NOVEMBER 29: The Knicks’ deal with Payton is now official, Marc Berman of the New York Post tweets.
NOVEMBER 27: Shortly after clearing waivers this afternoon, Elfrid Payton has reached a deal to return to the Knicks, his agents at CAA tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
New York waived Payton on Thursday and paid a $1MM partial guarantee on his previous contract rather than giving him the full amount of $8MM. Payton will receive $5MM for one season on his new pact, per Wojnarowski.
Given the reported price of Payton’s new deal, it’s possible the Knicks will look to fit him into their room exception ($4.77MM). In that scenario, the team would still have approximately $29MM in cap room to use, without Payton cutting into it. If he gets any amount over $4.77MM, he’ll have to be re-signed using some of that cap space.
Payton got the most use of New York’s point guard options last season, starting 36 of the 45 games he played. He averaged 10.0 points and 7.2 assists per game, but shot just 43.9% from the field and 20.3% from three-point range.
If they don’t make any more moves at the position, the Knicks will have the same three players at point guard as they did a year ago, with Payton battling Frank Ntilikina and Dennis Smith Jr. for playing time, and it will be up to new coach Tom Thibodeau to sort them out.
Welcome back I guess
Will be fun watching Head Coach Thibodeau’s head explode when he gets a load of Payton not playing defense. Should be a blast.
Knicks still the same Knicks
not great, but not the worst move possible, knicks being sort of smart this offseason
Good , sound business move. Can organize and facilitate an offense effectively. Well worth the 5m. Last years 8m was an overpay.
It’s actually 6 because they paid the partial guarantee
Lol just when you thought the Knicks were done being the Knicks…Elfrid Payton and Alec Burks. Burks isn’t the worst signing, but YAWN. Would’ve preferred to see New York sign a PG with a little more floor spacing ability to help some of the young guys out with their development. Also very unlikely any team would give up any real asset to acquire Elf at the deadline this year. Money and roster spot could’ve been much better spent IMO
Actually they have a lot of cap space so they can help teams who don’t want certain players and get assets from
That trade . Knicks are rebuilding smart .
Yes, which is exactly what they should have been doing for the past 4-5 years now. Elfrid takes $5 million of that cap space away, and does not really give you much of an on-court return. Also unlikely to be able to flip him for an asset at the deadline. Could have made better use of that cap space and roster spot
So you’re complaining about signing Payton, a low cost player on a one year deal, but you’re also going to say that this move is ‘what they should have been doing for the past 4-5 years now’ while, again, deriding this move. Odd.
So the Knicks should go without cheap players. They should only field the stars that do not show up. That would make every game a forfeit, but they would get a good pick.
Get rid of frank
As a Raptors fan, I would gladly take him. Young, lottery pick point guard who is already an above average defender and can grow more in that area, plus has the ability to become a decent outside shooter. When is the last time the Knicks developed anybody?? Bring him to the Raptors organization, and watch him flourish…
you can have him bro
Frank is terrible. I don’t understand how he continues to have people defend him or his supposed potential. He is one of the worst players in the league who gets regular time and has barely improved since his rookie year. Raptors are lucky you’re not their GM.
Well said.
And randle and
We got cap space go get Bogdanovic lols. This is better than Teague. Thibs is a D guy. He can help him be a better PG. It’s solid and we got depth. Eventually FSJ is getting moved. Just need to bring up their value. More important is what we with Randle. He’s not coming back to go to bench. I don’t see him happy there. Hope we get value for him.
DSJ
Agreed – lot of ppl ragging on the Knicks but I’d rather see them do this than break the bank on Van Vleet or Hayward or trading future picks for RWB
Not great but comparatively decent for NYK
Good move, at that price, once Dragic, Augustine and Rondo came off the table. He’s not a bad player. He’s excellent on defense, and can be even better with Thibs. His ball handling and passing are very good. He’s OK going to the basket. He just can’t shoot, and that was a tough thing with last year’s group and probably this one as well. What else is there?
Last year Payton was a fortunate find… this year a logical keep. Nothing great, just a cooler head for a pieced-together team.
I wonder who GM Rose might have turned away.