When Maurice Harkless was traded from the Clippers to the Knicks, many assumed that the forward would agree to a buyout with New York and move on to a more competitive team. However, will not be the case.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com (Twitter link), Harkless and the Knicks are not in buyout discussions and the veteran will remain with the team through the season.
There were reports earlier this month suggesting the Knicks had no plans to buy out Harkless or any of their veterans. However, it was a point worth confirming after the 26-year-old this week admitted this week that moving from a contender to a non-competitive team has been hard.
Harkless is in the final year of his contract and will hit the free-agent market this offseason. Not many teams are expected to have available cap space and we’ve seen players stick with bad clubs as opposed to agreeing to a buyout for presumed financial reasons. For example, Tristan Thompson declined to enter into a buyout agreement with the Cavs since the team owned his Bird Rights and could sign-and-trade him this summer.
Like Thompson, by taking this approach Harkless may be able to reap a bigger payday than signing outright in free agency since there are a lack of clubs with flexibility. The Knicks acquired Harkless’ Bird Rights when they acquired him, so they could go over the cap to sign the forward.
after a sign & trade, are both participating teams hard-capped, or only the team receiving the signed player?
Not that I expect a hard cap to effect the Knicks next season, but how does that work?
Only the team receiving a player is hard-capped.
Not sure why S+T would be a factor since it’s unlikely Mo gets more than the full MLE.
Unlikely? LOL. Trevor Ariza signed for 15M as a 33 year old and then 2Y-25M this past summer.
Harkless is 26. Defensive wings are in high demand.
Even if he doesn’t, sign-and-trade can be useful to allow a team to save its MLE for another move. (Like what the Spurs did with Carroll last year, though that obviously ended up being a disaster.)
Harkless’ cap hold will be $16.5MM and there’s no way he’s getting that type of salary next year. So no point in the Knicks going under the cap but holding onto his Bird Rights.
link to spotrac.com
Spotrac did not even list a hold for Harkless, though they did for others… Small amounts for Trier, Dotson, Rabb, Kadeem.
No expert but I think holds go away anyway when a player signs somewhere. (In Harkless’ case, for probably half that.)