from Los Angeles to greet D'Antoni on Monday in New York as well as his appearance at the Tuesday press conference shows he still wants to be here. Neither Garden chairman James Dolan nor former-coach-turned Walsh-consultant Isiah Thomas are big fans of Marbury but ultimately it will be Walsh's call.

Marbury was one of several players D'Antoni mentioned by name Tuesday. He seemed excited over the prospects of having Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson in his system. He also cited Quentin Richardson, who has been a major disappointment since coming to the Knicks from Phoenix three years ago.

As for Curry and Randolph, D'Antoni wouldn't say that they can't be successful in his up-tempo style but he also wasn't overly enthusiastic about the plodding big men.

"That's who we have right now and that's who I'm going to make the best of it with," he said. "Anybody can run. Anybody can up and down the floor. We can find a happy medium where we can maximize what they can do."

D'Antoni wasn't asked about David Lee, one of the Knicks' more valuable assets. Lee can rebound and run but D'Antoni tends to favor forwards who can shoot. In fact, a Suns official claims that when the team discussed the possibility of drafting Lee in 2005, D'Antoni wasn't enamored with the idea.

<span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%">The possibility of Lee being packaged in a trade with a teammate with a big contract (Malik Rose) is a distinct possibility.</span>

"I don't (think) anything is off the table," D'Antoni said of the roster in general. "I think you go in every day and turn over every stone, 'How do we make the team better?' It might not happen so you're going to have to win what you have."</div>

Source: NY Daily News

 

[Shapecity]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Leave it to the resourceful David Lee to immediately find the best tutor possible to get an early start on the Mike D'Antoni system.

Lee said after he heard D'Antoni had accepted the job as the Knicks' coach, he sent a text message to Steve Nash. The two-time MVP point guard of the Phoenix Suns, who spends most of his offseason at his Greenwich Village flat, replied with a promise to work out with Lee this summer in New York.

"This plays perfectly into what I'm trying to do," Lee said of the up-tempo system, which is similar to what he played under Billy Donovan at Florida. "My advantage against other bigs is I'm quicker and faster; I'm never going to be stronger than most of the fours or fives at this level, though I am always trying to get stronger and I will always compete physically.

"So I was very excited to see [D'Antoni] took the job here in New York."
Lee spoke Wednesday while apartment hunting in Manhattan, a day after D'Antoni was introduced as the third Knicks coach Lee will play for in four years. The turnover has been unsettling, but the timing of the latest change couldn't be better for his game if perhaps not for his wallet.

Lee is heading into the final year of his rookie contract and could become a restricted free agent next summer. This is usually the time teams try to lock up their young players so as to avoid having to contend with offer sheets from other teams. Nate Robinson is also heading into his final year before restricted free agency.

While Robinson will make $2,020,179 next season, Lee will make $1,788,003, which is the fourth-lowest on the current payroll. By rule the Knicks only need to make one-year commitments to both restricted free agents to keep them, but that only works if no other NBA team attempts to sign the player to an offer sheet. The Knicks obviously have the resources to match any offer, but, considering Donnie Walsh's goal to not compromise his salary-cap situation for the summer of 2010, it is not a given the Knicks will want to make a long-term commitment to either young player.

And Lee is well aware of that. "That's up to them," he said. "I can't control that. If that's something they want to do then that's a decision they have to make."

It might also create one for Lee, who has repeatedly said he wants to be a Knick for the rest of his career. In fact, Isiah Thomas once said that Lee could be one of those rare NBA players that spends his entire career with the team that drafted him. The arrival of the D'Antoni style -- in which he fits well -- is a bonus.

"This makes it more likely that hopefully I'll be with the Knicks and be one of the younger guys they want long-term because of my ability to play well in that system," Lee said. "It looks like, on paper, a match made in heaven for me. It's up to the Knicks."

It isn't for everyone on the roster, especially the player who currently starts ahead of Lee at power forward, Zach Randolph. There is little doubt that Walsh will try to move Randolph, who has a hefty contract that maxes out at $17.1 million in 2010-11. That could create room for Lee or it could result in Lee being part of the package to sweeten the deal.

Lee couldn't deny that anything is possible right now with the Knicks.

"If there's been this many changes at the top of the ladder, you can probably assume there will be some changes at the bottom," Lee said. "What changes I have no idea."</div>
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-spknix0515,0,1616858.story" target="_blank">
Source: Newsday</a>