The Knicks officially finalized five of their free agent signings on Monday night, according to NBA.com’s transactions log, which lists the deals for Julius Randle, Bobby Portis, Taj Gibson, Wayne Ellington, and Elfrid Payton as having been completed.
Those deals are structured as follows:
- Randle: Three years, $63MM. First two years guaranteed. (Story)
- Portis: Two years, $31MM. First year guaranteed. (Story)
- Gibson: Two years, $20MM. First year guaranteed. (Story)
- Ellington: Two years, $16MM. First year guaranteed. (Story)
- Payton: Two years, $16MM. First year guaranteed. (Story)
While those five signings will use up most of the club’s cap room, there’s still one notable signing to be finalized, as Reggie Bullock‘s two-year, $21MM deal is not yet official.
Lol
Not a contract in the bunch that they will have to pay to unload or stretch. And the team should be 10+ games better. Refreshing.
10 games better means still bad, but with a lesser draft pick coming. These moves look like signings without purpose.
With the new lottery Knicks can win 35 games and still pick 1st overall. They almost fell out of the top 3 with the worst record
Plus they need to put a more credible product on the floor before that can seriously approach the front line UFAs. I don’t think that they could do better than what they did this year given their lack of current talent on the roster. The Nets rebuild to respectability is actually a pretty good template.
I agree. I also find it funny that people were tripping over themselves to bash the Pelicans for not getting Kyle Kuzma, yet bash the Julius Randle to no end. Randle is better in every way, has gotten better every year, and is only 1 year older. I think Randle will be great in NY. Although, as long as Dolan is around, you can never be sure.
Knicks would’ve been better off with the cap space. They could’ve been welcoming Russell Westbrook to MSG by now. Obviously they didn’t know he’d be available but still confusing why they rushed to signing these guys
2-3 of those 2 year deals will get flipped at the deadline for draft picks.
Lol the best they could ever do on those scrubs is a 2nd rounder and I doubt they care that much, they’re really 1 year deals tho so they could be valuable expiring contracts for salary matching purposes
When did the NBA become the NFL with partial guarantees?
No “bad” contracts (due to length), but at these price points and in this volume, collectively they represent a lost opportunity to use at least some of their cap space to obtain real future assets. There’s no way they can get PT for all these guys, and the younger players they refer to as their “young core” and there’s a few in that group on which decisions need to be made this year. Last year’s roster and PT decisions bore no relationship to any coherent longer term plan. This roster sets the team up well for a repeat. We’ll see.
6 solid role players with experience. Not bad IF ONLY the Knicks had a SOLID SUPERSTAR OR RISING STAR to lead them. Yes, they have a rookie with star potential or all-star potential BUT he’s still a rookie, unproven, untested in the NBA. And he’s not another Lebron James-kind of rookie. Not even a Wade-kind of rookie or Melo-kind of rookie. So Knicks fans are in again for another loooong rollercoaster season.
UNLESS the Kinicks can snag Russell Westbrook!
Scott Perry has done a very good job of moving the Knicks away from signing aging stars or stars with injuries who are ticking time bombs.
Every team has a window and if they are smart, they continue to build towards that. The biggest problem the Knicks have is not a lack of talent, it is re-establishing the cultural identity of the team.
All these people advocating taking on bad contracts for future assets is not the right approach – IMO.