Joakim Noah hasn’t played since his 20-game PED suspension expired Saturday, and Marc Berman of the New York Post writes that the Knicks will probably waive the veteran center at some point and use the stretch provision on the final two years of his contract.
“We want him to be involved,’’ coach Jeff Hornacek said Wednesday after sitting Noah for the second straight game. “[He wants] to be involved. We don’t know when the time will come when he’s active.”
Hornacek’s dilemma is that he now has four centers competing for playing time. Enes Kanter, acquired in the Carmelo Anthony trade, has taken over the starting spot, with Kyle O’Quinn playing well as the backup. Willy Hernangomez is already upset about his reduced minutes after being part of the rotation last season.
Hornacek said it’s “possible” that he may find a way to use all four centers, but added, “I’m not looking to do that right away.”
Any move with Noah probably won’t happen soon, Berman notes, as there is no advantage in terms of cap space in using the stretch provision now. The Knicks have a September 1 deadline if they want to take the $37.8MM Noah is owed for the final two seasons of his deal and stretch it over five years.
Noah would receive a little more than $7.5MM per season, giving New York roughly $11MM in extra cap room for next year and $12MM for 2019/20. The Knicks could opt to seek a buyout or waive him without stretching the contract, which would provide little to no cap relief over the next two seasons, but would remove his salary from the books by July of 2020.
Although Noah has minimal trade value, Berman mentions Timberwolves coach/executive Tom Thibodeau as someone who might be interested. Thibodeau coached Noah for several years in Chicago, including when he was a first team All-NBA selection in 2013/14.
For now, Noah is reduced to a mentor’s role in New York, working mainly with Kanter and Hernangomez. Hornacek said the NBA’s requirement that teams have an inactive list for each game makes it difficult to find playing time for Noah.
“It’s a tough spot,” the coach said. “He’s a great team guy. He sees how we’re playing. He’s still part of the team if inactive or not. He doesn’t want to rock the boat but he is competitive and wants to be out there to help us.”
Noah for Deng? Maybe a change of scenery helps both? The money is about the same.
The Lakers already have Bogut & Lopez, why would they want another useless center. Deng & Noah are both washed up.
Because Deng will NEVER play this season. Noah may give them so minutes especially if they move Bogut at the trade deadline.
I was thinking about this exact scenario the other day. Swap bad contracts, maybe each player finds some playing time with the opposite teams.
Doesn’t Deng have one more year on his contract? Doesn’t make much sense for LA to surrender a more favorable stretch provision just to see if Noah can produce any useful minutes.
Berman is an idiot. Stretching him has nothing to do with when he’s paid. Then, Berman shows he can’t even do simple math. It’s not that hard, factoring in future payrolls, you’ll see his release (even if they wait until next year – so why talk about it now?) does not create significant cap space unless other things change. Cap space matters only if its over the MLE (almost 9 mm in a few years). You stretch a guy for two reasons: (i) luxury tax reduction: or (ii) to open up cap space to sign a FA who has a pen in his hand. You don’t just do it mid season because he may not have a spot in the rotation. That applies to a lot of guys on a 15 man roster.
I don’t think Noah would be a good fit in Minnesota. With Thibs and Gibson, yes. But definitely not with Butler. Butler was one of the ones that took over the locker room and forced Noah out of town.