Briefing: June 27
Knicks clearing cap space. Boogie Nights?
Good Morning,
Why would they do this? If the Knicks don’t land any top free agents, they will need to spend about $60 million to reach the league’s minimum payroll requirements, which is why a balloon one-year deal on a player like DeMarcus Cousins might be considered.
Vets on short-term deals. The Knicks have emphasized over and over and over that they will seek veterans on short-term deals to try to roll over their cap space to 2020 if they miss on the top free agents this year.
Scroll down for a lot more on this from Jonathan Macri.
Knicks will NOT extend qualifying offers to either Emmanuel Mudiay or Luke Kornet, per Chris Haynes.
By not extending qualifying offers to either Mudiay or Kornet, the Knicks officially open up an additional $15 million in cap space. Based on where the cap falls, they are within a few hundred thousand dollars of having max space for Kevin Durant + Kyrie Irving, but they need to renounce their own free agents first.
Mudiay’s qualifying offer is only $5.75 million, but his cap hold as a Bird free agent would be $12.9 million. If the Knicks want to bring Mudiay back, they can do so by signing him as an unrestricted free agent (and there appears to be mutual interest). Extending a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent would have tied up valuable cap space; however, the Knicks could have later withdrawn the QO once they learned their free agent fate. As they prepare for meetings with top free agents, I am guessing they just want the cap space already there.
Kornet’s cap hold as an Early-Bird free agent of $2.1 million is only slightly higher than his qualifying offer of $2.01 million. Since the Knicks are within a few hundred thousand dollars of having two max spots with one of those max players being Kevin Durant, they need to save all their cap pennies. If the Knicks want to re-sign Kornet, his minimum salary of $1.6 million starts only slightly lower than his qualifying offer amount, so it depends on market dynamics if they could get him back at close to the same rate if they don’t end up using that extra cap space.
So where do we stand in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes?
Durant made the expected move to opt-out of his player option so he is eligible to sign a five-year supermax starting at $38.1 million with the Warriors, or a four-year max starting at $38.1 million somewhere else.
Durant hasn’t given any hints to the top interested teams - the Knicks, Nets, and Warriors, according to The Athletic.
ESPN adds the Clippers to the list of potential teams and reports that all four teams are expected to offer him the full max.
Shams Charania says, “The Knicks and the Nets, I’m told, are at the forefront in terms of being in contention for Kevin Durant.”
Chris Haynes says, “The first star to sign in free agency will probably be Kevin Durant. And you're putting me on the spot, but, whoo, what do I want to say? I like the Knicks chances.”
Durant is expected to station himself in New York while making his decision. [Shams Charania]
Give me the medical report: Stephen A. Smith says some sources have told him James Dolan “expressed a bit of caution or reluctance to offer Kevin Durant the max.” Separate sources later told him that’s not entirely correct. Dolan just wants to see the medical report in detail before deciding. [Watch]
Delayed sign-and-trade unlikely. Anthony Slater reports early indications are the Warriors aren’t seriously exploring the convoluted path that would lead to a delayed sign-and-trade to give Kevin Durant his max money while landing him on a new team.
Package deal? “The Knicks have not stopped pursuing both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as a package together,” according to Shams Charania.
Ice Cube said on First Take yesterday, “If [Kevin Durant + Kyrie Irving] are going to go to New York, they might as well go to the Knicks. I mean, do it! Brooklyn is great, but if they're going to go to New York, go do it. Make history.
Charles Oakley wishes Kevin Durant well with old photo. If you’re worried that a disgruntled Oakley is selling Durant on the Nets in New York right now, don’t be based on this photo.
I believe this photo was taken in Cleveland after the Warriors won the championship in 2018. If you look closely, you can see Durant is wearing a Warriors “Champs” hat. And Steve Kerr told Zach Lowe that Oakley met up with the team celebrating that night.
Other happenings
Knicks have interest in Julius Randle, which has been reported by others, but reported again by Shams Charania.
Knicks are seen as a potential suitor for Celtics restricted free agent Terry Rozier, per The Athletic. The report says if Knicks miss out on top guys, they will focus on “high-level rotation players on possible one- or two-year deals.”
RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson have sold more shirts and jerseys than any other draftees in history, per Fanatics (via NY Post). While Barrett trails Zion in sales, he has still sold twice as much merchandise as Lonzo Ball, who had set the previous record.
Kris Wilkes grew up idolizing Reggie Miller in Indianapolis. He has even modeled part of his game after him, ““He can really, really move without the ball,’’ one of his UCLA assistants said, according to the New York Post. “He’s a tremendous mover, cutter like his hero growing up. He’s got an incredible ability to move without the ball, to cut and come off screens and make shots.”
Kemba unlikely?
The Shining
by Jonathan Macri
In Stephen King’s The Shining, a family of three takes a trip to an innocent-enough looking mansion in the middle of nowhere for what is supposed to be an enjoyable getaway, only to have the unholy spirits of the house destabilize dad to the point that he tries to kill his wife and child.
I thought of the movie yesterday in preparation for today’s column as an analogy for how the mind can play tricks on fans over a seemingly never-ending free agency process:
Wait…maybe maxing out Tobias Harris is a good idea after all…he’s only 26 years old!
