While their $72MM investment in Joakim Noah back in 2016 stands out as the Knicks’ worst use of cap room in recent years, the team’s use of its space in 2017 was also questionable — a massive offer sheet for Tim Hardaway Jr. ate up most of New York’s flexibility, and the club’s room exception went to Ron Baker. A year later, the Knicks won’t have as much money to spend, and that should be just fine. With Kristaps Porzingis‘ recovery from a torn ACL expected to sideline him for the start of the 2018/19 season, New York shouldn’t be focused on win-now moves in the coming months.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Knicks financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2018:
Guaranteed Salary
- Joakim Noah ($18,530,000)
- Tim Hardaway Jr. ($17,325,000)
- Courtney Lee ($12,253,780)
- Lance Thomas ($7,119,650)
- Kristaps Porzingis ($5,697,054)
- Emmanuel Mudiay ($4,294,480)
- Frank Ntilikina ($4,155,720)
- Damyean Dotson ($1,378,242)
- Total: $70,753,926
Player Options
- Enes Kanter ($18,622,514)
- Ron Baker ($4,544,400)
- Kyle O’Quinn ($4,256,250)
- Total: $27,423,164
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Trey Burke ($1,795,015)1
- Troy Williams ($1,544,951)2
- Total: $3,339,966
Restricted Free Agents
- None
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- No. 9 overall pick ($3,708,089)3
- Michael Beasley ($1,499,698): Non-Bird rights
- Jarrett Jack ($1,499,698): Non-Bird rights
- Total: $6,707,485
Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000
Projected Cap Room: None
- There are a number of variables in play when it comes to cap space for the Knicks. Our projection assumes that Kanter and Baker will pick up their player options and that the team will retain all 10 players currently under contract – including the non-guaranteed deals – along with its first-round pick. Combining all those cap hits would take team salary to almost exactly $101MM.
- There are scenarios in which the Knicks could create room. Kanter opting out and not re-signing would remove $18.6MM+ from the team’s books, and waiving and stretching Noah would trim team salary by another $11MM or so. Still, I think the Knicks are more likely to make an effort to open up cap space in 2019 than in 2018.
Footnotes:
- Burke’s salary becomes guaranteed for $100K after July 10 and guaranteed for $400K after the first game of the 2018/19 regular season.
- Williams’ exact contract details, including guarantee info, aren’t yet known.
- The Knicks are ninth in the draft lottery standings. They could end up picking as high as No. 1 ($8,095,595) and as low as No. 12 ($3,179,248).
Note: Rookie scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The first four guaranteed salary players are all overpriced.
The sad thing is depending on his injury situation, the fifth guy might be overpaid too. ACL injuries have been known to ruin careers.
Footnote 3 is not technically correct. The only spots the Knicks can pick are 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, or 12. It’s impossible for them to pick in spots 4-8 or 13-14.
I see you already made a “Lottery Odds” post…so you should already know LOL…just refer to that.
Good catch. That was wording from an old template that I forgot to update.
No worries. You guys do a good job at putting out info very fast…
You might as well put Baker, Burke, Williams and the 1st rounder in the guaranteed column for FA purposes. Assuming we pick 9th and both Kanter and KO opt out, then the choice is between (i) renouncing rights to both and get a little under 17 mm in cap space (with an additional 4.5 mm RE), and (ii) sign one or both (with Bird rights) and use the 9 mm MLE and 3.5 mm BAE.
IMO, it’s an easy call to sign both Kanter and KO if they’re demands reflect their professed desire to be here. Then use the MLE/BAE to find some younger guys and maybe sign our 2nd rounder for more than 2 years.
Not seeing where all the space comes in 2019, as most of that guaranteed $$ extends 2 more years, and KP’s extension will kick in then. More like 2020, and that’s actually not bad timing.
I’m not yet convinced that Kanter will opt out. If he opts in and the Knicks keep Noah another year before stretching him, they could head into the 2019 offseason with only Hardaway, Lee, Ntilikina, 2018’s lottery pick, Noah’s dead money, and Porzingis’ cap hold on their books for less than $65MM. It does probably make more sense to look ahead to 2020 free agency, but there’s a path to 2019 space if they want it.
The only way I’d stretch Noah is if there’s a FA with a pen in his hand ready to sign with us, and we need the space. If Lee plays well again, he’s likely movable for an expiring deal, and that may set up 2019. But we have to be good enough to attract an elite FA, and have a max slot. Hard to marry those two in 2019, particularly if we send away our best healthy player in Kanter.
Just to get opinions from around, is Noah the worst contract in the league? Deng? Anthony? Whiteside? Other?
Parsons’ is clearly worse than Noah. Deng as bad, and others close, e.g., Mozgov. Melo has only more year, so it’s in a different category. Noah could get out this club if he gets a chance to play. Some others simply can’t.
We dont even know how bad Deng is or Mozgov. They are/were benched for tanking purposes.
Deng wasn’t benched for tanking. He was benched because Luke Walton didn’t think he was good enough to be in the rotation. You don’t bench a guy for 81 games for tanking purposes. You bench him for 81 games because you don’t want or need him on your team.
Tanking when you don’t have your own 1st round pick? That would be a first.