Knicks Should Retain Lee for Close to Mid-Level Exception

If you listen to Mark Bartlestein, every team in the league is currently after David Lee, but if you go ahead and Google "David Lee Rumors" or "David Lee Free Agent Rumors" you find nothing of substance. The reason for that is simple: there is nothing of substance.

Bartlestein would like you to believe that he has been contacted by fifteen teams regarding potential sign-and-trade deals for David Lee, but he won't name a single one. That's because teams are contacting him, but not offering the $10 million a year he claims that Lee is worth. If Bartlestein names teams and members of the press reach out to their sources, the word will quickly be out in regards to what other teams are willing to pay and David Lee will lose all of the negotiating power that Mark Bartlestein made him believe that he holds.

In addition to that, Donnie Walsh will not work a sign-and-trade deal unless it benefits him tremendously. Walsh is a shrewd businessman who is not in the game of helping players raise their market value while he gets nothing in return. If David Lee is to get big money this summer, Donnie Walsh is going to be sure that there's a GM putting a financial noose around his neck to make it happen.

Basically, if David Lee is going to leave the Knicks, it is going to be to sign somewhere else as a free agent and the odds of that happening for anything more than the mid-level exception aren't great. I called this in July of 2008 when I posted on the New York Knicks Fan Page that of the teams projected to have cap room this summer, none of them would have enough room once they filled their other needs to sign Lee to a big contract. I reiterated this point in March of 2009 in the article "Knicks Need to Re-Sign David Lee, Nate Robinson". So far, nothing in the market has changed in any way but to make this argument stronger.

With the 2009-2010 NBA salary cap set at $58.7 million, the list of teams that according to HoopsHype.com could afford to offer David Lee an $8 million per season deal is limited to Minnesota,Portland, Toronto, Atlanta,Oklahoma City,Detroit, and Memphis. As mentioned before, with Al Jefferson on their team, Minnesota has absolutely so use for David Lee. If Atlanta were to sign David Lee to an $8 million a year deal, it would leave them with only $8 million to fill out the remaining six spots on their roster. Also, the Hawks have to be realistic about the fact that playing alongside Josh Smith and Al Horford, Lee's productive would dip to somewhere in the realm of what it was at when he played alongside Zach Randolph. That said, Atlanta's not really an option.

As this off-season has progressed, we have seen Memphis trade for Zach Randolph, who did not bring out the best in David Lee the last time they played together. We've also seen Detroit reportedly use up their salary cap space on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. Toronto will also reportedly utilize their salary cap space on Hedu Turkoglu. This limits the potential suitors to Portland and Oklahoma City.

In addition to the list of potential suitors being limited, some of the mid-level exception deals that have been reported this summer could affect David Lee's market value. With Rasheed Wallace and Ron Artest taking MLE deals to play for contenders, teams may find in hard to stomach signing David Lee at an $8-$10 million a year deal. This may be especially difficult to justify when you consider the fact that a year of patience would grant them an opportunity to sign Carlos Boozer or Chris Bosh, not to mention LeBron James or Dwayne Wade.

Back to the potential suitors, Portland supposedly reached out to Mark Bartlestein after their verbal agreement with Turkoglu fell through, but their uncertainty over whether or not the Knicks would match their offer may be enough to keep Portland from putting their eggs in David Lee's basket. The truth of the matter is that the Trail Blazers may be better off to take a real shot at landing Lamar Odom rather than going after David Lee, giving the Knicks ten days to match, and then having the rest of this year's notable free agents off the market. Quoting Jason Quick of the Oregonian, Tommy Dee of The Knicks Blog reported that, "'A Blazers source shot down the team's interest in Lee, saying they like him as a player, but don't want to pay him what he wants.'" That could be in part because paying David Lee $10 million dollars while the Blazers are reportedly planning on offering LaMarcus Aldridge an extension this summer makes absolutely no sense. It would be far more logical for the Blazers to go after a small forward, point guard, or save their cap space for next summer.

That leaves us looking at Oklahoma City. OKC has Nick Collison under contract for the next two seasons and isn't desperate overpay David Lee so that Nick Collison and his $6 million per season can come off the bench. We all know that Lee is undersized at the center position and quite frankly Oklahoma isn't the environment he's looking for. I'm just not buying Oklahoma City.

There's always the chance that a borderline contender could offer David Lee the mid-level exception and that just under $6 million a year with the opportunity to win a title could seem more appealing than what New York has to offer, but if the Knicks match an MLE offer, he's still theirs for the taking. They may offer him slightly more than the MLE so that it doesn't have to come to that, but in the end, David Lee will sign with New York for close to the mid-level exception.

Sources:

HoopsHype.com

TheKnicksBlog.com