LAS VEGAS - If you follow the moving money trail of the
Portland Trail Blazers, it appears to lead straight to
David Lee, the
Knicks' restricted free agent and one of the few remaining attractive free agents on the market.
If you follow the trail logically, though, it could lead to an altogether different place.
The twice-scorned
Trail Blazers are an anomaly in the
N.B.A., a playoff-tailored team with about $8 million worth of salary-cap space late in thesummer's free agency.
They had agreed in principle to a deal with
Hedo Turkoglu forfive years and $50 million relatively early. But the next day, Turkoglu did an about-face largely on his wife's preference for Toronto over Portland, andhe was the centerpiece of a four-team sign-and-trade deal to the
Raptors from the
Orlando Magic.
The Trail Blazers then turned their attention to Utah's
PaulMillsap, a restricted free-agent forward, and front-loaded an offer sheet for four years and $32 million to deter the
Jazz from matching. The Jazz did, creating its own salary-cap headaches and again leaving the Trail Blazerswithout their desired improvement.
Now, the options for Portland and Lee may have dwindled to those two finding each other. Portland may ultimately stall on giving Lee a contract offer forseveral reasons.
By offering him a contract, Portland could face the same consequence it reached in its pursuit of Millsap. The Knicks can match any contract offer to Leeand retain him. They are cash conscious concerning any effect a contract would have on their 2010 free-agent-class aspirations. If the figure is notastronomical, however, all indications are that the Knicks would match an offer sheet to Lee. Ideally, the Knicks would like to keep his contract between $7million and $8 million annually.
Lee has been hampered in that regard, and history has shown that few restricted free agents sign an offer sheet that is not matched.
Teams have been more willing to discuss sign-and-trade parameters instead of giving him an offer sheet because the Knicks would have a week to decidewhether to match the offer. If that happened, Portland's money would be tied up again, while other unrestricted free agents like
Lamar Odom andAndre Miller could be scooped off the market.
The agent Mark Bartlestein, Lee's representative, recently said he had discussed possible sign-and-trade destinations with several teams.
The Trail Blazers might have missed their best chance at improvement before the trading deadline. Raef LaFrentz, in the final year of his contract, was asattractive as any player to several teams seeking salary-cap relief. Portland's general manager, Kevin Pritchard, held trade discussions for
VinceCarter and
Richard Jefferson but played out the season without making a move for them.
Carter was sent to Orlando and Jefferson to the San Antonio Spurs in salary dumps after the season, while the Blazers stayed silent witnesses.
With Portland's young and talented core of Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden due heftier contracts in the next few seasons, and the prospectsof an ever-shrinking salary cap because of a depressed market, its best remaining move may be to hold its money tight for now. And if the Blazers were able toobtain Lee, he would probably wind up as a backup behind Aldridge at power forward.
All this comes as the Knicks remain in a wait-and-see pattern with Lee. They want to be more competitive next season and Lee is integral to that, but theyare also unwilling to compromise their future.
In Lee, they have a valuable commodity. He led the league in double-doubles last season and averaged 16 points and 11.7 rebounds. At 26, he should be readyto enter the prime of his career.
Lee received a $2.7 million qualifying offer from the Knicks this off-season that was based on the rookie scale and gave them the opportunity to match anyoffer he received on the free-agent market.
Knicks Coach
Mike D'Antoni said the organization would like to retain Lee and his fellow restricted free agent NateRobinson. The price tag will be established by the interest they receive from other teams.
"You can't do anything about it, so I don't worry much about it, but obviously, as it goes on, we'd like to see something happen,"D'Antoni said. "Obviously, we don't want to lose any assets. They're good players."
