Knicks guard Ron Baker has exercised his player option for the 2018/19 season and will remain under contract with the team for one more season, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The option will pay Baker a salary of $4,544,400.
Baker, 25, joined the Knicks as an undrafted free agent out of Wichita State at the start of the 2016/17 season. After impressing the team in his rookie season, the 6’4″ guard inked a two-year deal last summer, with New York utilizing its full room exception to lock him up.
In the first year of his new contract, Baker was limited to 29 games, due in part to a season-ending shoulder injury. He averaged 2.4 PPG and 1.6 APG with a .339/.333/.769 shooting line in 13.3 minutes per contest. Those modest numbers made Baker’s 2018/19 option a lock to be exercised.
Baker’s decision continues a trend of an increasing number of NBA veterans picking up player options rather than turning them down. During the 2016 and 2017 offseasons, only eight of 53 player options were exercised. However, Baker is already the seventh player to opt into a contract this spring, joining Jeremy Lin (Nets), Cory Joseph (Pacers), Wesley Johnson (Clippers), Wesley Matthews (Mavericks), Kosta Koufos (Kings), and Jason Smith (Wizards).
When a 25 year old opts in to the last year of his deal, it’s about as clear a sign as there can be that he’s overpaid. Good work Mills.
Players are either overpaid or underpaid and rarely paid just the right amount. It happens.
Not to this degree. It’s certainly not the worst contract ever given out, but may very well be the most inexplicable. He’s a minimum salary guy who would have been lucky to get a guaranteed 1 year minimum deal with another team. Knicks agreed to 9 mm/2 year deal within the first hours of FA.
In the grand scheme of things 4 MM is nothing to the knicks especially since they’re unlikely to sign a significant FA who’d want a wasted losing year on the team with porzingas out for a significant part of the season.
True, as it will likely turn out. It’s the thought process of Mills behind not only the signing, but the priority he gave it. THJ was signed with same inexplicable indifference to market value.
Go for it Ron, this will be your highest paid year in your career, unfortunately for you, it will never happen again. But well done for getting it, not your fault bud.
Enjoy it.
I’m not really going out on a limb by saying this but the reason so many of these player options are getting exercised is because teams have given out some pretty bad contracts ever since the cap spiked a few years ago
This is a contract that Dolan submits as a write off on his tax filing and the IRS doesn’t contest it.
I honestly don’t know why this kid got signed for those dollars. I don’t even know why he’s even in the NBA. What were Knick execs even thinking about?
I hope the Knicks either trade him for a second round pick or cut him. Dolan can afford to choke down Baker’s contract. In an already crowded back court Baker shouldn’t be considered to be on the team by training camp.
Baker wouldn’t even make the cut on an AAU 7th grade team.