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Knicks get their guy, but Nets eye is on prize: LeBron James

Ken Berger

June 27, 2008

Danilo Gallinari, of Italy, responds to questions during a news conference after being selected sixth overall by the New York Knicks. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II / June 26, 2008)

If nothing else, Donnie Walsh found out yesterday just how difficult running the Knicks will be.

It's not as if he was in Rod Thorn's shoes and could call around the league offering up a talented young slasher like Richard Jefferson. He certainly wasn't in Danny Ainge's shoes, unloading a truckload of assets for Ray Allen on draft night as a mere appetizer to the main course: Kevin Garnett.

He was in Donnie Walsh's shoes, formerly worn by Isiah Thomas, which explains why the soles are tattered and the laces are torn and there's this annoying piece of leather that keeps stabbing him in the ankle.

Careful how you walk, Donnie, or you're going to land on your face.

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Walsh didn't completely stumble in his first draft with the Knicks. He did get the guy other team executives and people familiar with his plan have known for days that he wanted. Danilo Gallinari wasn't king of the WaMu Theater, judging from all the boos, but he could be king of New York someday. The dude can play, and with good looks, humility and a sense of humor to go with his skills, he has box-office appeal to go with his court savvy.

"New York is a great place and a great team with great history," Gallinari said, "so I'm so honored to be here and be a part of it."

But I didn't have the heart to inform Gallinari, as he wrapped up a whirlwind of interviews in two languages, that he wound up on the wrong side of the Hudson River - or at least in the wrong borough.

The team that made the biggest, most important move yesterday - and the one that is positioned to make an even bigger, more important one - is not the Knicks but the Nets.

The Knicks got their Gallinari, but the Nets took a Gallinari-sized step toward LeBron James.

While Walsh fruitlessly sifted through the Knicks' roster for a tradeable asset, Thorn and Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe were staring at a feast. When you have an asset like Jefferson you can afford to part with, it's easy to have your eyes on the prize for the summer of LeBron.

By adding Bobby Simmons' $10.6-million contract that expires after next season and subtracting Jefferson's $15-million salary for 2010-11, the Nets will have all the cap room they'll need for a shopping spree in the summer of 2010.

Thorn and Vandeweghe didn't just encroach on the Knicks' territory yesterday. They broke into the luxury box, popped open a cold one and put their feet up on the coffee table.

"We felt like we were not going to improve enough to become a championship-caliber team in the next year or so," Vandeweghe said. "The quickest way to improve is to give yourself maximum flexibility and accumulate the best young assets you can."

The reality facing Thorn and Vandeweghe was that they had about $44 million committed to the 2010-11 cap, counting draft picks. That wasn't enough to make a run at a max free agent in the windfall summer when LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will hit the market.

The trade with the Bucks brings that number down to about $36 million, but that's only half the story. By adding Yi Jianlian - plus last night's first-round picks, Brook Lopez and Ryan Anderson - to a core that already includes Devin Harris and Vince Carter, the Nets also should have enough pieces left to satisfy the elite player who would complete the puzzle.

"If you're going to attract a max player," Vandeweghe said, "you're going to have to have the foundation for him to come to."

Walsh still has an incredible amount of work ahead to clear cap room and populate his roster with players LeBron thinks could help him win a championship. As of today, it's advantage Nets, and it has nothing to do with Jay-Z.

The best thing Walsh did yesterday was not panic. He didn't get sucked into the vortex that has scrambled the minds of so many previously capable basketball men who came before him: the notion that he has to do something big, consequences be damned, because this is New York.

The problem is, Brooklyn is in New York, too. And in a couple of years, Walsh and Gallinari could find themselves gazing across the river with envy.