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What are the Knicks going to do with David Lee?

During a chat yesterday, Chad Ford had this to say about David Lee:

Donnie Walsh is trying to find a home for Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries that frees up some cap space so that he can re-sign Lee. It sounds like that’s close to Mission Impossible, though I said the same thing about Zach Randolph this summer. If he can do that, I think Lee stays. If he can’t, he’d be smart to get something now instead of losing him in the summer. There is LOTS of interest in Lee both now and in the summer. He’s one of the few restricted free agents teams think they can steal away because of the Knicks cap situation.

Let’s be clear — the Knicks don’t have to trade anyone away to re-sign Lee. Ford is talking about clearing cap space so that the franchise doesn’t have to pay a luxury tax next season. They are currently on the hook for $69.3 million and that doesn’t count new contracts for Lee or Nate Robinson. With the the luxury tax threshold unlikely to change much from this season ($71 million), Walsh would need to move a contract or two to clear space for signing Lee and/or Robinson. Lee is the priority because he’s such a good fit in Mike D’Antoni’s up tempo attack. He is averaging 16.0 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, and is shooting almost 57% from the field.

Eddy Curry will make $21.7 million over the next two seasons but has only appeared in one game this season. The Knicks desperately need to get him some minutes if they hope to trade him before the Feb. 19 deadline. Jeffries is getting some minutes, but he has been horribly unproductive (PER: 7.39), though he was never much of a stat guy.

The bottom line is that if the Knicks want to re-sign Lee, they can. Their projected payroll goes down to $18.2 million for the 2010 season, so they would only take the luxury tax hit for one season if they chose to sign Lee to a multi-year deal (or matched another team’s offer this summer, when he becomes a restricted free agent).

What’s he worth? I’d say his play this season has put him into the range of $10-$11 million per season. I’d be careful not to pay too much more, because right now he’s putting up great numbers on a bad team that plays at a blistering pace.

Kurt Warner likely to return to Arizona next season

Despite the recent talk that he could retire this offseason, it looks like Kurt Warner will return next year as the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals.

Kurt WarnerHe will be back. And he likely will sign a new, two-year contract extension – possibly in the neighborhood of $18-20 million – to try and lead this once-woebegone franchise right back into glorious history.

Give it two weeks, three weeks tops.

That was the word circulating through the Warner camp before and following the Cardinals’ 27-23 loss to the Steelers in Tampa. And unless management completely drops the ball and short-changes the quarterback at the negotiating table, it’s appears to be a done deal.

Still, Warner would make no such public assumptions. He did say on Tuesday he wants to finish his career with the Cardinals.

“That’s my mindset,” he said. “If I’m going to keep playing, I don’t want to change teams.”

Outside of Anquan Boldin and Todd Haley’s possible departures, Arizona is the perfect place for Warner. He benefits playing in a dome eight times a year because his arm strength is fading fast, he knows the offense and he has a multitude of weapons at his disposal. At this point in his career, he can’t be the guy anymore but he can obviously be very effective in the right situation. And the Cardinals are definitely the right situation for him.

Are the Suns thinking about trading Amare?

ESPN’s Chad Ford said that they are in his chat yesterday.

Jason (Culver City CA) [via mobile]: What are the chances of Amare Stoudemire getting traded before the deadline?

Chad Ford: Last week I said 10 percent. But I think that was low. The more people I talk to in the league, the more I think it’s something in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 percent. Steve Kerr and Robert Sarver are taking a hard look at the team right now. If they decide to blow it up, Stoudemire will be the first to go.

Let’s see, you’re thinking about blowing the team up and your first move is to trade away your 26 year-old All-Pro forward/center? This is nonsensical. Why not trade away Shaq, who is 36 and due to make $20 million next season? Or Steve Nash, who is 34 and has just one more year on his contract?

Why would you trade away your best player, especially when he’s only 26?

I criticized Steve Kerr’s decision to break up that Suns team that was a couple of bench-clearing suspensions away from upending the eventual-champion Spurs in the 2007 playoffs. His first move as GM was to trade Rudy Fernandez to the Blazers for cash considerations. Then there was the Marion-Shaq trade, which forced Mike D’Antoni out, because he doesn’t know how to coach a slow-it-down team. Seemingly every move Kerr makes backfires.

The Suns are now 26-20, they’ve lost seven of their last 11 games and are hanging on to the #8 seed in the West. They are a shell of that exciting team that we saw in those playoffs two years ago and if Carlos Boozer can come back strong for the Jazz, Phoenix is in serious danger of missing the postseason altogether.

Now they’re thinking about trading away their best player, who is only 26 and entering the prime of his career.

That’s just great.

Chiefs receive permission to interview Cardinals’ Todd Haley

The Chiefs are set to interview Cardinals’ offensive coordinator Todd Haley for their vacant head coaching position after receiving permission from Arizona on Tuesday.

Todd HaleyThe Chiefs, including new general manager Scott Pioli, received permission Tuesday to interview Haley, the Kansas City Star reports.

There is history between Pioli and Haley; they worked together from 1997-99 with the New York Jets, Pioli as the director of pro personnel and Haley as an assistant coach.

Haley, 42, led the Cardinals, one of the league’s highest-scoring offensive teams, to their first Super Bowl appearance this year. Haley had said publicly he would not speak to any other teams prior to the title game.

The newspaper reports the Chiefs plan to announce a new head coach later this week.

Haley would be a sound hire, but not because he would make the Chiefs into an offensive juggernaut like some might think. (The Chiefs would need talent like the Cardinals have in order to do that.)

No, Haley is a real ball-buster and as he proved with Anquan Boldin during the NFC Championship Game, he’s not going to take any crap from players. Not that the Chiefs have a history of malcontents and troublemakers (Herman Edwards wouldn’t have allowed that), but they do lack direction and maybe Pioli and Haley could make a formidable duo and resurrect the sinking ship that is Kansas City.

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