FRIDAY, 9:45pm: The signing is official, the Knicks announced.
8:33pm: New York is likely to ink Thomas using available cap space, and not a trade exception, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com tweets.
THURSDAY, 7:15pm: The Knicks have reached an agreement with unrestricted free agent Lance Thomas for the forward to return to New York, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (on Twitter). It will be a one-year, $1.6MM deal, Charania adds.
Thomas, 27, appeared in 40 games for New York last season, averaging 8.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 26.0 minutes per contest, with a slash line of .433/.333/.742. His career numbers through 168 NBA contests are 4.5 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 0.6 APG.
The forward brought energy and hustle to the Knicks last season, and will factor into the frontcourt mix for the team’s revamped roster, most likely as a reserve. The Spurs and Nets had also expressed interest in Thomas.
Not sure I like the team dipping into their cap space to sign a marginal player like this. It’s not much cap space, but neither of the interested teams (Nets, Spurs) were presumably going to use cap space to sign him. Knicks needed to overpay to keep a FA. How the tides have turned
Lance Thomas is a pretty good player. I like him as a combo forward for them. Looking at the Knicks roster, they actually havent done too badly, but they need at least another wing player, and they have a couple of guys they should attempt to move. They also probably need to scrap the whole triangle idea
They should not scrap the whole triangle idea. Are you kidding me? Finally NY has some real basketball and not iso ball with Carmelo again. Give it time the system will open up for the players I say this year they take real strides toward improvement.
Slight edit for language