The New York Knicks avoided the dreaded salary cap in the first round. While the legalese surrounding the collective bargaining agreement isn’t the most provocative topic in sports, it does change how they can handle the rest of their offseason.
Here’s what Thursday’s news means.
Knicks have changed Mikal Bridges trade, league sources say The Athletica move that has been likely since they and the Brooklyn Nets agreed to a trade on June 25. New York will now include 27-year-old forward Mamadi Diakite and free agent guard Shake Milton, whom they will sign and trade, league sources say. Brooklyn will add Keita Bates-Diop.
The initial trade package (Bojan Bogdanović and a handful of draft picks for Bridges) involved the Knicks getting back more money than they sent out, which would have capped them at $178.1 million. Had the Knicks not made the trade, their payroll would have been just $5 million below that amount, which they could not have exceeded under any circumstances. Flexibility would have been reduced.
Now, that will no longer be the case.
Adding Milton and Diakite’s salaries to the Knicks’ deal isn’t about saving money. It’s about opening up new possibilities.
With New York now taking in less money than it sends out in trade, avoiding the hard cap of the first deck, it can venture down to the second deck of $188.9 million, below which it now sits about $15 million.
That leaves enough room to re-sign big man Precious Achiuwa, who could make between $5 million per year and a little more than that, and use the taxpayer mid-level exception, a $5.2 million tool that allows the Knicks to sign a free agent up to that price.
Finding a rescue center is complicated because The Athletic The details were released Wednesday. There aren’t many viable free agents left without a contract. Every hypothetical deal has some kind of hurdle, thanks to the collective bargaining agreement.
The Knicks lost former starting center Isaiah Hartenstein at the start of free agency. Mitchell Robinson will join the first unit. Jericho Sims remains. But Robinson lacks a regular replacement.
The man for the job could be Achiuwa, or the team could prefer a more impactful presence in the middle of its second unit. Either way, the Knicks could now enter training camp knowing that if any flaws arise, whether at center or elsewhere, they can correct them over the course of the season.
If the Knicks want to trade for another center, they don’t need to spend their remaining draft capital right away — the Detroit Pistons’ 2025 first-round pick (protected by the first 13 picks next year, with protections that could prevent it from being traded until 2027) and first-round swaps in 2026 and 2030. (They also have plenty of second-round picks, as well as the Washington Wizards’ 2025 first-round pick, which is heavily protected and more likely to be traded as two second-round picks after the 2025-26 season.)
If they wanted to, they could re-sign Achiuwa, use the taxpayer MLE for the remaining free agent who makes the most sense at any position, and see how a 24-year-old, undersized backup center fares in that role. Achiuwa played the five often last season but can struggle against more brutal presences in the paint. If that goes poorly, they could pair Achiuwa and their MLE signing in a deal for an eight-figure salary before the February trade deadline.
The Knicks’ preference has always been to extend the Bridges deal, league sources said. The team has modeled scenario after scenario, working out ways to avoid a salary cap hit at the start of the deal. When the Knicks and Nets initially agreed to the deal, New York made it clear it would come back at some point with more details, a league source familiar with the negotiations said.
The Knicks management is obsessed with flexibility at the margin. They didn’t treat this situation any differently.
Adding Milton and Diakite in the Bridges trade wasn’t the only money-saving move they made Thursday. The team also reached an agreement with 2024 first-round pick Pacôme Dadiet on a contract that included a surprise. He’ll be cheaper than expected.
Contracts for players selected in the first round are pre-negotiated by the players’ union according to what is called the “rookie scale,” which includes the suggested salaries for each pick, from 1st to 30th. Players selected in the first round can sign for as little as 80% of that figure or as much as 120% of it. A rookie-scale contract is rarely less than 120%, so much so that a player’s salary cap hit is not his rookie-scale salary; it is actually 120% of his rookie-scale salary.
But on Thursday, the Knicks and Dadiet signed a contract that will pay the 18-year-old wing just 80% of the rookie scale in 2024-25, league sources said, creating an additional $904,000 in cap room for New York.
The last first-round pick to sign for just 80 percent of the rookie scale in the first year of a contract was Kevin Porter Jr. in 2019.
Dadiet will earn 80 percent of rookie salary in the first year of his contract, according to a league source. That jumps to 120 percent in years 2-4. https://t.co/ZtJGJC7OWI
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) July 4, 2024
The Knicks also addressed other rookie issues Thursday, signing Tyler Kolek, the 34th pick in last week’s draft, to a four-year, $9.1 million contract, a league source said. The deal includes a team option on the fourth season.
The final version of Bridges’ trade includes as many of the CBA’s confusing details as the beginning.
Technically, the Knicks are still sending out more money than they’re taking in. Milton’s new contract will be for $9 million over three years, league sources say. The AthleticShams Charania. The final two seasons are not guaranteed. Diakite makes $2.3 million in 2024-25. The Knicks will guarantee at least some of that to make the numbers work, a league source said.
But do that math and New York technically brings in seven figures more than it sends out…until you factor in a collective bargaining agreement provision that saves it.
Since Bates-Diop is making minimum salary, the Knicks could accept him under the minimum exception, which would count him as outgoing salary for the Nets but not incoming The Knicks’ salary. That means Milton’s salary plus Diakite’s is enough to save them, which caps them at $188.9 million instead of $178.1 million.
If the Knicks want to make more moves, they now have the opportunity to do so.
(Photo: Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)