Knicks · Former Knicks Players Get Love Except for..... (page 1)

David Lee.

I was and still am a huge D Lee fan. I wasn't a member of this board when Lee went to Cali and we signed Amare but at the time I was irrate. In the time that I have been a member here I read all about Mozgov, Chandler, Gallo and, of coure, Lin but I rarely see Lee mentioned if at all. The guy played 5 seasons for us and became better each and every year.

Why doesn't Lee get any UK love?

I think its because his teams were awful

The others that you mentioned were on a team that was do better and at least 500.

for his whole time here he was part of some dreadful teams. same goes for crawford. for me, not much to look back on over the years to say, "that was fun, i want to get back to that". had they been winning, he probably would still be here.

has more to do with the era than anything. David Lee's best years in NY were or worst years as a franchise. Though now I wish we had him instead of Amar'e. he would do exactly what the Knicks need at the 4

DLee is cool but at 80 mil DLee playing the 4 doesn't translate to wins...We didn't win with him here and neither is Golden State...Amare at least makes you competitive...GS would be a 30 win team if last year was a regular season...They are at 70 mil now and wait til they have to pay Curry next year...They will be shopping DLee soon...

David Lee fan here....always checked Golden States box scores to see how he doing.

My guess is that everyone had come to grips with losing him beforehand. The plan that Summer was to sign Lebron and another max player which meant losing Lee and we had known this for a few years at that point. Losing those other guys was more surprising especially because the rumors about the Melo trade didn't mention all of them being traded so when it did happen it caught everyone by surprise and they've been in mourning since.

Lee was a stat padder. He would often drop off his defender to get a rebound. His idea of defense was waving his arms around like he was in Mummenschanz. He wasn't worth what he wanted. Lee put up good numbers but most of the damage he did as a Knick was in the first three quarters. That's why he kept getting pulled in the 4th quarter.

Sure we could have done worse than resign Lee, in some cases we did, but I just don't see him anchoring or being an integral part of a championship team, or a contender for that matter. Not as long as his stats come first.

My take was DLee was out of position at the 5 for sure and in the interest of the team was not asked to defend and pick up fouls. Thats how thin we were up front.

I doubt he'd pad his stats if the coach was on hip to it.

Amare does the same thing. In crunch time we have all seen Amare be the beast on defense. Its the NBA, players can go 38 min all out.

David Lee is awesome for fantasy owner. Lee got no Dee.

Nalod wrote:My take was DLee was out of position at the 5 for sure and in the interest of the team was not asked to defend and pick up fouls. Thats how thin we were up front.

I doubt he'd pad his stats if the coach was on hip to it.

Amare does the same thing. In crunch time we have all seen Amare be the beast on defense. Its the NBA, players can go 38 min all out.

That's a generous interpretation. When MDA benches a starter in the 4th quarter because of poor defense that's pretty bad. And that's what was happening by the time Lee left.

It wasn't just Lee's defense but his lack of offense in the 4th quarter as well that made him a liability. You couldn't give him the ball and count on him winning the game or playing a big part in it. How many times do you actually remember him doing that? With Stat (when healthy) you could. He might be doing better at closing out games at GS but in NY Lee couldn't be counted on. Stat was a better defender at the same stage in his career.

A big reason Lee got so much slack was that he was being marketed by MSG as "Mr. double double". Sometimes D'Antoni would leave him in the game long enough to get his double double and then bench him. He was the closest thing to a star NY had and they milked it for all it was worth. I still remember him on more than one occasion yucking it up with Nate on the sidelines during a blowout. Not the kind of guy I want to see the Knicks give a max contract.

GustavBahler wrote:Lee was a stat padder. He would often drop off his defender to get a rebound. His idea of defense was waving his arms around like he was in Mummenschanz. He wasn't worth what he wanted. Lee put up good numbers but most of the damage he did as a Knick was in the first three quarters. That's why he kept getting pulled in the 4th quarter.

Sure we could have done worse than resign Lee, in some cases we did, but I just don't see him anchoring or being an integral part of a championship team, or a contender for that matter. Not as long as his stats come first.

