Responding to a reader’s question in a video mailbag, Ian Begley of SNY.tv identified Hawks big man Clint Capela as one of the centers the Knicks have checked in on this offseason as they scour the trade market.
“I don’t know how far talks went,” Begley said (Twitter video clip). “I don’t know if they’re active at this very moment. But they did check in on Capela.”
According to Begley, it’s unclear whether the Knicks envisioned Capela replacing Mitchell Robinson on the roster as their starting center or if they viewed the duo as a potential platoon at the five. Either scenario is a long shot, given that Capela will earn $22.3MM in 2024/25. Sending out enough salary to exceed Capela’s cap figure (avoiding a first-apron hard cap) would be tricky, unless the Knicks were to move either Julius Randle ($28.9MM) or multiple rotation players in a deal.
Although the Knicks have kicked the tires on higher-salary center options like Capela, Begley says the most likely scenario is that they add a lower-cost backup for Robinson and enter training camp with a roster that looks very similar to the current group.
Here’s more on the NBA’s two New York teams:
- The influx of money that the NBA’s new media rights deals will bring into the league has Knicks forward Josh Hart rethinking how long he wants to play, he said during an appearance on the Front Office Sports Today podcast. “I wanted to retire at like 34, maybe 35, so I’d still got a bit of juice left,” Hart said (story via Dennis Young of Front Office Sports). “But then I saw (reports of the new $76 billion media deal), and I was like, you know what? I’m gonna play until my knees fall off.”
- Jacob Gilyard is no longer with the Nets‘ Summer League team, according to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (Twitter link). While there are no details yet on Gilyard’s absence, Lewis speculates that the free agent guard’s strong play in Las Vegas – including a .375 3PT% and 3.3 steals per game – may have earned him a contract offer from another NBA club.
- Nets swingman Jalen Wilson, who had already been excelling in Vegas, had 33 points and 10 rebounds in Thursday’s victory over Orlando and looks like a legitimate candidate for this year’s Summer League MVP award, writes Collin Helwig of NetsDaily. Wilson has averaged 24.3 points per game on .463/.556/.882 shooting in four outings. The 23-year-old, who has a $1.89MM minimum-salary contract for 2024/25 that is currently just partially guaranteed for $75K, looks like a safe bet to make Brooklyn’s regular season roster, which would increase that partial guarantee to $325K.
Zero reason for the Hawks to trade Clint unless we’re getting an all-star level guy like BI or the type of package that Utah got for Rudy. Clint is basically the perfect 5 to pair with Trae Young. If we would’ve traded Trae then I might have seen a way for us to move on from Clint but now that we’re keeping Trae it would be crazy not to also keep our big guy… Unrelated but Im not a fan of us sitting Risacher after just 2 SL games. I def wanted to see him vs Buzelis tonight. Hopefully he can play in our last game tmrw, even if it’s just the 1st half.
Delulu. capela He’s not that good anymore.
Yes he is
Type of package that Utah got for Rudy?
Serious? You want to reread that statement yourself out loud ….
You want to reread?
Ok go ahead. Take your time …
To him all Pigeon players are overvalued.
When Gobert got traded, he was a 3x DPOY, 4x All-NBA, and 3x All-Star who led the league in TS% three times and was coming off a 15.6 ppg, 14.7 rpg season with a 71.3 FG%. Capela has not done any of that. Not a knock on Capela as I think he’s a great player. But he’s not in Rudy’s league. And for the talk of him being a ‘perfect fit’ with Trae, the Hawks have reduced his minutes per game in each season he’s been there. And he’s an impending free agent.
I get that the Hawks are your team, but you are seriously overvaluing him.
First off when guys are traded or drafted or being evaluated by teams their past awards & accomplishments get zero consideration. It’s all about what a guy’s skillset & what he can bring to that team. Skillset wise he’s definitely in Rudy’s league. Rudy is def taller/longer but Clint is more athletic & has better hands. Both guys are pretty elite at what they do, which is very similar. I’d prob say Rudy is a bit more valuable bc he’s just so elite defensively & those extra 4inches of height & extra couple inches of length do matter. Of course Rudy is getting paid twice as much which swings the value back Clint’s way when considering the salary cap. In any case those guys are definitely comparable.
