As we previously relayed, most of the new Knicks that signed multiyear contracts with the team this month received modest partial guarantees in the final year of their respective deals. Taj Gibson, Elfrid Payton, Wayne Ellington, and Reggie Bullock each have $1MM partial guarantees for 2020/21, while Julius Randle has a $4MM partial guarantee in 2021/22.
The only newly-signed member of the Knicks whose deal includes a team option – rather than a non-guaranteed final year – is Bobby Portis, per Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Portis will earn a guaranteed $15MM salary in 2019/20 with a $15.75MM team option for 2020/21.
Meanwhile, Marcus Morris is the only Knicks free agent addition who didn’t get a multiyear contract at all, as Pincus notes. Morris will earn a flat $15MM salary on his one-year deal.
Here are a few more contract details from around the Eastern Conference:
- Daniel Theis‘ new two-year, $10MM deal with the Celtics is only guaranteed for the first year, according to Pincus. Theis’ $5MM non-guaranteed salary for 2020/21 would become guaranteed if he remains under contract through July 3, 2020.
- Pincus also provides the specific details on the partial guarantee in year three of George Hill‘s new contract with the Bucks. After earning a total of $18.72MM in his first two seasons, the veteran guard has a $1.28MM partial guarantee in 2021/22 that increases his overall guarantee to exactly $20MM. If he remains under contract through July 1, 2021, Hill’s third year would be worth $10.05MM.
- Having re-signed with the Bulls on a new one-year, minimum-salary contract, Shaquille Harrison received a partial guarantee worth $175K, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Harrison will also get a de facto no-trade clause as a result of signing a one-year deal with his previous team.
So the Knicks will be out 5 million possibly if they decline all the player options. Classic knicks
It’s inconsequential in a weak 2020 FA market. They can eat the $5M, sign players into their cap (if you calculate $5M in dead money then that’s easily over $40M+ in cap room) – then they’d recoup that $5 in the exceptions they’d have at their disposal.
Classic troll
I actually like what the Knicks did this offseason. Obviously they aren’t going to win a championship with this roster but there was never any road that led to a 2019 championship anyway.
They did the best they could without sacrificing future cap space. And at least half of these guys should turn into tradeable assets in 2020.
anyone else think the knicks will use these contracts on or after dec 15th to try and get a superstar .. they could basically trade Portis and Morris and a PICK for say Beal/Lowry/DeRozan players with big contracts and the knicks can offer cap relief along with probably a decent draft pick.
I like how flexible the Knicks cap situation is. Obviously us fans all wanted the stars for the most part but at least they didn’t sign an aging vet to a huge deal or be stupid and try to trade for Chris Paul.
These contracts reflect how poor the Knicks’ FO (Mills mostly) is at contract negotiations (or more accurately contract capitulations). Their ability to evaluate talent are open questions, but even if they (Perry mostly) turn out OK there, it might not matter much if they can’t figure out to price it.
Yes, there is not much chance that any of these contracts will ever become a significant liability, but that’s not much of an accomplishment with short term deals. The bad news is none of them look likely to ever be a significant asset. Certainly, a team(s) might want one of these players mid-season, but I doubt any team will be willing to give up a 1st (even a permanently protected one) for any of them under these contracts, unless we take back a bad multi-year deal. Maybe 2nd’s. The exception may be Bullock’s new contract, assuming he comes back and plays well before the deadline.
I think for once the Knicks did the right thing. These contracts hold value for teams looking to make a playoff push and/or trying to dump salary next offseason. I’d be stunned if the Knicks don’t walk away with multiple young players and/or future picks for selling at the trade deadline.
Previously, Dolan would’ve overpaid for second or third tier players (Hardaway, Noah, Lee) just to make it seem like they are trying to remain competitive.
So this new approach is rather refreshing.