Courtney Lee has always seemed like an ideal complementary shooting guard with his stable all-around game, yet he’s been traded five times in his career and has never last more than two seasons with any single team. Lee has always been desired by others just a little bit more than he’s been needed by his incumbent teams to not include to make trades materialize.

Lee presumably has found a long-term home with a four-year, $50 million deal with the New York Knicks. Lee will start for the Knicks and his salary is below market value for an average starter.

Lee can’t create his own opportunities let alone carry an offense for any extended stretch, but he’ll certainly augment a quality offense. The Hornets scored an outstanding 111.4 points per 100 possessions over nearly 850 minutes after acquiring Lee at the deadline. Lee also scored 1.40 points per possession in transition.

The Knicks already have a pair of ball dominant players in Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose, so Lee is instantly a better fit at shooting guard than Arron Afflalo who is a similar three-point shooter but is a higher usage player with his propensity to post up.

The Knicks practically begged Afflalo to opt out and he signed a two-year, $25 million deal with the Kings that contains a partial guarantee for Year 2, which certainly represents better value in terms of years than Lee, but there very clearly had to be a parting of personalities. The four-year deal for Lee mirrors Joakim Noah’s contract length and the Knicks feel confident of what retooling in 2020 around Porzingis will look like, but that’s kind of the whole problem with their shift to win-now mode. With a healthy and productive season from their starting five, the Knicks' best case scenario is probably as a low playoff seed in the East.

Lee is a career 38.4 percent shooter on three-pointers on 3.5 attempts per 36 minutes. Lee and Kristaps Porzingis will be responsible for spacing the floor in the Knicks’ halfcourt offense since Noah’s range extends about five feet and Derrick Rose has shot under 30 percent on three-pointers each of the past two seasons on a shockingly high volume.

Lee is still one of the NBA’s better, more engaged perimeter defenders. At the age of 30, there will be some decline in his lateral quickness over the life of this deal but he should play it out fairly well due to his relatively limited role.

The Knicks also pursued Eric Gordon in free agency, who signed for virtually the same amount of money. Gordon is four years younger than Lee but his injury history would have made that a riskier signing even though it has more upside since he’s a more dynamic player. Lee is a better fit within the Knicks’ existing roster and is a surer bet to simply provide consistent defense and shooting. 

Grade for Knicks: A-

Despite the Indiana Pacers’ propensity to bring in hometown players and the number of teams Lee has played for in his career, it is shocking he’s never gone home in his career. Lee would actually be a great fit for the Pacers, certainly better than Monta Ellis.

Lee played for the New Jersey Nets early in his career and this is a different sort of homecoming. For a player who has bounced around as much as Lee, signing a four-year deal a few months before beginning your 31-year-old season is tremendous.

Grade for Courtney Lee: A