Ron Baker was a Knick, and now is a Wizard!

[Aargh]

Pretty good return on investment for that year he paid his own way.

[Horn28Clem30]

This is the first commitment to winning I've seen them make in years.

Umm how? They completely overpaid. They could have just signed a qualifying offer and then matched whoever signed him. They outbid themselves is all they did. He's making as much as Jrue Holiday and Jamal Crawford. That makes zero sense in any NBA sense at all.

[Stickboy46]

I love Ron, and my son will be at his camp next weekend for the second year in a row, but man NY overpaid Ron and THJ. Ron may be worth that at some point, but he shot so bad last year, I can't imagine teams lining up to sign him, and all the Knicks had to do was make a qualifying offer and then match what another team was willing to pay. But great for Ron.

They did give him a qualifying offer .. then they had to revoke it along with his rights to sign THJ. This is probably a result of what happened after that.

[Cdizzle]

Umm how?

Because they paid for a winner.

[Stickboy46]

Umm how? They completely overpaid. They could have just signed a qualifying offer and then matched whoever signed him. They outbid themselves is all they did. He's making as much as Jrue Holiday and Jamal Crawford. That makes zero sense in any NBA sense at all.

I believe they had to give up their rights to him and revoked their qualifying offer to sign THJ

[Horn28Clem30]

They did give him a qualifying offer .. then they had to revoke it along with his rights to sign THJ. This is probably a result of what happened after that.

Has there been any confirmed reports of any other offers he received from other teams that they had to up it?

[ArtVandalay]

They did give him a qualifying offer .. then they had to revoke it along with his rights to sign THJ. This is probably a result of what happened after that.

They signed him using the room exemption. They didn't have to use the whole room exemption on him, however.

[ArtVandalay]

They did give him a qualifying offer .. then they had to revoke it along with his rights to sign THJ. This is probably a result of what happened after that.

They signed him using the room exemption. They didn't have to use the whole room exemption on him, however.

[WuDrWu]

By the way, I don't have any idea what this means to the NYK business, but Baker is worth plenty off the court to that organization in a variety of ways.

I promise you that the Knicks will come out ahead on this deal.

Toronto, you are on the clock.

[Horn28Clem30]

Because they paid for a winner.

I love and respect what Baker has done in college, but to use that as an argument is ignorant. People used to say the same thing about Tebow, and he's out of the game now. The Pro and college games are stark in comparison.

[boltforge]

Has there been any confirmed reports of any other offers he received from other teams that they had to up it?

You are talking about basically a free market business. There are representatives for players and teams who work this all out in a competitive way. The money represents what teams are willing to pay for the players. Period.

He gets 4.5M a year because TEAMS were willing to pay 4.5Mil a year.

[Aargh]

Ron has an agent. Ron said in an interview that he let his agent take care of the negotiations and then took the advice of his agent on how he should proceed.

It would have been his agent who would have been made aware of other offers. His agent does not post on ShockerNet and has a lot of reasons to keep information of other offers confidential, so we don't know if Ron had other offers.

Bumping him from half a mill to 4-1/2 mill is a fairly strong indicator that there were other offers. The only knock on his play this year was his shooting. Scouts have been watching him shoot since he was a sophomore at WSU. A lot of NBA teams have scouting history of Ron's shooting, and those are good reports.

[boltforge]

I can't imagine teams lining up to sign him, and all the Knicks had to do was make a qualifying offer and then match what another team was willing to pay.

And matching/beating another team's offer is exactly what happened. Because that is, basically, what always happens. Unless you think everyone in the NBA is paid by random chance and guess work?

[ArtVandalay]

And matching/beating another team's offer is exactly what happened. Because that is, basically, what always happens. Unless you think everyone in the NBA is paid by random chance and guess work?

I get it. I'm just saying they overpaid. I love Ron and watched a lot of bad Knick basketball last year waiting for him to get his chance. He shot 26% from 3, 38% from the field, and 65% from the line. He went undrafted. I don't see how what he did last season made teams everywhere decide they needed to pay $4+ to steal him from NY. NY has been terribly run for the last decade, and the hope was with Phil gone, the stupidity might stop. They way overpaid THJ and overpaid Ron. They need help, but now have no cap space left. Great for Ron, bad for Knicks and me having to watch more bad Knicks games just to watch Ron.

[im4wsu]

Hopefully Ron will "allocate" 5% of that contract to support initiatives at WSU. And Fred, too, when he signs.