- Darren Erman, who coached the Celtics’ G League affiliate last season, will join the Knicks as an assistant to Tom Thibodeau, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Erman spent four years as associate head coach with the Pelicans.
Jared Harper is officially back with the Knicks on a two-way contract, according to the NBA’s transactions log. Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports confirms (via Twitter) that Harper signed his two-way qualifying offer from the team.
Harper, 23, signed a two-way contract with Phoenix last July after going undrafted out of Auburn. The 5’11” point guard logged just eight total minutes in three NBA games for the Suns, but had a strong season for the Northern Arizona Suns, Phoenix’s G League affiliate.
In 34 NBAGL games (28.9 MPG), Harper averaged 20.2 PPG, 5.5 APG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.1 SPG with a shooting line of .413/.362/.787.
The Suns released Harper before the NBA restarted its season in July and the Knicks claimed him off waivers, retaining the right to make him a restricted free agent with a two-way qualifying offer. Now Harper appears set to fill one of the team’s two-way contract slots, alongside Theo Pinson.
- Knicks president Leon Rose isn’t eager to pursue a trade for Pacers guard Victor Oladipo even though GM Scott Perry wants to explore that possibility, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. The front office did make a strong push for free agent forward Jerami Grant, who wound up with the Pistons in a sign-and-trade with Denver. Rose could still make another trade for a rotation player or take on another team’s unwanted contract with an asset attached in order to reach the salary cap floor, Berman adds.
The Knicks have announced (via Twitter) that they have inked their 2020 No. 8 lottery pick Obi Toppin to his rookie contract.
The former Dayton forward will earn $4,862,040 in his rookie year and about $22.1MM over the first four years of his NBA career, unless he accepts a deal worth less than the maximum allowable 120% of the rookie scale. A full list of anticipated rookie scale salary figures is viewable here.
The 22-year-old 6’9″ Brooklyn native played two years for Dayton, averaging 20.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, and 2.2 APG across 31 games during his sophomore season (all starts). Toppin was named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and the National College Player of the Year in 2019/20.
Toppin marks the first draft pick of new Knicks team president Leon Rose, and will join new head coach Tom Thibodeau‘s revamped New York roster for the 2020/21 season. This offseason, the Knicks appear to be mostly in asset-gathering mode, having made two deals to turn Ed Davis into three future second-round picks and having avoided signing big-money free agents like Fred VanVleet or Gordon Hayward or (thus far) trading for frustrated Rockets All-Star Russell Westbrook.
NOVEMBER 23: The Jazz have issued a press release officially confirming that they’ve sent Davis and two future second-rounders to New York in exchange for cash considerations.
Now that the move is official, it clears the path for the Knicks to flip Davis to Minnesota in an agreed-upon deal with the Timberwolves.
NOVEMBER 19: The Jazz have reached an agreement to trade veteran big man Ed Davis to the Knicks, league sources tell Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link). New York will also receive a pair of 2023 second-round pick in the deal, per Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst of ESPN (Twitter link).
Davis, who signed a two-year, $9.8MM deal with the Jazz a year ago, didn’t end up being relied upon as a regular part of the club’s rotation. He appeared in just 28 contests, logging 10.8 MPG and establishing new career lows in PPG (1.8) and RPG (3.8).
Davis is owed a guaranteed $5MM salary for the 2020/21 season, so this is essentially a salary dump for the Jazz, who are hoping to re-sign Jordan Clarkson and maintain enough cap flexibility to utilize their full $9.3MM mid-level exception. The Knicks will have upwards of $40MM in cap room in free agency, so they’ll have no problem taking on Davis’ contract.
After acquiring the Pistons’ 2023 second-round in last night’s draft, the Knicks will pick up two more second-rounders for that draft in this swap. It seems the team’s focus on ’23 is no accident — Marc Berman of The New York Post suggested earlier today (via Twitter) that the Knicks “really love” the 2023 draft, which they believe will be the first without the one-and-done rule in place, allowing high-schoolers to enter.
New Knicks president Leon Rose has exuded patience during free agency with an eye toward next offseason’s potentially star-studded free agent class, according to Steve Popper of Newsday. Though the Knicks had some interest in Fred VanVleet and Gordon Hayward, they were not going to shell out the money and multi-year contracts that those top-level free agents received. New York could still trade for Russell Westbrook if the Rockets’ asking price drops but Rose isn’t inclined to make any panic moves, Popper adds.
- The Knicks will retain big man Omari Spellman and he’s got a pretty good shot to make the opening-night roster, Marc Berman of the New York Post tweets. New York has an agreement to acquire Spellman, shooting guard Jacob Evans and the rights to a future second-round pick from the Timberwolves in exchange for Ed Davis. Berman’s note indicates Spellman’s salary wasn’t simply thrown in to make a trade work.
