1:53pm: The Knicks have officially signed Rabb to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.
10:15am: The Knicks, one of a small handful of teams with a two-way contract slot available, will fill that opening by signing Ivan Rabb, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Sources tell Charania that New York is finalizing a two-way contract with the former Grizzlies forward, who will reunite with his former head coach David Fizdale.
Rabb, 22, was the 35th overall pick in the 2017 draft and spent his first two professional seasons in Memphis, but didn’t really develop into a reliable, consistent rotation player. In 2018/19, he averaged 5.8 PPG and 4.2 RPG in 49 games (14.7 MPG). The former Cal standout was released by the Grizzlies in advance of this season’s roster cutdown deadline, and cleared waivers on Monday.
While Rabb’s new two-way deal will make him eligible to spend up to 45 days with the Knicks, the team infamously stocked up on power forwards during the summer, so there may not be minutes available in a rotation that already includes Julius Randle, Bobby Portis, Taj Gibson, and Marcus Morris. Rabb figures to see far more action with the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate.
Once the signing is official, the Knicks will have a full 17-man roster, with two-way players Rabb and Kadeem Allen joining the 15 players on guaranteed standard contracts.
Will we ever stop pretending that a 15 man roster should have fewer than 6 PF/C options?
This is a basketball website so a certain standard for awareness is reasonable to expect.
Sure, there are plenty of teams with six PF/C options. There aren’t many teams with six PF/C options who all expect to play at least 20-30 minutes per game though.
The Knicks are making Morris and Knox small forwards (and even saying Knox will spend some time at the two!) to make sure there are enough minutes to go around for the bigs, which I don’t think is an optimal use of either player, given the direction NBA lineups have trended. We’ll see how it goes though.
The “standard for awareness” involves the fact the knicks top four salaries are going to Randle, Morris, Portis and Gibson, all of whom were FA signings this year, and all of whom play PF. It would be silly to write an article on another FA signing for the knicks without mentioning that. Rabb won’t see the floor this year.
Sign another PF, sure, why not! LOL
Everyone is right, but surprisingly, the Knicks do need some roster depth at the 4/5. It’s just funny, the Knicks signing another.