What’s up Knicks fam. I have attempted to simplify the salary cap situation for next season (and beyond). I am using data and projections from basketball reference, basketball realgm and spotrac.
The attached base case and proposed trade case have several assumptions and considerations. Please find below:
1. Brunson and Randle will likely be extended but I have not factored in these contracts. These scenarios are primarily to serve as guidance for 2024-2025 and assumes Brunson and Randle will be paid according to their current deals.
2. OG and Ihart extensions! I am projecting both players to return on market value deals. OG at $35M AAV and Ihart at $18M AAV (max offer).
3. Both cases assume we will be making all three picks in the upcoming draft (#24, #25, #38).
4. The second case includes a proposed sign-and-trade for bulls SG, Demar Derozan. The expectation would need to be set that Demar will be the 6th man (6MOTY favorite imo) and likely average 26-28 mpg. This would require buy-in from Demar before execution.
In Summary, the core rotation of 7 players are brought back for 2024-2025 and the remaining roster spots are filed through the draft and team friendly veteran contracts. The base case projects $17M over the cap, but just under the second apron. The proposal case projects $6M over the cap, and just under the first apron.
I believe the Knicks need to take advantage of low-cost rookie contracts this summer specifically to maximize their window during Brunson’s prime.
I, personally, would love to see Randle on the team opening night. The only Randle trades I would entertain include a player significantly better than Julius (Giannis).
I think Demar could play the perfect role on this team and wouldn’t require too many resources to bring him in. Easy 6MOTY and legend status in NYC awaits.
Thank you for reading. I would be eager to hear the sub’s opinion and include different trade scenarios in my model. LFGK!!!
by bakedhaddock
16 Comments
Demar on this team is… perfect. The champagne is in the fridge!! LGK
demar not going to take a pay or minutes cut like that
he wants one more all-star level bag, which he will probably get. 30-35 or maybe more
he also is chugging away putting up 1800 point seasons recently, in 2 seasons he will break into the top 15 all time scorers. if he takes a minutes and shot volume reduction to come here he’s not gonna get to top 15
Eww hard pass on demar
I don’t hate it. I just think with Thibs, you’re gonna need a solid backup 5 and Sims is not it. We can’t expect Hartenstein to carry the load he did the end of last year and the playoffs. I might swap Mitch for McBride if that’s feasible.
I like the layout.
– You are off on the Hartenstein contract the most we can offer him is 16.7M Year 1. Do 8% increases after that to determine Year 2-4 salary.
– If we are paying Demar 22.5M why would we give up both Bojan and Mitch and a future 1st. He is a FA and that is giving up way to much value. Demars contract would have to be close to 30M and at least 3 years because he can get that on the open market elsewhere
I like Demar but I question the spacing on the floor especially with lineups of Mitch and Josh Hart. Unless Hart is shooting 3s confidently next year at a 37% clip it doesnt maek sense
Any chance we can get Herb Jones? I think Bridges isn’t gettable and apparently New Orleans was trying to ship Jones off.
I did the trade machine and a Bogie + picks for Jones deal works but idk if the website I used was trustworthy
I actually like the idea of Demar on the Knicks but he’s not signing cheaply with us.
So we realistically can only sign a big free agent via sign and trade, right?
Draft Bronny, get LeBron’s shambling 40 year old corpse in here for 2 years, win us 2 rings and be done with it
The iHart numbers are off a bit. Yes, he can sign for about 72 mil for 4 years. But the year 1 salary can only be about 16.1 mil with yearly raises. So it saves us about 2 mil in cap space.
Demar is perfect fit for this team…. Good trade btw
Edit: Thank you for the comments. The Ihart contract will be ascending starting at $16.7M in year 1. Also, the Demar contract can be larger. Would be comfortable going to $25M-$28M.
Regardless of anyone’s minor critiques of your spreadsheet, this is awesome. Very helpful for a guy like me that’s too lazy to put something like this together on their own.
i rlly dont see demar being a 6th man. he is still a great starting level SG/SF in the NBA and many teams would pay him and play him like that
Knicks fans are smart enough to create something like this? I’m shocked.
#StaySharpT
Dude let me just say this is some impressive work on the presentation!
Demar would be nice to have but highly doubt he would want to come off the bench and not sure how the numbers would work with him.