FanHouse David Lee

NEW YORK -- It felt like a recruiting trip, the one he never had when he bypassed college for the NBA. Only this process involved the world's most glamorous arena, a 10-story Nike billboard out on Seventh Avenue and a hip-hop mogul like no other, ready to tell LeBron James that New York is a "concrete jungle where dreams are made of ... there's nothing you can't do.'' Every time James plays Madison Square Garden, with rapper homeboy Jay-Z sitting in the front row with other celebrities, the scene transcends sports and becomes an entertainment blowout.

The center position is often considered the thinnest position. Possibly because most leagues require you to start at least two centers, or maybe it's because once you get past the first 12 or 15 centers you start seeing players queued up who have some serious deficiencies in their game. The one saving grace is that many of the league's top power forwards are also eligible at center.

You'll often hear guys strategize about getting out of the draft with a few centers who can rebound, block shots, and shoot a high percentage from the field while doing limited damage to their team's free-throw percentage. That's not so easy to do, however. The strategy here is to find a center who has limited free-throw attempts. If you're drafting Dwight Howard you have to be careful of his 59.4 FT% since he gets to the line 10.8 times per game. On the other hand Andris Biedrins' 55.1 FT% is manageable because he got to the line just 3.5 times per game last season.

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After a long summer filled with contract negotiations, David Lee can finally focus on playing basketball. Lee recently signed a new one-year contract with the New York Knicks, and while he was hoping to get a mutli-year deal from the organization, Lee told FanHouse on Tuesday that he was fine putting his long-term plans on hold for the betterment of the team.

FanHouse spoke to Lee at the NBA LIve 10 launch event in New York City about how close he was to signing with the Portland Trail Blazers in the offseason and the Knicks chances of making the playoffs in the spring. Check out the video interview below.

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FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Knicks have slowly climbed their way out of salary cap hell -- but all that got them is a season in NBA purgatory.

Instead of making moves toward actual improvement, the Knicks are blatantly looking past this season to next summer when they hope to strike it rich with the famed free agent class of 2010. But while Donnie Walsh's long-term strategy may eventually pay dividends, it offers little hope in the interim that the Knicks might rise above last year's fifth-place finish in the Atlantic.

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The Knicks finally came to contract terms with their two marquee restricted free agents on Thursday, signing both David Lee and Nate Robinson to one-year deals.

If there are any Knicks' fans out there who are worried that Lee and Robinson may be looking to eschew team play in order to put up big personal numbers, thereby increasing their free agent value for next summer, fear not! Donnie Walsh had your back when he handed out these contracts, because they contain a million dollar bonus for each player if the Knicks manage to make it to the playoffs.

Nate Robinson will remain a Knick, reports Alan Hahn of Newsday, and this is hardly a surprise. Robinson's agent Aaron Goodwin told FanHouse last week that the guard would certainly be in Knickerbocker blue next season. Hahn reports Nate will sign a one-year deal at some amount above the $3 million qualifying offer which has been on the table since July 1. Fellow restricted free agent David Lee is expected to follow with a similar deal.

One item that might get some attention in the coming days is that Robinson can veto any trade involving him this season. No-trade clauses in the NBA are extremely rare -- only Kobe Bryant has a full-blown no-trade negotiated into his contract. But Nate isn't unique, and this clause hasn't been specially negotiated into his contract. All restricted free agents who sign a one-year contract with their incumbent teams (qualifying offer or otherwise) receive the same veto power.

Restricted free agents have a hard enough time trying to convince teams to extend an offer sheet, let alone in times like these when NBA owners have one eye trained on the economy and the other on their salary cap space for the summer of 2010.

Even so, it's somewhat baffling that David Lee was virtually shunned by NBA teams, who apparently have no use for a tireless big man destined to remain among the league's rebounding leaders for the next decade. With no better options, Lee will likely sign a one-year deal to remain with the Knicks, according to ESPN's Andrew Marchand.

Marc Berman of the New York Post pumped up the shrill in today's reset of Situation David Lee. Berman reported that Lee could be a "hold-out" when Knicks camp ends this month, and primes the pump by noting that "it is almost unheard-of for players of Lee's stature to be camp holdouts."

Well, yeah. But I can guarantee it is far more unheard-of for players who are not under contract with a team to show up for training camp. Lee has no contract with the Knicks. As such, he has no obligation to show up for camp. Similarly, I am not employed by my local Applebee's, so I don't believe I am expected to show up in non-slip shoes and black Dickies for the lunch shift.

To imply Lee is playing hardball by not committing to show up for a camp he won't be paid for is absurd. NBA players don't work for free. This isn't like the NFL, where players seeking an adjustment to their extant contracts skip camp as a form of protest. Lee is planning on skipping camp because he has no obligation -- contractual or moral -- to be there.

Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle? From now till the regular season starts, we're going to throw our own Top Fives at you.

Since this is the first one, and it's the middle of the offseason, how about five players who look a lot better in August than they do in December, a lot better in the summertime than in winter? Here are five players who have had better offseasons than regular seasons in their NBA careers.

Overrated might be too strong a word here -- but it's time for these guys to start earning earning their money.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that early this week the Knicks will sign Nate Robinson to a one-year deal at $5 million. As no teams have apparently been willing to give Nate the contract he (feels he) deserves, it's a good solution: Robinson has a job at a strong salary on a team where he can put up numbers, New York maintains some talent while escaping salary commitment beyond 2010.

In fact, it's such a good solution David Lee might want to copy it.