Second, most important & (I’d think) obviously what I said was that the only way we should trade Clint is if someone gave up a Rudy type package (or an all-star level guy like BI). The overall point (which I clearly state in my very first sentence) is that we shouldn’t trade Clint. In that same vein I would also say that we shouldn’t trade Jalen Johnson unless we get a Donovan Mitchell type return. Obv Jalen hasn’t made an all-star team or all-NBA or scored 50 3x in a playoff series. But we shouldn’t trade him unless we get a huge haul in return.
And Clint having his mins reduced the past few yrs has nothing to do with his fit with Trae. Lol not even sure what made you frame those 2 things together. We have 1 of the best backup bigs in the league in Onyeka (prob the best other than Naz). This season I could even see Onyeka playing more mins than Clint (tho Clint should obv still remain the starter). But Clint continues to be a perfect fit with Trae, offensively & defensively. And as much as I love Onyeka he’s still not as great as Clint is, especially at the 3 main things we need our big to be great at, rebounding, rim protection & screen setting.
Trust me I know Clint is an impending free agent. Why would this make us want to trade him lol? He’s still under contract for this season. We need him this season. Nobody that we have & nobody that we can acquire can do what he does. Remember how the Rockets immediately regretted trading him lol. Why (unless we got a huge, Rudy Gobert type haul for him) would we make the same mistake? There’s no doubt that Clint would help numerous teams if they could acquire him this season. Literally nobody on earth guards Jokic anywhere as well as he does & this has been the case since before those guys were drafted. But there’s just no reason for us to move him. If someone can come up with a trade proposal for Clint that makes any sense for the Hawks I’d love to see it.
“First off when guys are traded or drafted or being evaluated by teams their past awards & accomplishments get zero consideration.”
Come on. A player’s past accomplishments get zero consideration? lmao. Also I wasn’t even saying that the acquiring team would use those things as evaluators. I was using the awards and accomplishments to show *you* that Gobert is on a completely different level than Capela and therefore Capela would not net anywhere near the return Gobert did.
“Skillset wise he’s definitely in Rudy’s league.”
Please see my previous comment where I compare Gobert’s past awards and accomplishments to Capela’s. Rudy is better than Capela by a good margin.
I’m not reading the rest of your comment but I assume it’s driven by homerism and emotion, which I get. Fans always overvalue their own players. I do it, too. But thinking Capela would get anything more than a protected 1st or two is wishful thinking. Thinking that he would get a Gobert-level return is insane.
No man. These awards are truly meaningless as far player evaluation. I guess it’s good we have these type of discussions bc that’s something that y’all should definitely know. Rudy being a 3 or 4x DPOY & perennial all-star means absolutely nothing as far as what a team would trade for him. His skillset, his size, his durability & just what he brings to a team overall is what matters. The fact that you put so much stock in those awards moreso than a guys actual skillset truly says volumes about the way you see the game & I promise you aren’t the only one on this site who thinks like this. Y’all are quicker to look at a guy’s #s than to watch him play actual basketball. I can’t stress how obvious/prevalent this type of thinking is on here & it’s sorta mind boggling to me tbh. If you really want to understand the differences between Rudy & Clint, or any two guys, the best way to do that is to watch those guys play (& have a basic understanding of what NBA 5s do). One of the worst ways to understand that would be to compare their awards. This seems like it should go without saying fr.
Speaking of transparent, dude you clearly read the entire comment and saw that it destroyed every point you thought you were making lol. However big the L was that you were taking you make it so much bigger by choosing such a cowardly escape.
Say Pigeon Fan ……. All his accomplishments are because of his skill sets……. shut it down. Its getting worse.
The delusion is strong today
Package like Jazz got ……. ????
do we need to know anything more from you. You’d have to attach a pick to get rid of Capela. Only been trying to move him for over a yr now …….
Knicks don’t want Capela. Mitch fits us much better. Every C is going to Knicks now ……….
Is Begley privy to the Nyk cap sheet?
You’d think so……but this knowledge would certainly temper his wild curiosities he’s spilling out today.