Big man Serge Ibaka was not bereft of contending suitors in free agency, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Scotto notes that the Raptors, the team with whom Ibaka spent most of the last four seasons, apparently offered a one-year, $12MM deal to Ibaka for an encore appearance in 2020/21. Toronto was believed to be unwilling to offer multiple years, which would have cut into the team’s projected 2021 cap space.
The Nets also wanted Ibaka, but could only afford a taxpayer mid-level exception, which would have started at $5.7MM this season. Ibaka ultimately inked a two-year, $19MM contract with the Clippers.
Here are more free agency rumors:
- Though swingman Wesley Iwundu ultimately opted to sign a two-year, veteran’s minimum contract with the Mavericks, the Hawks, Pelicans and Kings were also in the running for Iwundu’s services this offseason, Scotto reports in the same piece.
- The Mavericks and Kings also considered adding reserve center Willy Hernangomez before he agreed to terms with the Pelicans on a one-year, veteran’s minimum deal, per Scotto. Hernangomez’s 2019/20 club, the Hornets, also apparently wanted to re-sign the 26-year-old big man.
- Scotto reports that former Kings wing Kent Bazemore also found himself in high demand this offseason before agreeing to a one-year veteran’s minimum deal with the Warriors. The Lakers, Clippers, Bucks, Celtics, Suns, Knicks, Nets, and Hornets were all interested in adding the three-and-D vet this offseason.
7:15pm: The second and third years of Rivers’ new deal will be non-guaranteed, sources tell Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link).
6:23pm: Following up on his initial report, Wojnarowski says (via Twitter) that Rivers will actually get a three-year deal from the Knicks. It’ll be worth $10MM, Woj adds.
5:08pm: The Knicks have agreed to add free agent combo guard Austin Rivers to their rotation on a one-year deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic (via Twitter) observes that this brings New York to 15 total roster spots, including another new addition, center Ed Davis.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has long been a fan of Rivers, according to Frank Isola of ESPN (Twitter link). Selected by the Pelicans with the 10th pick out of Duke in 2012, the 6’3″ Rivers has developed into a solid reserve scoring guard.
He also had stops with the Clippers and Wizards, before turning in memorable performances on competitive Rockets teams during parts of the last two seasons. In 68 games for the Rockets last season, Rivers added 8.8 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.7 APG. He had a respectable shooting line of .421/.356/.703.
According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link), Rivers is one of eight players with ties to either CAA or the University of Kentucky added by new Knicks GM Leon Rose via draft, trade or free agency.
As the Lakers look to clear some salary to strengthen their offer to free agent center Marc Gasol, the Knicks have emerged as a potential trade partner in a possible deal involving JaVale McGee, sources tell Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link).
Due to their hard-cap constraints, the Lakers are probably limited to only offering Gasol a one-year, minimum-salary deal for the time being. Clearing some salary would allow them to offer Gasol more than the minimum if the Raptors are willing to do a sign-and-trade. It would also allow them to offer a two-year minimum deal (which carries a higher first-year cap hit), as John Hollinger of The Athletic notes (via Twitter).
If the Knicks are going to take on McGee’s contract using their cap room, they’ll need some sort of sweetener. As Michael Scotto of HoopsHype points out (via Twitter), New York got two second-round picks from Utah for taking on Ed Davis‘ $5MM expiring deal and would likely seek a similar haul for accepting McGee’s $4.2MM expiring contract.
The Lakers, who will probably only make a deal if they have an agreement lined up with Gasol (or another free agent), would have to decide how much they’re willing to pay in extra assets to upgrade from McGee at center.
The Knicks have been prioritizing 2023 second-round picks in trades this week, having already acquired – or agreed to acquire – three of them. The team reportedly expects that to be the first draft that high school players will once again permitted to enter, which would make for an extra-talented class. I imagine if a McGee deal gets done between the two teams, the Knicks may well come out of it with the Lakers’ 2023 second-rounder.
NOVEMBER 29: Pinson’s two-way deal with the Knicks is now official, the team tweets.
NOVEMBER 22: The Knicks will sign Theo Pinson to a two-way contract, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.
New York claimed Pinson off waivers in June, but he became a free agent on Thursday when the Knicks turned down their team option for 2020/21.
The 25-year-old shooting guard spent the past two years with the Nets. He got into 33 games last season, averaging 3.6 PPG in about 11 minutes per night.
The Knicks created a two-way opening by waiving Kenny Wooten earlier this week. They made a qualifying offer to Jared Harper, who could return to fill the other two-way slot.