Knicks Prepare Four-Year Offer For Hernangomez?

4:39pm: Miller says New York has made no offer to his client, Ian Begley of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). Of course, this could simply be a matter of semantics, as the Knicks can’t formally make an offer until July, as we noted below.

1:02pm: The Knicks have a four-year, $4.5MM offer in the works for draft-and-stash prospect Guillermo “Willy” Hernangomez, reports Javier Maestro of Encestando (translation via HoopsHype and Joe Flynn of SB Nation’s Posting and Toasting). The 6’11” center has rejected two offers from Real Madrid, his Spanish team, and it would take a significant shift in momentum for him not to wind up with New York next season, according to Maestro.

Still, the latest news is a change from this past fall, when Hernangomez said he wanted to stay with Madrid for many years to come, despite an earlier report that the Knicks were planning to sign him before the 2016/17 season. He’d like to play for the Spanish national team this year, which would keep him from taking part in Knicks summer league action, among the obstacles agent Andy Miller discussed a few months ago with Marc Berman of the New York Post.

The Knicks won’t be able to formally present Hernangomez with a contract until July 7th, when the July moratorium is over, and they’ll need to use cap space or the mid-level exception, since the deal would cover more than two years. Still, New York has his NBA rights exclusively, having acquired them in a draft-night deal last June with the Sixers, who picked him 35th overall. Hernangomez, who turns 22 later this month, has posted averages of 5.5 points and 3.4 rebounds in 11.6 minutes per game for Real Madrid this season.