Donnie Walsh Confirms Knicks-Grizz Talks

As the rumors about a deal pitching Zach Randolph to Memphis for a Darko Milicic and Marko Jaric package continue to fester, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News gets Knicks boss Donnie Walsh to confirm on the record that he's been chatting with his Grizzly counterpart. The rumor mill continues to press Knick subsidies to help pay Z-Bo's deal as the sticking point.

The Darko & Marko package isn't completely clear in 2010: Jaric makes $7.6 million in 2010-11. That still saves New York almost $10 million that summer, and -- without accounting for David Lee, Nate Robinson and Mardy Collins, who will all be free agents in the next couple years -- that's almost enough to free up the Knicks for a max contract in the vaunted summer of '10. The targeted max players of '10 -- LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Amare -- will draw starting salaries of $20 million. With this deal (and again, no new deals for the free agents) the Knicks will sit about $15-16 million under the cap in '10.

There would also still be two years to work on a smaller project. New York doesn't need to be the first team to clear the cap, they just need to get it done by July 1, 2010, if they want to play ball. Things are certainly getting more interesting ...