Joe Johnson and Amar'e First Up

In about 2 hours and 15 minutes, a Knicks party lead by Mike D'Antoni will begin meeting with free agents in Los Angeles. They're first meeting is actually with Mike Miller, who may not even be in their plans, but shares an agent with Joe Johnson and may serve as a warm-up session for the next two big meetings: Joe Johnson and Amar'e Stoudemire.

There seem to be some shenanigans at work in the Joe Johnson negotiations. Supposedle, Atlanta is offering Joe a max deal worth 119M. It's odd because the offer just came up, and because the Hawks as a team are only worth 305M. In other words, it looks like a phony offer designed to extract Danilo Gallinari from the Knicks in a sign and trade. The Knicks can't let that happen and hopefully they will call the Hawks bluff and cooler heads will prevail. If Johnson wants to be a Knick he probably will be.

The second meeting is with Amar'e, and he seems to be more straightforward about wanting to rejoin his old coach. He may be the second best option to Bosh, but a bird in the hand that can be brought to LeBron is just that. The Knicks will have to have a formula or a sign and trade, that doesn't involve Gallo, in place in order to get JJ, Amar'e and LeBron under contract. Hopefully these options are in place and they haven't been twiddling their thumbs for the last two years.

A take of JJ, Amar'e and LeBron would give the Knicks a championship nucleus. Of course, it's a waste of time and cap if it doesn't, indeed, come with LeBron. Go Knicks! Make us proud!