D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle are both young and exciting-ish…we can definitely teach them how to anchor a defense alongside a rookie and two second-year players!
I wonder if Al Horford would grant us a meeting?
Do we still hold the rights to Frederic Weis?
The irony, of course, is that I thought of this analogy the day before Marc Stein filled the elevator with blood and sent it hurling down to the ground floor.
Yes, friends…say it with me now:
Heeeeeeeeere’s BOOGIE!
According to Stein, the Knicks are considering offering a sizeable one-year deal to Boogie Cousins should they strike out on Kawhi and KD.
The Shining analogy works even better now, and on multiple levels: Mills/Perry as Jack, the fans as mom and son. Or David Fizdale as Jack, and Mills/Perry as mom and son. Or simply the obvious one: Boogie as Jack, and the locker room as mom and son. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Kidding aside, I was actually surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the rumor when it first surfaced last night (not that it wouldn’t be fraught with questions, which we’ll get to in a bit…)
Primarily, it’s pretty obvious that New York would be getting Cousins to play alongside Mitchell Robinson, not to block him. If you think the team isn’t fully invested in Robinson as a foundational building block, then you haven’t been paying attention.
Could it work? On offense, quite brilliantly, yes. The Warriors unlocked Cousins the passer (a part of his game that’s always been there – he’s averaged over four assists a game over his last five seasons). That’ll be incredibly valuable on Knicks team that struggled mightily to move the ball, as will his shooting. Cousins is respectable from 3-point range, and although he’s fallen in love with his jumper too much in years past, if Fizdale can help reign him in on that end (this will be a recurring theme) he could be a force.
Will he want his post-ups, and will this inevitably lead to a handful of possessions every game where four young players stand around and watch Boogie do his thing? Almost certainly, but on a team where the average age of the rest of the starting five may be under 20 years old, having an occasional release valve isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially at the end of a close game.
Could there be overkill? Of course, but again, it’s on Fizdale to find the right balance and deploy Cousins’ many gifts in the most productive way.
The bigger issue is on the other end, where in the NBA, you are what you can defend. By that logic, Boogie is strictly a five at this stage of his career. That puts Mitch into the role Anthony Davis played on the Pelicans two years ago, which is a lot to ask of a kid still getting his feet wet and whose propensity for fouling isn’t fully behind him. The learning curve would be steep, but he also showed last year that he’s a fast learner.
Count me as someone who isn’t too worried. Assuming they’d want to get both Cousins and Robinson about 30 minutes a night, that means they play together at the start and end of the first half and then to begin the third. The rest of the time (including at the end of games, when you need some more quickness on D), they’re staggered.
Can they make it work together for 12-15 minutes a night? It’s not inconceivable. It also might not be the worst idea to have another honest-to-goodness center option on the roster for a team that is trying to win games next year. There will still be those nights where Robinson picks up two quick fouls, and it would be nice if things didn’t go to complete shit if and when those nights occur.
So yeah…it isn’t terribly hard to put lipstick on this pig. It also doesn’t mean it’s a no brainer, or anything close.
Primarily, while Cousins is still capable of playing reliable defense, that doesn’t mean he’ll always actually do it (right this second, George Karl is muttering Boogie’s name to himself while in line at a coffee shop somewhere). Not to be clichéd talking-head guy, but this young team needs leaders on defense – guys who will come with effort every night and set a good example for the kids.
Once again, this is where Fizdale comes in. For whatever he lacks in X’s and O’s wizardry, Fiz is supposed to be the player whisperer – the guy who once helped coax the biggest stars in the world into sacrificing for the greater good. His ability to do exactly that would never be tested more than with Cousins.
Theoretically, on a one-year, make-good deal, Boogie would be out to prove critics wrong and on his best behavior. For all his early antics, he’s apparently been a model teammate for a few years now.
All things considered, if the goal is to win as many games as possible next year with only players on short term deals, there’s more than a bit of logic to bringing in the most talented guy possible that’s willing to accept only one year of guaranteed money. Looking at the market, that person is almost undoubtedly Cousins.
But should that be the goal?
I’m not questioning the winning games part – that’s an easy yes. If the team strikes out on top talent this summer, it’s an indication that, no, the bright lights of the city and a seemingly competent front office aren’t enough to entice the very best players to sign up. You need to show evidence of growth on the court as well.
Zach Lowe discussed this very notion yesterday on his podcast with Brian Windhorst, and brought up an interesting question: where, exactly, does signing good players to one and two-year deals get you?
We know where it doesn’t get you, and that’s locked into paying Amare Stoudemire to sit on the bench and contemplate whether the ’92 Merlot or the ’94 Cabernet will be on the menu for tonight’s festivities.
But overpaying max deals to non-max players is only a death knell when those players are flat-out bad. Look around the league at the true cap albatrosses of the last decade: Stoudemire, Chandler Parsons, Nicolas Batum, Josh Smith, Deron Williams, Joakim Noah, Timofey Mosgov, Bismack Biyombo, Ian Mahinmi, Evan Turner, Luol Deng, etc., plus current anchors like Andrew Wiggins, Chris Paul and John Wall.
