Knicks Morning News (2026.09.06)

“I think your understanding is correct, but I can think of a couple of reasons why the Knicks haven’t selected anyone. One, they may not know what sort of contract they will give yet for domestic players. For Nickel, they could give him a two way or a regular second round minimum depending on how the rest of the roster works out. My guess is they already have an understanding with Nickel that they will do one or the other. They probably want to leave a free two way slot for that. Diawara was in this position his first year and I seem to recall they did the contract at the last minute. Two, they may have told some players they will compete for this sort of job in training camp and they will do contracts then. Leaving the contracts open seems fairer in this case. Finally, maybe they don’t want to lead players on. It’s bad for a player to be signed over the summer but then be dropped just before the season starts because it prevents him from looking for other opportunities. That would be the front office being straight with players, which isn’t a bad thing.”

These are all arguable points. Here are some issues I have with them.

Re Nickel, I think the holdup might not be on the Knicks end, but on Nickel’s. He might not want to take anything less than a guaranteed regular rookie-scale contract. A two-way comes with no security and hardly any income, plus the possibility of being traded to an undesireable location at any time, whereas a rookie-scale deal is both guaranteed and has a trade protection until at least December 15 (I think, maybe EB or PT can confirm?)

Re: players competing in camp, this can happen even if two-ways or exhibit 10’s are signed. If anything, a player who they actually want to compete for a job is vulnerable to getting signed elsewhere. Those players should be locked up.

Re: being straight with players, I think this is well-intended but sort of naive. Two-way contracts by nature are totally fungible. I would guess that any player not yet signed would prefer a two-way to just dangling out there, especially since being signed means virtually nothing regarding their “actual” ability to play elsewhere if they are dropped. If the player was good enough to be signed by another team, then they should have taken the opportunity already rather than wait on the Knicks. If they are signed to a two-way by the Knicks but then waived, if they are actually good, another team will waive one of their own two-ways to sign them (and there will be teams that keep a two-way spot open even into the season. It actually seems less kind to keep players dangling and then to not offer the job at the end of the day, i.e telling them that if nothing better shows up, you’re our guy!

Never, cyber! 🙂

EB, all of that makes a lot of sense. The key thing is that we are closer to the second apron that nearly every other team, so these cap peculiarities make more sense for Leon. Here are the specific points that I had either forgotten or had been unaware of:

Nickel: I was unaware of the following: “Although the Knicks could sign Nickel to a two-way deal and convert him later, this gives them fewer years of control than signing him with the Second Round Pick Exception. The Second Round Pick Exception is lost if they signed him to a two-way deal first.” I thought they retained the ability to convert him to a “second round pick exception” even if he was signed to a two-way. Important distinction!

The Exhibit 9 deals: I was unaware that: “…a team can only sign players to an Exhibit 9 clause if they already have 14 players signed to full NBA deals (it does not count two-way deals in this total).” This makes a big difference and also makes sense.

Two-Ways: The explanation of how McCullar or Jones could be used as salary filler in a aggregation makes sense, and I had forgotten how Leon/Aller cleverly did this a couple of years ago. I had wondered why McCullar and Jones would go along with waiting rather than seeking other opportunities, but it makes sense because if they are sign-and-trade eligible, there might be a lot more guaranteed money in it for them than on a two-way, even if they get waived, correct?

Anyway, I greatly appreciate the in-depth analysis, EB, and your substack post is really well-written. Thanks!

“Last year, pretty much everything pertinent (or that turned out to be) was formally announced on September 16 (a Tuesday): Shamet’s Ex. 9, Diawara’s Ex. 10, Evbuoumwan’s Ex. 10, McCullar’s and Jemison’s two-ways.”

Thanks for the reminder, timo. I guess I was less anxious because there was less urgency last year, considering that there wasn’t as urgent of a need to find a particular quasi-rotation player, as there is this year with the third C issue. Although I do remember being anxious about Diawara because I really wanted to see him make the roster. Ironically, he played well enough to make us worry about losing him to a higher bidder because he became a UFA, but thankfully it worked out!

Given the Dolan “No Second Apron” decree, Leon has really done an excellent job of retaining Diawara, Alvarado, and Shamet on what I believe are below-market deals. I am bummed that Huk was not retained, but let’s hope that the combination of 1) the aura of what might be the most hyped NBA championship of all time (seriously, America’s Team?!?!?), 2) the trust that Leon has garnered in the organizational desirability sense for good players that have choices, 3) the freeing up of the valuable 2033 first rounder, and 4) Deuce becoming sort of expendable will result in an upgrade over Drummond, or at least a guy with some upside as our 3rd C, before the playoffs begin.