Taj Gibson will re-sign with the Knicks for another year, tweets Ian Begley of SNY.tv. Gibson will be a veteran’s minimum deal worth about $2.64MM.
The 36-year-old center/power forward is a favorite of coach Tom Thibodeau and was with him in Chicago and Minnesota as well.
Gibson played for the Knicks in 2019/20, then returned to the team in early January and was part of the frontcourt rotation for the rest of the season, averaging 5.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in 45 games.
Gibson is the Knicks’ fourth free agent to commit to staying with the team, joining Derrick Rose, Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel. The club is also adding Evan Fournier on a four-year deal.
Since Gibson’s new deal will be worth the minimum, the Knicks can use up all their cap room before going over the cap to finalize the signing.
Thibs forbids Taj to retire.
Udonis Harlem 2.0
Would have rather add someone who could space the floor more
Thibs Is loyal to his players
No brainer for minimum. Gibson loves Thibs and is from NYC. He’s also played well (not just for an old guy either) each of the past 2 seasons.
long time favorite of mine
Solid move. Riley still haunting the Knicks. Knicks had a decent off-season but nothing to move the needle. Same Knicks different off-season. Knicks not a top 4 team again after everyone else gets better.
Knicks needed Dinwiddie or Ball but I guess no one thought highly of them.
Solid move, but Toppin needs way more minutes this year. If they don’t start developing their young players they’ll be trapped in the 4-8 seed purgatory for 5 years without a realistic shot of contending or improving via the draft or free agency.
The $2.7 million they used to sign Taj is what they saved by engaging in those (bad, imo) trades on draft day.
So far this offseason is a big ‘meh’ from me. Blew most of their cap space bringing back the same squad that did poorly in the playoffs and got bounced in the first round. But swap out Bullock for Fournier. Don’t see how it makes them a whole lot better but it should ensure another playoff berth.
They have not actually signed Taj yet. They won’t sign him until basically all other FA signings have been exhausted. Taj won’t count against the cap until he’s signed; and because he is signing at the minimum, they don’t actually need any cap space to sign him. The order of signing events is important given all the cap exceptions.
Kendrick Nunn!