I actually went and looked it up the other day, lol.

You have to be with a team for 3 years before the team gets Bird Rights.

Thanks guy, appreciate the info.

So, shooting for the moon and assuming a Bosh/Lebron daily double, you're saying they can't afford Lee also. That leaves a team of:

Bosh
Lebron
Chandler
Douglas
Gallinari

Rodriguez - still under contract?
House - still under?
Who else?

Call me Tej, everyone else does

I'd rather get Wade and Lebron.

Douglas/Wade/LeBron/Gallo, need a center.

Chandler on the bench? Aren't Bosh's knees really bad?

I meant to write "guys". Sorry - I don't think I've ever called anyone "Guy" in my life, except of course when I worked with a "guy" whose name was Guy.

If Bosh's knees are bad, he's hiding it well. I'd start Chandler over Douglas - you don't need another ball-handler with Wade and/or Lebron on the court. I love Wade, but I think Bosh fills a need more - assuming you have Lebron.

I don't see the Knicks signing both Wade and Lebron. It is a possibility, there can be no denying that. But in the end, I think it is one or the other. And then maybe another max guy. Like Bosh or Joe Johnson or bringing back DLee. Who know? Maybe it happens, but I just can't fathom it. I mean, gosh, I could be the starting center for that team. And I am 6 feet tall.

Back to reality, though. I am pretty sure Sergio Rodriguez's contract is up after this year. So that leaves the Knicks with Toney Douglas, Gallo, Wilson Chandler, Eddy Curry, and Bill Walker (pretty sure he was included in the Nate Rob deal) under contract for 2010-2011. Sign two max free agents and there goes pretty much all your cap room. Who plays center? Who starts at point?

Obviously you do whatever you can to sign Lebron and Wade. But if you can only get one of them, or you cannot get either, I am not sure if you hand out 2 max contracts. Say the Knicks end up signing Lebron but Wade returns to Miami. I would fill the roster with useful role players instead of handing a max deal to another player. Bosh and Lebron would be nuts and Lebron and DLee would be nice, but I am not sure if it makes you championship calibre, especially with Toney Douglas as the starting point guard.

There are a lot of ways the Knicks can go with this and it will be interesting to see what they end up doing.

Yeah, I dunno... They'll have room to make almost max-contract offers for two players. Bosh/Lebron or Lebron/Wade and that would be awesome.

If they do that, then the roster is

Douglas
Lebron
Wade/Bosh
Chandler
Gallo
Curry

They could fill up the roster with minimum salary players... Sick starting 5, and no relief, unless they make a trade.

I don't think they can go up to the cap and then use the mid level exception, though a Times article I believe hinted that they could possibly sign McGrady to one.

I like the idea of signing one max free agent, keep Lee's Byrd Rights and sign a decent 4-5 million dollar player. Then sign Lee. Though it seems doubtful that Lee would be signed for more or much more than his cap hold of 10 or so million, so maybe it's not much of a way around the cap.

I dunno... If there were only 5 players on a team it would be easy. Since it isn't, who knows... should be a fascinating off season. They could always keep some cap space for 2011, especially with Curry coming off the books.

Who knows... maybe Douglas could surprise or they play Curry towards the end of the year and he seems okay and trading him isn't beyond the realm of possibility (highly unlikely). Maybe the new PG turns out to be really good and they can keep him for cheap, though they really don't have much wiggle room, especially if the plan is two max free agents.

Douglas, the little I've seen of him, is pretty good.

yeah, i agree... certainly better and more potential than Duhon. He looks like a real NBA PG out there... running the offense and stuff...

If you sign Lebron and Bosh then Toney Douglas absolutely can be your starting PG. Lebron will be running the offense anyway so having a score-first PG like Douglas would be fine.

You can fill in the roster with guys on minimum contracts or I think it would be possible to trade Curry's expiring deal for someone with a longer deal on another team or in a S&T. So it might be possible to sign Lebron and Bosh and then trade Curry and his 11 M dollar salary for someone else's player with a longer 11 M dollar salary, preferably a PG or C.

Can a team structure max deals so that the average value of the deal is the salary ceiling but in any given year it may differ?

In other words, say the max offer is 6 years, 90 million. Does that have to be structured as 15/15/15/15/15/15? Or could the team structure it as 10/10/15/15/20/20? I'm just using round numbers here for the sake of example.

The reason I ask is I wonder if it will be possible to structure the deals to work around Curry's player option. He's on the books next year for $11m, but that's his last year. So is it possible to offer max deals to two guys this summer, but pay them slightly less in the first year to get around Curry's contract, and then make up for it by backloading the payments?

The Knicks are getting James. Book it.

Does a team with Lebron James really need a PG?