[h1]Knicks keeping cap space open for LeBron[/h1]
August 7, 2009 By ALAN HAHN
[email protected]
The
NBA schedule brings
LeBron James to his beloved
MadisonSquare Garden just once this coming season. But the possibility that it could be his new home for 41 games a year remains very real after the NBA's MVPon Friday suggested that he will likely exercise his option to become a free agent next summer.
"I signed a contract in 2006 with an option," he told reporters Friday in
Akron,
Ohio. "It would make no sense for me to sign that contract if I didn't keep my options open."
He then added, "I'll let you fill in the blanks."
Donnie Walsh is still trying to create as many blank spaces as possible under the salary cap for2010, just so the Knicks can be in position to make a max contract offer to a franchise-changing free agent such as James or
Dwyane Wade.
And it is exactly this reason
David Lee remains an unsigned restricted free agent and why Walshrefuses to hand out the full midlevel exception (five years, $33.9 million) to restricted free agent
Ramon Sessions, despite how much the Knicks could use him.
It has been a maddeningly unproductive summer for Knicks fans, who were teased early in the free-agency process by the aggressive pursuits of
Jason Kidd and
Grant Hill. But when the NBA released theNBA salary-cap figure July 7 with an added memorandum warning of a possible steep decline in it - as much as 5 percent or $8 million - in 2010-11, Walsh had tofeel some sense of relief that Kidd turned down that three-year, $18.9-million offer and returned to
Dallas.Kidd would have tied up $6.3 million in cap space next summer, seriously compromising any chance the Knicks would have enough cap space to offer a maxcontract.
As the 2010-11 payroll stands today, the Knicks - who are owned by
Cablevision, which also ownsNewsday - are committed to just $26.4 million in salaries for six players. If the NBA's cap falls by the 5 percent, it would be $50 million in 2010, whichwould leave just $23.6 million in cap space. That's still plenty for King James, right?
Yes, because the maximum starting salary is 30 percent of the cap, which means $15 million for a $50-million cap.
But wait. The $26.4-million figure doesn't include Lee, who is seeking around $10 million per season, or
Nate Robinson, another unsigned restricted free agent. Even if Lee accepts what's on the table for him -about $7 million per - that would drop the cap space number to $16 million. And we haven't even gotten into talking about adding Sessions to the mix. Oranyone else.
Sessions' agent, Jim "Chubby" Wells, is seeking the full midlevel for his client and the Knicks are believed to be holding firm at about $4million per annum with an 8-percent decrease in the second season to save as much of that precious cap space in 2010.
As a result, Wells has pushed the Clippers as the new front-runner, though a person with knowledge of the situation says the Clippers also won't offerthe full midlevel exception. But it seems clear Walsh is ready to lose out on yet another free agent rather than compromise his cap space for 2010.
With James keeping the door open, you can understand why.