11:38pm: Smith has officially signed his two-year deal to remain in New York, tweets SI.com's Sam Amick.
12:03am: J.R. Smith and the Knicks have agreed to a contract that will bring Smith back to New York for at least one more year, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. Smith will sign a two-year deal with a first-year salary of about $2.8MM and a second-year player option, according to Begley.
When Smith declined his option for 2012/13 in late June, we heard that he would likely re-up with the Knicks for the maximum salary they could pay him. Because Smith just signed with the Knicks in February after returning from China, he only had Non-Bird Rights, which meant a maximum raise of 120%. Since Smith re-signed in New York though, his Bird clock will keep ticking, so it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see him opt out again in search of a larger raise when he earns Early Bird rights next summer.
The agreement with Smith is the latest move in a busy offseason for the Knicks, who have already agreed to sign Steve Novak and Jason Kidd, have worked out a sign-and-trade deal for Marcus Camby, and are expected to match an offer sheet for Jeremy Lin.
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PG: Lin/Kidd
SG: Shumpert/J.R. Smith
SF: Carmelo/Novak/James White
PF: Amar’e/Jeffries/Kenyon Martin?
C: Chandler/Camby
Knicks may have been the joke of the NBA for a while, but they have one of the deepest and most talented teams in the league. Talent is clearly not an issue on this team, and with the savvy veteran pickups in Kidd and Camby, I think Grunwald has done a great job trying to fix the teams seemingly only issue, team chemistry.
Miami Heat
PG: Chalmers/Coles
SG: Wade/Ray Allen/Mike Miller?
SF: LeBron/Battier/Rashard Lewis?
PF: Bosh/Haslem
C: Joel Anthony/Dexter Pittman
Miami Heat: A bunch of sell outs. No true fans.
Harris,
I completely agree with you. The Knicks have done a phenomenal job this off-season.
The only disappointment thus far (if it can be called that) was that the Knicks could not do a sign and trade for Steve Nash by trading Landry Fields PRIOR to the Raptors offer sheet.
None the less, the Knicks have talent, depth and most of all now: leadership.
Grundwald has really proven to be a creative and talented front-office leader. Now that we have 11 players on the roster, time to see if he can fill some holes by using the Gadzuric contract (the silver lining in the Rockets trade) to net us another veteran SG like a Randy Foye and see if we can get the likes of Kenyon Martin, Rashard Lewis and Pablo Prigrioni on the vet minimums!
The Suns would have had to make Landry sign an offer sheet in order for that sign and trade to have happened, and Landry got a better offer from Toronto. Plus, the Suns incentive in a Nash sign and trade was not to make themselves better, but to reward Nash for his loyalty and greatness for the organization, so they were going to work out a sign and trade with wherever he wanted to go, and that turned out to be the Lakers.
The Knicks have done what they can this offseason. But the bottom line is until they get rid of one of the Melo/Amare combo they aren’t going anywhere. If the Joe Johnson contract can get traded, they should be able to move Amare.
Amar’e is still a pretty good player, albeit his albatross of a contract. Joe Johnson was traded for mostly expiring contracts, which would be of no help to the Knicks, because even if they cleared Amare’s contract off the books, they would still be close to or over the cap, so there would be no additional benefit of getting rid of him other than a lower luxury tax bill. I for one could not care any less how much Dolan pays in the luxury tax.