@Cap – Begley is not privy to anything. That’s one of the few things I can guarantee. Since Rose took over, outside reporters (and nobody, other than Berman maybe, is more outside than Begley) get nothing from the FO, not even the propaganda they send to ticket holders. He’s just hoping to annoy them enough that they’ll respond in some way.
Randle is very unlikely to be traded at all, and he certainly won’t be traded in a deal that doesn’t bring back a replacement as an offensive option. The OG and Bridges trades make no sense unless your primary offensive options are in place.
Knicks should sign Jay Huff, Orlando Robinson, or Micah Potter, bring back Achiuwa, and call it an offseason, and I think that puts them in strong position
It’s almost as though Jalen Wilson should have played at the 4/3 the whole time…to be fair though, they had a bunch of people at his positions
I’m watching the Summer league and looks like Skapintsev making a strong case to back up Mitch. I’m aware it’s just SL but he still looks good.
Yes ! He’s been impressive! He has all the required skill sets.
Watching Skapintsev, his play has been intriguing but I just don’t think he’s going to be able to keep up against real NBA competition – don’t think he has NBA athleticism, and I’d expect him to be picked apart defensively even if he does have a relatively diverse offensive skill set for a big.
I’d like to find a way to keep him in Westchester but he’s already 26, didn’t really light up the G-League and assuming the Knicks sign another big man, if they’re gonna keep a 4th on a contract, I’d rather it be Hukporti.
Not sure he is strong enough yet for 82 gms and NBA bigs. It’s why I watch Hukporti. All we need is 20 mins a gm from backup.
I like those guys to be dark horse candidates to produce similar statistics if they were to get Hartensteins mins. I think they’d be great pickups on a bargain.
“im gonna play till my knees fall off” is why teams caps are crap. a few exceptions, but these guys need to give it up in their early thirties instead of being closer to forty. playing half seasons but still getting a seasons salary.
You sound bitter my guy.
I don’t think the 35+ year olds making the vet minimum are the reason team’s financial situations are bad.
Illowa, Please provide examples.
Sometimes there are older players who still make way more than they are worth.
But teams have a choice to pay them that. Sometimes teams trade for overpaid players in exchange for draft picks.
The cap not rising very much this off season along with the new CBA is why teams cap sheets are so messed up right now.
Someone who signed a max contract last year with a 5% raise for this year, is now making more than a max contract for example.
Relax everyone. Capela is fine to stay in Atlanta. ATL doesn’t have their own picks so they need to compete. Looking at their roster.
PG. T Young
SG. B Bogdanovic
SF D Hunter
PF ?
C C Capela
They need a All Star Scoring PF the same age as T Young or a veteran (means in their 30s) to compete. Trade Nance, Liddel, cash, draft rights etc etc for one.
Have OO and Johnson as super subs. Look for another young PG and a young C too on two way contracts
Robinson’s brittleness should scare every Knicks fan. It make coke back to bite them.
It’s amazing how they use NY for the attention. Hawks have been trying to move Capela for yrs now. I’d say it’s safe to say. No one wants him at that salary. And I like Capela …….
Stop swallowing the Randle trades ……..
Why would Knicks break up at team they have JUST put together. Knicks core is set. It’s time to contend. Year 5 of rebuild coming.
Obviously what they need is a backup C. You do understand Hartenstein was our backup Center …….. or did we miss that.
In life they say it’s all about timing. IHart is living proof of that. Great for him.
Knicks have two 7’ in camp. Both playing well in SL. Hopefully at some point they will be ready to move up this yr. Hukporti has NBA size and is 22yrs old. Imo that’s who they are looking at. Needs time, watch him.
So what FA centers are available now….
We can actually look that up !!!!!
Jordan. Yurtseven, McGee, Boban, Koloko are the ones who stand out to me. OK which one can work with Mitch as a two headed center. This is the options we have. Unless they move Mitch plus pick to upgrade ……… Boban in NY would be fun.
link to basketball.realgm.com
Jalen Wilson has definitely earned a spot on the Nets’ main roster and probably should be in the rotation.
The Knicks are going to go into the season with Mitch and Jericho at the 5. They’ll probably add a Javale McGee type vet in case Mitch goes down. The Knicks will be in the market for a trade in season or they’ll be active in the buyout market. They just need to make it thru the first 45-50 games