Kadeem Allen

Knicks Waive Joakim Noah, Allen, Coby

The Knicks have officially announced that they have waived center Joakim Noah, with both Adrian Wojnarowski and Ian Begley of ESPN reporting that the club will utilize the stretch provision on his contract after failing to reach a buyout agreement.

The team also officially announced the release of Kadeem Allen and Jeff Coby, thereby bringing its roster down to 17 players, including two two-way players, in time for the beginning of the regular season.

We wrote in extensive detail about Noah’s situation a few days back, with Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News reporting that the Knicks would likely waive Noah when they set their 15-man regular season roster if and when the team was unable to find a deal to trade the veteran big man.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes, the Knicks will incur an $18.5M cap hit this season for Noah, which could be reduced by $522,252 if the center signs a guaranteed minimum salary contract elsewhere. For the next 3 seasons (2019-20 to 2021-22), the Knicks will be charged $6.4M per season.

Allen, a 2017 second-round draft pick by Boston, spent his rookie season on a two-way contract with the Celtics, but was waived earlier this summer before he signed a one-year, non-guaranteed contract with the Knicks. He could end up with the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate, if he’s not picked up on waivers by another team.

Coby, 24, and a member of the Haitian national team, played four seasons in the Ivy League at Columbia before heading overseas and then going undrafted last year before signing with the Knicks earlier this month. He’s also a good bet to end up in Westchester.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Contract Details: Thomas, Harris, Len, Knicks

The three-year, minimum-salary deal that Khyri Thomas signed with the Pistons looks identical to the one fellow second-rounder Bruce Brown received from the club, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders details. Both contracts include two guaranteed seasons with a non-guaranteed third year.

In giving Thomas three years instead of two, the Pistons had to once again dip into the mid-level exception. The team has now used that exception to sign Thomas, Brown, and Glenn Robinson, pushing its total MLE commitments to about $5.75MM. That figure exceeds the amount of the taxpayer mid-level, meaning Detroit will now be hard-capped at $129.817MM for the rest of the 2018/19 league year.

Teams become hard-capped when they acquire a player via sign-and-trade, use their bi-annual exception, or use more than the taxpayer portion ($5.337MM) of the mid-level exception.

Here are several more contract- and salary-related updates from Pincus:

  • Joe Harris‘ fully guaranteed two-year deal with the Nets is worth exactly $16MM, but it’s worth more in the first year ($8.33MM) than the second ($7.67MM), per Pincus.
  • The Hawks used nearly their entire room exception ($4.449MM) on Alex Len‘s two-year contract, which starts at $4.35MM. Len will earn a little less in year two, for a total value of $8.51MM (link).
  • Noah Vonleh and Kadeem Allen both signed one-year, non-guaranteed contracts with the Knicks, according to Pincus. Vonleh will be owed a $100K guarantee if he remains under contract through September 25.
  • Monte Morris‘ three-year pact with the Nuggets was originally reported as a $4.8MM deal, but Pincus classifies it as a minimum-salary contract, worth about $4.6MM. Morris received two guaranteed years, with the third-year salary set to become guaranteed if he remains under contract through June 30, 2020.
  • The Rockets and Thunder dipped into their taxpayer mid-level exceptions for rookie deals for Isaiah Hartenstein and Hamidou Diallo, respectively. Both are three-year, minimum-salary contracts, but Hartenstein only has one guaranteed year (link) while Diallo has two (link).

Knicks Sign Kadeem Allen

The Knicks have signed free agent guard Kadeem Allen to a contract, the club announced today (via Twitter). Michael Scotto of The Athletic first reported the agreement (via Twitter).

Allen, who was selected 53rd overall in the 2017 draft by the Celtics, spent his rookie season on a two-way contract with Boston, but was waived by the club earlier this month.

While he only played sparingly in 18 games for the C’s in 2017/18, Allen had a strong showing for the Maine Red Claws in the G League, averaging 17.7 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 4.9 APG, and 2.2 SPG in 34 contests. The 25-year-old was also named to the NBAGL All-Defensive team.

Terms of Allen’s new deal aren’t yet known, but a training camp contract with little to no guaranteed money seems likely. Having signed Noah Vonleh already this week, the Knicks now have 19 players under contract — 17 on NBA deals and two more on two-way pacts. Teams can carry up to 20 players on their rosters during the offseason.

Celtics Waive Kadeem Allen

JULY 15: The Celtics announced in a press release that Allen has been waived.

JULY 14: The Celtics will release point guard Kadeem Allen and give his two-way slot to someone else next week, tweets Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.

A second-round pick out of Arizona in 2017, Allen saw action in just 18 games for the Celtics, averaging 1.1 points in 5.9 minutes. However, he was a G League All-Star with Maine and was named to the All-Defensive team.

Boston only has one two-way spot filled, but the team extended a qualifying offer to Jabari Bird, who held a two-way contract last season, and may view him for the same role in 2018/19. Keep track of all the two-way deals with our Two-Way Contract Tracker.

Celtics Notes: Leonard, Irving, Draft, Summer League

President of basketball operations Danny Ainge is wary of paying a steep price for Kawhi Leonard without a guarantee that he’ll stay more than one season, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Leonard has asked for a trade out of San Antonio and the Celtics may be able to put together the best offer, but Ainge will probably be cautious, according to Washburn.

He suggests Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum would have to be part of the package, along with the rights to the Kings’ first-rounder in 2019. It might be easier to match salaries by including Gordon Hayward, but his trade value has dropped after missing the season with a severe ankle fracture.

Kyrie Irving can already opt out next season, and the Celtics might be reluctant to have two stars on their roster who could leave at the same time, especially if it means breaking up a young core that looks like it will be a contender for several years.

There’s more today from Boston:

  • Irving hopes to resume playing again “in like a month,” he said in an appearance this week on The Bill Simmons Podcast. NBC Sports Boston relayed a few of his comments, including an explanation of what it was like to deal with a knee infection that forced him to miss the entire playoffs. “I was leaving the games at halftime because I had eight-hour shifts of antibiotics I had to take for my infection,” Irving said. “I had a PICC line in my arm for two months and I’m just like… every day is like OK, I can’t necessarily lift, I can’t run, I can’t do anything. If I didn’t have my PICC line in for my infection I would have definitely tried to go after being ready for at least the Eastern Conference Finals.”
  • The Celtics have a recent history of going the draft-and-stash route late in the first round, but the overseas talent doesn’t warrant it this year, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston. Apart from Luka Doncic, the only foreign players with a shot at being taken in the first round are French point guard Elie Okobo and Bosnian wing Dzanan Musa, according to Blakely.
  • Guerschon Yabusele, Kadeem Allen and Jabari Bird are all expected to be part of the Celtics’ summer league team in Las Vegas, Washburn notes. Bird has a two-way contract, so Boston has to make a qualifying offer before he is eligible. Jay Larranaga will coach the team.

Celtics Sign Kadeem Allen To Two-Way Deal

The Celtics have signed Kadeem Allen to a two-way deal, according to a team press release. Allen is the first player to sign that type of deal with the franchise.

Players on two-way deals will spend most of their season in the G-League since they cannot spend more than 45 days with an NBA club, as our glossary page on two-way contracts shows.

Allen, who was the No. 53 overall selection in the 2017 draft, came out of the University of Arizona where he earned Second Team All-Pac 12 honors last season. He played for both of Boston’s Summer League teams this offseason.