Those deals were either absurd on their face or became untenable due to injury and/or natural decline, or in the case of Wiggins, failure to make an anticipated leap.
Compare those contracts to that of Mike Conley. No one would argue that Conley is properly paid, and he and the Grizzlies were the butt of a few jokes when he (briefly) became the highest paid player in NBA history three years ago. But does that mean it was a bad deal, in the same vein as any of those listed above? No, it isn’t. Hell, Utah just gave up a boatload to acquire him.
That’s because, while he may not be worth $30 million a year, Conley is damn good.
If the Knicks knew they could get something close to Conley-level production from a “max” player for the next four years, would they do it? Should they? Or is it better to go the route they seem to be taking – the one “smart” Knicks Twitter has been advocating for for years: No max contracts for fake max players.
Stoudemire is inevitably the name brought up in this discussion, but what if, instead of a 28-year-old with bad knees, we were talking about a 27-year-old with seemingly very little downside (Tobias Harris), a 23-year-old All-Star (D’Angelo Russell) or a 24-year-old bowling ball with All-Star potential (Julius Randle)?
I’ve written pieces in this space over the last week advocating against signing both Randle and Russell, mostly because I didn’t like the fit of either player on this particular roster. It’s not like Harris – whose shooting dipped with Philly and is just a so-so defender – doesn’t come without questions either, and it’s notable that the Clippers didn’t skip a beat after trading him.
That doesn’t mean the concept should be dismissed entirely. Signing Cousins, or even easier but lower ceiling fits like those mentioned in Mike Vokunov’s recent Athletic piece, to one or two year deals might make you a better team in the short term, but does that represent overarching progress in and of itself?
I don’t pretend to know the answer.
To be clear, I’m not advocating signing bad contracts. A generally sound team-building philosophy is that unless you’re on the cusp of a ring, don’t ink any deals you don’t think would be an asset – even a slight asset – in a trade.
The problem is that there’s a slippery slope on either side of the not-so-fine line between 4/52 for Marcus Smart and 4/50 for TJ Warren (even so, that was a ridiculous salary dump by the Suns. But I digress…). This is how you wind up signing Tim Hardaway Jr. to a contract that becomes impossible to move without attaching significant assets. And around and around we go.
It’s this buyer’s remorse that has surely factored into the New York’s rumored approach of playing things short and sweet. Truth be told, if this front office had more of a track record, I might be upset. The fact is they don’t. We also see every year around the trade deadline that good players on expiring deals can usually net a draft asset from a contender, so this might represent an easy way to further stock the coffers.
(For those advocating 1 + 1 contracts where the second year is a team option, keep in mind that this grants the player a de facto no trade clause, a’la Nikola Mirotic a year and a half ago. While the alternative path of a straight one-year deal doesn’t come with even Early Bird rights, in the scenario we’re discussing, the player would be overpaid from the start, so being able to offer him “only” 120% of his previous salary likely wouldn’t make a difference.)
Lastly, there is some thought that maybe shuffling through talented, established players on one-year deals until a bigger fish takes the bait is the way to go. After all, if Kyrie and KD do wind up going to the Nets, what will they be coming to? A team with some talented young guys, but with literally half of its playoff rotation, including its lone All-Star, needing their cap holds to be renounced in order to create double-max space.
The fact is that the appearance of sustainable, organizational competence may be more important than the logistics of how you arrive there, or whether the pieces themselves are around for the long haul.
Any way you slice it, regardless of how they get to the finish line, the Knicks need to do the one thing they’ve been telling us they’re going to do for over a year now: invest in and nurture the young core of this team. If there’s an opportunity to sign a player for more than two years, even on a deal above market value, and it helps further this goal, they should go for it. If they’re convinced that loading up the roster with as much short-term talent as possible is the better route, so be it.
Neither path is without risk, and these are the tough questions they will be forced to ask if the big names say “no thanks.”
How they answer them will likely be the determining factor in whether those no’s eventually turn into a yes, from someone, at some point down the line.
And here you thought this was going to be easy.
Remember when…
June 27, 2014: Knicks select Cleanthony Early (34th overall) from Wichita State University and Thanasis Antetokounmpo (51st overall) from the Delaware 87ers (D-League) and Athens, Greece with their two second-round picks acquired a day earlier from Dallas. New York also acquires the draft rights to the 57th overall pick Louis Labeyrie (France) from Indiana in exchange for cash considerations.
June 27, 2013: Knicks select Tim Hardaway Jr. with the 24th overall pick.
June 27, 2012: Pat Cummings passes away at the age of 55.
June 27, 1991: With the 12th overall pick in the NBA Draft, the Knicks select guard Greg Anthony from UNLV.
June 27, 1988: Knicks acquire Charles Oakley from Chicago in exchange for Bill Cartwright, who was never thrilled with his backup role to Patrick Ewing. New York and Chicago also swapped first round picks in the ‘88 draft, with the Knicks ending up with Rod Strickland, and the Bulls with Will Purdue. [Vivek Dadhania with more]
Thanks for reading, talk to you tomorrow!