JUNE 29: As expected, the Knicks have waived Thomas, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
JUNE 14: The Knicks plan on waiving forward Lance Thomas, though they have interest in re-signing him, Ian Begley of SNY TV reports.
Thomas has a non-guaranteed contract of $7.58MM for next season and would receive $1MM if he’s on the roster through June 30. Thomas’ salary is the largest on the Knicks’ ledger. Waiving him would give them even more cap space to pursue free agents and blockbuster trades.
However, the club appreciates Thomas for his leadership and willingness to mentor younger players, according to Begley, so it would try to re-sign him at a reduced rate. With the team intend on giving its younger players experience, Thomas appeared in just 46 games this past season. He averaged 4.5 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 17.0 MPG.
He has been in the Knicks organization since the 2014/15 season after starting his career in New Orleans in 2011. Thomas, 31, also appeared in 22 games with Oklahoma City before joining the Knicks. He’s entering the final year of a four-year, $27.5MM contract, which he signed in 2016.
idk how he lasted that long
Good riddance.
They will wait , he can be a perfect salary filler with this contract.
It’s a big mistake to waive him before the date
I can’t believe he got a 4 year 27 mil contract although I think that was right at the salary increase when fringe starters were getting 15 mil contracts.
Turned one season of decent play on a bad team into $28M.
League minimum only. Even then, there’s no reason to bring him back. LT was well liked by the young guys last year, but more about advising on life in the NBA. That doesn’t require an encore. Mentors are silly (or the talk about them is anyway), and Thomas can’t be a veteran who leads by example since he won’t play and never has played much.
Thank you for your service, Lance.
And just like that for the next couple of days Joakim Noahs $6.43 million (stretched) is the largest figure on the Knicks books.
He stinks don’t bring him back