It’s clear that all he’ll ever be is a hustle player. A 6th-8th man on a good team. His agent tried to pull one over on the Knicks this offseason but it is clear that Lee is currently making what he should be making, or slightly more.
He has a limited set of skills, but he still has no J (though that hasn’t stopped him from indiscriminately shooting), and he is incapable of playing D. So far he’s been lit up by Emeka Okafor, Roy Hibbert, and Al Horford. Granted he should be defending power forwards but you would hope that your power forward can defend a center on occasion, like Oakley, Kurt, Udonis Haslem, other “blue collar” power forwards. Anthony Mason was capable of bodying up Olajuwon.
Most importantly, Lee has never contributed to a winner in this league.
At this rate he’ll be hard pressed to exceed his current contract in the open market this summer.
I think lee could be a good starter on a lot of teams. But I think your right. In a normal economy he could have gotten 12 million. But today, no way. Although I have to say he has looked pretty bad this year and is not helping his value at all.
Can’t wait to trade him and curry so we can finally see jordan hill and I can stop being upset we passed on Jennings.
I think the ineffectiveness of Duhon is hurting Lee a little. Duhon can’t hit the broad side of a barn. So they haven’t been able to run the pick and roll as well.
I’m not sure what’s going on with his defense, but IMO he has looked worse than last year. He’s like an invisible man out there.
He had the worst “adjusted” +/- on the team last time I checked. Given how poorly some guys are playing, that says a lot.
Lee is what he is – a hustle type player who doesn’t play a lick of defense.
Is he worth $12m per? The market said no this year. Perhaps next year when teams will have more to spend he will get close to $12m per.
If he stays in NY I would not want Walsh to give him more then $8 mil per.
On a side note…….Given our losing record and the fact that we’ve played most of the games at home does anyone think that the change in home-game schedule (allowing players to arrive at 3pm instead of having morning sessions) is contributing to the home-game poor play?
If they were supposed to have more energy from sleeping in everyday, it hasn’t worked.
Dear Dan and slumdog baller, since my comment was too long to post it here I posted on my blog connecting it to the topic of my post.
http://knicksflicks.blogspot.com/
Thanks for reading
I don’t see how you can pay 12m for a guy that turns the opposing C or PF into an all-star every night. I like Lee because I like smart efficient scorers, but it’s getting difficult to watch the way opposing teams abuse us down low every game….especially when even small teams are doing it.
I think Lee has a talent for efficiently accumulating attractive counting stats in the NBA, which is no small feat. But during that abortion last night, I viewed Lee as a main culprit for the Knicks’ defensive faults. How many easy layups did the Warriors finish last night with Lee on their hip? I counted at least 7 times. He was a turnstile and he doesn’t really seem like that bothers him all that much.
Conventional wisdom says Lee is the best player on this team. $12 million?!? That ought to buy you some pride and leadership. Lee just puts his head down and tries to go unnoticed as the ship sinks around him.
Some team will pay him his money, but I sure hope it’s not the Knicks.
BTW, Jordan Hill showed last night that he has a lot of talent. And at least he plays hard. Play the kids.