From ESPN…
The New York Knicks created over $40 million in salary-cap space Thursday by parting ways with six veteran players.
The Knicks announced that they waived forward Taj Gibson and guards Elfrid Payton and Wayne Ellington and declined the $15.75 million team option on forward Bobby Portis’ contract.
Gibson was set to make $9.45 million in 2020-21, while Payton and Ellington each was scheduled to make $8 million.
The three will each make $1 million in guaranteed money from their deals with the Knicks despite being waived.
New York also declined a $1.7 million option on forward Theo Pinson’s deal and waived forward Kenny Wooten, who was on a two-way contract.
The Knicks signed Gibson, Payton, Ellington and Portis in June 2019 after failing to land the high-profile free agents that summer, including current Brooklyn Nets teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
It’s going to be fascinating to see what they do with all of that cap room.
44 replies on “ESPN.com: New York Knicks create $40M in cap space by parting ways with six players”
my hypothesis: we’re trading randle and maybe another player plus a Dallas 1rp to houston for russ, then signing hayward to a long term deal (4 years to make up for the loss compared to opt-out) with the rest of the money. I then promptly kill myself, either before both their legs stop working or after.
you would think bledsoe can be had for not all that much…he’ll make less than 20 million a year for the next three years…
every year it’s the same – gee, wonder if the knicks will have a legitimate point guard on the roster…i just don’t get the disregard the front office has for having a ball handler that can pass and shoot…
Looks like Kelly Oubre is not going to be in OKC much longer. They really are becoming the Tampa Bay Rays of the NBA
Bang!
There it is if they want a real basketball player.
Surely nobody is giving Gordon Hayward more than $20mil a year, right? We’re gonna give Hayward a 4 year $120mil contract aren’t we?
They’re gonna go after FVV first and if they strike out then they’ll consider a Westbrook trade if it’s not costing them a lot.
I’m not sure what is fair, but I think the only competition with cap space is the Hawks.
Maybe a sign and trade can be worked out with a contender. I don’t know the exact rules or if anyone else has expressed interest.
I’ve read that there are some connections between Hayward and people in the Knicks organization now.
He could also be re-signing to a longer term deal in Boston right? The fact that both sides agreed to extend the deadline on his option originally suggests it’s still a relatively friendly situation there, which would make me think more sign and trade or re-sign than he’s fleeing for a losing team in NY or ATL but we will see. Pretty crazy that by this time tomorrow all draft discussion is likely to be well in the rearview mirror.
I sort of think if he was going to stay in Boston they would have worked out an extension. They probably couldn’t agree. But let’s say he wants nothing to do with NY or ATL, Boston probably could facilitate a deal to a good team with a sign and trade. Just don’t quote me on that because some of those trade rules are hazy to me. It’s not something I care much about. I just like to evaluate the end result.
To take our minds off the Hayward stuff, here’s a very endearing Bleacher Report profile of Obi. Doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know about his game, but gives a clearer sense of who the guy is.
They could reduce their cap hit this year by structuring it as an opt-out + re-sign though as opposed to an extension right? Or am I wrong about that? I find the extension rules very confusing.
Marc Stein is saying:
oh, so gordon hayward is gonna be our starting point guard…that’ll be interesting…
Maybe they are trying to work out a deal to add VanVleet and Hayward. I’m just babbling now. 🙂
i try to avoid that myself…every once in a while though…
Sweet, we got Ed Davis
-something I would have said six years ago
Ed Davis was once very good and undervalued. (I lost track of him recently, is he still either?)
I have no idea what’s going on with Ed Davis. The Jazz can’t do much unless they dump Conley as well (I wanted to look into taking on them both for sweetener).
God it would be so fucking nice to have a front office we could trust even a little bit.
I assume we’re getting a second or something for Davis and if so that’s fine
Woj:
We are all in on this double draft idea. And also, I’ll happily take Ed Davis at $5 mil, plus a pair of future picks, to be Mitch’s new caddy/veteran mentor.
Oh wow we got two 2023 2RPs! This is a mini coup for a 1/$5M deal. I think this is the first time they’ve taken on a salary dump in my life. I want to cry tears of joy!
other teams may win lotteries and playoff games and trophies but we are going to fucking own the second round of 2023. eat that presti. seriously this was a good trade. ed davis isn’t even that bad!
