#ProTops: Courtney Lee Made Available By Knicks

According to a tweet sent earlier in the week by TNT’s David Aldridge, the New York Knicks have let teams around the NBA know that former…

According to a tweet sent earlier in the week by TNT’s David Aldridge, the New York Knicks have let teams around the NBA know that former Hilltopper Courtney Lee is available.

There are a couple of explanations for why the Knicks would want to move Lee, despite his productive 2017/18 season.

First, as Yardbarker notes, is to clear up cap space. I’ll let them explain.

Lee will make $12,253,780 in the upcoming season and $12,759,670 in 2019/20, which could disrupt the team’s plans to offer a maximum-salary contract next summer.

If the Knicks want to lock up Kristaps Porzingis to a contract extension this offseason, it would cut into their projected 2019 cap room, so moving Lee for expiring salary would help retain some of the their ’19 flexibility and create a clearer path to a max-salary slot.

The report YB cites, which comes from Marc Berman of the New York Post, also notes that Lee could very well fall out of the rotation in favor of rookie Kevin Knox due to new head coach David Fizdale not seeing Lee as a small forward (I assume Fizdale sees Lee as a shooting guard?).

Another explanation could be in the Knicks desire to sign Mitchell Robinson.

If Lee isn’t in the good graces of Fizdale, then that makes him a strong candidate to move in order for Robinson to land a contract.

There doesn’t seem to be a “likely” scenario at this point, but we did hear rumblings on Twitter that the Lakers could be in play, which would be fun, but I’m not sure how good a move for Lee that’d be.

Lee had a near-career year last year with New York, his second season in the Big Apple, scoring 12 points, logging 2.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists a night in 76 games.