With the draft behind us, it’s almost time for free agency, and this free agent class is the biggest in sports history. A big player in this free agent class will be the New York Knicks; the Knicks have taken many steps to get to where they are. The Knicks have been preparing for 2010 free agency for about 2 years now since Donnie Walsh was hired.
For the Knicks it’s either 2010 free agency or bust. The Knicks have shed so much salary that they risked their long term future in doing so. The Knicks needed to trade bad contracts like Jared Jeffries, and while they did so they traded valuable draft picks.
The Knicks have been preaching to their fans that change is coming; they brought in Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni and promised marquee free agents, LeBron James perhaps. The time for change is now and the Knicks are going to be aggressive.
As the clock strikes past midnight, the Knicks brass will be in Los Angeles meeting with marquee free agent Joe Johnson, and according to Chris Broussard of ESPN, the Knicks will offer Joe Johnson a max contract.
While the Knicks aren’t giving up on the possibility of signing LeBron James, they do have a plan B. Joe Johnson is certainly not LeBron, but if you can pair him with another all star, perhaps a big man like Amare Stoudemire, the Knicks could contend in the east. It’s important to note the Knicks will also meet with Stoudemire while in Los Angeles.
The Hawks would like to resign Johnson but that sounds unlikely, instead they’ll likely hope to work a sign and trade with the Knicks. In a sign and trade the Knicks could send Wilson Chandler and the Knicks would offer Johnson a deal worth 6 years 125 million.
Is Joe Johnson worth that kind of contract, probably not, considering he can’t lead a team past the 2nd round of the playoffs, and he’s currently 28 years old, but if the Knicks can’t sway LeBron or Bosh, they’ll have to spend the money on someone, considering the fans at the world’s most famous arena have tolerated a decade of bad basketball.
Ernie Grunfeld GM of the Washington Wizards said that trying to accumulate cap space is a scary thing, however accumulating cap space and having no one to spend it on is an even scarier thing. The Knicks could face that possibility, and who knows where they would go from there considering the Knicks won’t have a chance at a lottery pick until 2013. Going back to the Tracy McGrady deal, the Knicks gave up their first round pick for 2012, and the right to swap picks in 2011.
It appears that New York is Johnson’s top choice; Johnson will talk to LeBron James about paring up in New York. The Knicks believe a tandem of James and Johnson would be enough to get them over the top.
If the Knicks however miss out on LeBron James, a Joe Johnson Amare Stoudemire duo isn’t as bad as it seems. Joe Johnson and Amare Stoudemire were teammates at one point in their careers, and both thrived under Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni when they played for the Suns. Amare Stoudemire upped his scoring average 7 points in his first season with Mike D’Antoni, and Joe Johnson averaged double digits for the first time in his career under Mike D’Antoni.
While the King remains the top prize, the Knicks have made it clear they are going to explore all options.