I’m telling ya! Stock up on 2023 second rounders so we can use them with our first rounders to move up in the draft. If we’re good and the mags are good our firsts are in the teens and 20s that year but with 4 second round picks we could then move up to get better first round picks. I like this.
If I could insert a GIF here, it would a spectacular one.
As I said in a previous thread, the Celtics don’t want to pay Hayward because they’re up against the hard cap. If he opts out that’s $32MM off their books dropping them from around $142MM to $110MM.
They extended the deadline to try and find a trade for him or convince him to opt out because they worked with him to find a destination.
The Celtics did not want to keep Hayward.
Or are we about to trade four 2023 second rounders for Russell Westbrook?
Our master plan to dominate the 2023 second round moves one step further towards completion.
Ed Davis was dreadful last year. I’m not sure if he was hurt or what was going on because I didn’t follow the details, but if he has anything left at all, I’ll take two 2023 picks for him to ride our bench for a couple of years.
Malik Beasley to the Knicks rumors seem to be heating up.
Even better, it’s only 1 year!! And you have to think there’s some chance he bounces back.
Is Conley still an option? I’d take him for some assets or trade Randle for him.
It really is glorious just how easy it is to pick up future assets in salary dumps. Thank you, Rose, for being less stupid than the previous GMs.
And Davis might even bounce back!
how sad is it when the big headline for your favorite basketball team is that they “created” 40M in cap space by releasing a bunch of fucking scrubs….stoute must have worked for months on this marketing plan:
Stoute (knocks on bathroom door while Jimmy d is taking a dump): i got a great plan…when we cut the shitty guys…we put out a massive headline about how cunning we are and able to create cap space
jimmy d (grunts): fucking brilliant ….get er done!
Stoute: (cartwheels out the door) Hello Marc Berman? I gotta lead for ya…..
What’s the scoop on Malik Beasley? Looks like he had some gun or drug charges this year despite playing well in the last bit of the season with Minnesota?
It’s very funny to me that the contracts for backup bigs you can get paid to take are not at all worse than the ones (like five different ones) the Knicks willingly signed in free agency last year. Very good start for Rose.
This is a very encouraging move. Ed Davis isn’t even bad, and playing against him in practice should legitimately help Mitch some.
Another bad comp for for Obi: Michael Beasley
Somehow I think there’s a more serious move or two waiting in the wings. Thibs didn’t sign here with an agreement to accumulate 2023 2nd round picks so we can use a shotgun, hope 1 makes the team, and then hopefully contributes by 2025-2026.
The question is can they do anything that makes sense at the price?
If Randle is part of a trade that brings a good player here, they’ll still have space to add a 2nd one.
Acquiring Ed Davis for 5 million/1 year and getting two picks in the process is hardly going to negatively affect our competitiveness in this or any year. Ed Davis is still a useful player, so this is just them using a small amount of cap space to pick up some assets while losing nothing.
If Beasley wasn’t such a head case- while he would never have been a superstar- I think he could have had a very nice Tobias Harris type career. I do think Toppin is more explosive than Beasley (or Derrick Williams) which should help him though I don’t think he has the ball skills of either of those guys. Blake is good athletic comp as both are high flyers who are a little stiff but Blake has got 20 pounds on Obi which makes a big difference. Amar’e was both more fluid and stronger than Toppin.
Wow- just looked and Beasley’s ws/40 in his one season at KS was .413!!!!!!! That’s absolutely insane.
Michael Beasley was my favorite players’ favorite player
Tell me about Russell Westbrook. Is he washed up? Why the hate? Not doubting but he was pretty potent with Steven Adams and not much else. Bad fit with another ball dominant PG. What if it was Randle, vet contracts and we got a pick back? Worth it then? (Would they even Have the contracts to match up now that they cut all those guys?) What would you do/ take? Is he a “meaningless wins” machine? The idiot in me thinks he could be a real difference maker. Pipe dream? Survey says yes but I missed the specifics of why due to spending time on stuff like the pandemic and the election. Thanks for the breakdown in advance. Inquiring minds wanna know…