The Knicks, setting themselves up to have the maximum amount of cap space available once free agency begins, will not extend qualifying offers to former first-round pick Emmanuel Mudiay or big man Luke Kornet, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). Both Mudiay and Kornet will be unrestricted free agents.
Haynes adds that the decision on Mudiay was solely to clear cap space for this summer, and that both Mudiay and the Knicks are interested in a reunion next season. However, because the Knicks will need to renounce the 23-year-old point guard’s Bird rights to clear his free agent cap hold of $12,883,440 off their books, they’ll need to use cap space or an exception to re-sign him.
As for Kornet, it’s unclear whether the Knicks have any interest in re-signing him. He played a significant role towards the end of the 2018/19 season, but the Knicks are clearly not looking at last year’s team as a building block for the future, and they already have a young big in Mitchell Robinson around whom to build.
Can only hope that they don’t bring either back.
If the Knicks are “not looking at last year’s team as a building block for the future,” then why would we want Mudiay back? We already have DSJ, Frank, and Kadeem Allen, each of whom I like better than Mudiay.
And all that were from last year’s team lol
Thank goodness,
I don’t know what the love affair with Mudiay was/is, but hopefully it’s over. The guy is average to subpar in many categories, and will never be more than a $4-$5M a year player. Would rather see DSJ get second team minutes if they’re able to land a better PG in FA.
Kornet surprises me. His cap hold is only a little over a 1 mm more than a roster hold. Good defender, excellent 3 pt shooter and all-around high IQ big.
Mudiay is a better player than DSJ, but the latter is still on his RSC and I don’t see any case for bringing both back (other than continuing the musical chair rotations for another year).