# Maciej Lampe WILL be in a Knicks uniform next year...



## robyg1974 (Jul 19, 2002)

Keep in mind that second round picks do not have guaranteed contracts. They can sign for whatever their teams offer them. The Knicks can offer Lampe all or part of the MLE ($4.9 mil). A team cannot buy out a foreign dude's contract--they can chip in around $0.3-$0.4 mil to help out, but that's it, the player has to pay the rest of it. Lampe can easily pay off Real Madrid if the Knicks give him a pretty large chunk of their MLE this summer. If they do, he's a Knick; if they don't, he's not a Knick.

Because Lampe desperately wants to come over to the NBA, and because he is in a pretty terrible negotiating position, don't expect him to be able to hold New York hostage. The Knicks can offer him about half the MLE--between $2.0-$2.5 mil--and that will be enough for him to pay off Real Madrid and come on over to the NBA for good. This means that New York will not be able to offer a free agent its full MLE--it will only have another $2.5-$3.0 mil to play around with, which will only be enough to get an iffy guy like, say, Elden Campbell--but who cares, they have gotten one of the all-time steals in NBA draft history here in Maciej Lampe.

Lampe is unusual as far as steals go. If people had known how good a Rashard Lewis or a Cuttino Mobley was going to be, no way would these guys have dropped into the second round. Everybody knew how much potential Lampe had, but they shied off for non-basketball reasons. Totally idiotic. Scott Layden probably saved his job in this draft.

Another thing to keep in mind here is that New York and Toronto are probably still working out the details in a Chris Bosh-Mike Sweetney deal. Remember, Bosh was New York's guy at #4 overall, not Ford (the Ford talk was a smokescreen), and Sweetney was Toronto's guy at #9. Toronto remains unable to sign Bosh AND stay under the luxury tax threshold. Toronto remains a team that desperately wants to move some longterm payroll. My guess is that Toronto is insisting on New York taking on a lot of crap, and that New York is insisting on taking not-so-much crap. So expect New York-Toronto trade rumors to re-surface, and do not be surprised to see a move happen by the end of the summer.

ONE MORE THING: Jamal Crawford remains a good bet to get traded. Golden State remains without a point guard. Expect Crawford, who is a restricted free agent next summer and will get a pretty large contract from somebody, to be the one to go, not Kirk Hinrich. Hinrich is going to be a much MUCH better NBA player than Crawford, regardless. Expect either Mike Dunleavy or Mickael Pietrus to get sent to Chicago in this deal. Chicago will want Dunleavy, while Golden State will insist on Pietrus.


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## arenas809 (Feb 13, 2003)

I believe Lampe will be in NYC next year...

the buyout isn't that much right now, and if they wait on him it's actually going to cost more to get him out of Spain.

For the last part of your post, who said Hinrich is going to be a better player than Crawford?

I don't believe that for 1 minute.

I saw Jamal play about 10 games, and 1 in person, does he ever turn the ball over? Really?


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>arenas809</b>!
> 
> For the last part of your post, who said Hinrich is going to be a better player than Crawford?
> 
> ...


But does he ever break anyone down and get to the whole. I look for Hinrich to be traded for Dunleavy or Pietrus. But Crawford is the better player


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## The_Franchise (Mar 30, 2003)

Hinrich staying, Crawford going -- http://www.basketballboards.net/forum/showthread.php?postid=448878#post448878

Let's face it, Scott Layden got lucky! Scott Layden a genius? I dont think so. With Nick Collison still on the board, and to an extent Sofoklis and Lampe at the time, the Knicks went with a guy who showed horrible conditioning in his workout, a short PF when they already have Kurt Thomas and 50 others. Their center problem is still unresolved. The only thing that saved him from the Yankee crowd was that he was from Georgetown. If they had decided to go with a PF, even though they already had plenty, not wise to take Sweetney over Collison but we'll see.

Ironically... 

