Building a D' Team

The Search for the Holy Grail of building an NBA contender has come full circle with the ever-popular concept of creating cap-space as our latest crusade. According to Walsh, this is our goal and a fine goal at that.

This presupposes that whoever the free-agent stars who come available will be oh-so-happy to take our bazillions of dollars and lead the Knicks to the promised land of Stern mega-star playoffs.

And so we genuflect to the mighty sneaker endorser who will become our franchise.

And for this the forums are brimming with fans willing to trade everyone we have for a cheap contract David Lee for Eric Snow. Zach for Ben Wallace. The entire bench for a protected second-rounder. Anything for the mighty LeBron or Wade or player-du-jour.

Thanks to the insanity of the NBA's salary structure a handful of players are richer than nations and the rest are locked into a price-fixing scheme that keeps them on the plantation as court jesters to the mega-stars.

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I believe Walsh will get us our brief moment of cap-space heaven for yet another brass ring star who may or may not be healthy upon arrival, who may or may not have anything left of his talent, who may or may not in the end be a winner.

BFD.

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I have always taken the approach that the free-agent can be acquired before becoming a free agent. Players are merely assets that are productive or not. Sport dominant players are very hard to sign away from their existing employers.

So if I were Walsh I would consider trading for a guy like Ben Gordon and front-load a contract that keeps him here through 2010 so that he can be resigned after the free-agent feeding frenzy that year. By maintaining a smaller salary footprint during the targeted cap-space year, we can begin building a franchise of high-quality players ready to surround Mr. Mega-Bucks whenever he gets here.

To be honest, I'd rather the Knicks win without a mega-star. Call me a fool.