I remember back when he played with us, or maybe the season after, some writer said that he probably led the league in ineffective double doubles. And that's kind of stuck with me- he did seem to get 20+ points and 10+ rebounds in a game and yet we still lost by a big margin. It's why I'm so sceptical of Kevin Love when he has those 30+ points 20 rebound games- I'm a bit wary when a player can get those kind of stats, but their team still loses.

I don't know, personality wise he seemed a bit like Landry Fields- he was likeable but wouldn't strike fear into the heart of opponents. Also i got the impression that he was a bit resentful of Gallo and all they hype he got. He was one of the worst defenders in Knick history which also diminishes his legacy.

You know, you put Lin, Fields and David Lee on the same team and they would get along great, but I just don't think that studenty, geeky type of player is going to win you any championships.

Memories...

Actually, that has jolted some memories back- like remember that weird ankle/ leg injury he got that took months to heal, and he never seemed to have the same athleticism when he returned? What was that? I think it was listed as a sprained ankle or something at the time. Or was that Channing Frye?!

(edit: just looked it up, it was Lee):

On February 23, 2007, in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Lee came down on Andrew Bogut's foot and sprained his ankle. The original diagnosis was for him to only miss a few days, but nearly three weeks after the injury he was still unable to play. He was reexamined and the doctor found that he had a much more severe sprain than was originally diagnosed. Lee played only sporadic minutes for the remaining games of the season

To be honest, back in those dark days, watching the young guys like D Lee and Nate (and Gallo) develop as players and put up some good numbers, actually made being a Knick fan almost bearable when we had no other reason to watch. I don't really miss him, but he liked being a Knick and worked hard for us (just couldn't grasp how to play defense- playing for D'Antoni is his formative years probably didn't help his development)

Also, you think David Lee gets no love, what about this dude!:

Watching that video I still don't know what happened to him- was it that leg injury, was it mental, was he never as good as we thought he was (some people refused to include him in a trade for Garnett!!!). BAck in their rookie seasons, I'd never of believed you if you said Lee would go on to be the better player by a mile.

IMHO Lee could be a solid piece on a contending team. The only difference between Lee's D and Amare's D is that Amare acutally gets weak side blocks.

CashMoney wrote:IMHO Lee could be a solid piece on a contending team. The only difference between Lee's D and Amare's D is that Amare acutally gets weak side blocks.

Yeah, but DLee gets rebounds. Lots of them. Career avg 9.6 rpg and almost 3 off rpg. That's a very valuable ability. But Lee needs a Tyson Chandler at the 5 to cover penetration.

Markji wrote:

CashMoney wrote:IMHO Lee could be a solid piece on a contending team. The only difference between Lee's D and Amare's D is that Amare acutally gets weak side blocks.

Yeah, but DLee gets rebounds. Lots of them. Career avg 9.6 rpg and almost 3 off rpg. That's a very valuable ability. But Lee needs a Tyson Chandler at the 5 to cover penetration.

Yeah he always had good rebounding numbers but I have seen instances where he left his defensive assignment to set up for a rebound, that's not good...Numbers doesn't always tell the whole story...

GustavBahler wrote:Lee was a stat padder. He would often drop off his defender to get a rebound. His idea of defense was waving his arms around like he was in Mummenschanz. He wasn't worth what he wanted. Lee put up good numbers but most of the damage he did as a Knick was in the first three quarters. That's why he kept getting pulled in the 4th quarter.

Sure we could have done worse than resign Lee, in some cases we did, but I just don't see him anchoring or being an integral part of a championship team, or a contender for that matter. Not as long as his stats come first.

Coffee spit up moment! Thanks!

DLee's main focal points of love are if you appreciate someone who:

1) Made a very nice, lucrative career out of meaningless double doubles, ABA style. Was waiting for the day where he would start tapping rebounds to himself off the backboard, George McGinnis-style.
2) Raised the ability to ensure he was never in-frame for a posterization to an art form. It's almost humanly impossible to follow how quickly he moved out of the way.
3) Could and would not guard the paint against any of the posters here on UK, let alone anyone playing at the NBA level.
4) Had cool on-bench highlights making fun of Gallo's endless stutter step moves...