11:50am: The Knicks have officially confirmed Jennings’ release and Randle’s new deal, tweeting a photo of the rookie guard signing his contract.
7:23am: The Knicks are set to cut ties with veteran guard Brandon Jennings, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (via Twitter). After waiving Jennings, the club will use its open roster spot to sign free agent guard Chasson Randle, Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter).
Randle, who went undrafted in 2015, appeared headed toward a roster spot with the Knicks in October, but was waived after suffering an orbital bone fracture. Randle subsequently joined New York’s D-League squad as an affiliate player, and a solid showing in Westchester earned him an audition with the Sixers, which in turn led to two 10-day contracts and a rest-of-season deal. However, he lost his roster spot last week when the club needed to clear a spot to complete its Nerlens Noel trade with Dallas.
According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Randle will ink a multiyear deal with the Knicks that features a partial guarantee for the 2017/18 season.
As for Jennings, the former 10th overall pick signed a one-year, $5MM contract with the Knicks last summer, and has averaged 8.6 PPG and 4.9 APG in 58 games for the club, with a .380/.340/.756 shooting line. Per Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (via Twitter), Jennings recently informed the Knicks that he’d like to join a playoff team, so the Knicks will release him to potentially give him that opportunity.
If Jennings clears waivers, he’ll be free to sign with any team, but as Bobby Marks of The Vertical observes (via Twitter), that $5MM contract could be appealing to teams below the salary floor, since there’s only about $1.2MM left to pay on it. We identified the teams below the floor over the weekend, including the Jazz ($4.23MM below) and Wolves ($3.24MM below).