RobyG sent me a PM on April 18, and part of it said:



> One more thing. The scouting of foreign players in 1998 or 1999 vs. the scouting of foreign players in 2002 and 2003--NO COMPARISON. Guys like Frederic Weis, they get scouted these days, scouts know that these guys are non-prospects. Scouts know who the prospects are and they draft them. They may not know as much about Maciej Lampe as they do about Mike Sweetney, but they know enough about both players to take Lampe over Sweetney 100 times out of 100!


I think it was Andy Katz on ESPN who said that because of Lampe's situation, whoever had the first pick in the 2nd round draft would have taken Lampe, and in this case it was New York. At the time team's weren't willing to pay Lampe a first round salary as well as try to get through a contract buyout. If they could have cleared some issues up though, they would have realized that $2-3 million for a supposed Dirk Nowitzki, not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all. Eventually though, the first round promises and what not screwed them all over. Lucky Layden. Lampe buyout --- http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/105678078583470.xml

The Knicks taking Bosh seems very logical to me, because Sweetney has no role whatsoever amongst the undersized forwards of the Knick team. Another rumor discusses Andrei Kirilenko coming to New York for Sweetney and Frank Williams, although I don't see that coming about: http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/105678078583470.xml


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## PacersguyUSA (Sep 1, 2002)

> But does he ever break anyone down and get to the whole.


Hell yeah he does. He has a move where he get to about the foul line and make a one handed floater. And then there's the behind-the-back crossover.


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## Wild Wild West (Jun 30, 2003)

The Lampe situation is complicated and interesting.

In the event NY doesn't want to use much of their MLE for the Lampe buyout so they have the full exception for Nesterovic or another center, what are the chances of a deal with Chicago. They looked at Lampe with the 7th pick and I suspect prefered someone ready to contribute right away, and they may have questioned if he could play SF where they would need him most. If they sign Pippin as a free agent, Lampe could be a good acquisition. Pippin for a couple of years as an aging mentor until Lampe was ready.

Fizer or Marshall with one or two from Hassell, Mason, Bagarich
the rights to Austin and Smith. Is there something there that works for the Knicks so they get something of value for Lampe now and can still use the MLE on Nesterovic?


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## m_que01 (Jun 25, 2003)

If Lampe can play next year, the Knicks will at least have a Center or PF with the likes of Kurt Thomas instead playing undersized.


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## spursindonesia (Mar 6, 2003)

What about signing Lampe with their LLE instead of MLE ?

With a three yr contract, and .35 mil of Knicks contribution allowed by the rule, i think Lampe could be had this season without harming the MLE money.

Ofcourse, if NY has already used that exception last summer, my take would become moot. 

But, as far as i can remember, they only used the MLE when signing Doleac last summer, right ?


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## . (Jun 30, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>robyg1974</b>!
> Keep in mind that second round picks do not have guaranteed contracts. They can sign for whatever their teams offer them. The Knicks can offer Lampe all or part of the MLE ($4.9 mil). A team cannot buy out a foreign dude's contract--they can chip in around $0.3-$0.4 mil to help out, but that's it, the player has to pay the rest of it. Lampe can easily pay off Real Madrid if the Knicks give him a pretty large chunk of their MLE this summer. If they do, he's a Knick; if they don't, he's not a Knick.
> 
> Because Lampe desperately wants to come over to the NBA, and because he is in a pretty terrible negotiating position, don't expect him to be able to hold New York hostage. The Knicks can offer him about half the MLE--between $2.0-$2.5 mil--and that will be enough for him to pay off Real Madrid and come on over to the NBA for good. This means that New York will not be able to offer a free agent its full MLE--it will only have another $2.5-$3.0 mil to play around with, which will only be enough to get an iffy guy like, say, Elden Campbell--but who cares, they have gotten one of the all-time steals in NBA draft history here in Maciej Lampe.
> ...


are you sure about this ?? if knicks can have all their 3 selection this year on next year's lineup, it will be a BIG plus, a boost to their frontline thats for sure, whats gonna happen next is remain to be seen.


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