Great News As:.New York Knick’s Official Earned NBA Reputation As…
Great News As:.New York Knick’s Official Earned NBA Reputation As…POST-DEADLINE STATE OF THE KNICKS’ UNION
The trade deadline was much maligned from the media writ large and has since been debated on the impact that it had on the league. While some people lamented the lackadaisical deadline in terms of star movement, others are quick to remind you that players like OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and James Harden have all been traded during this season.
Whether you were moved by the deadline or not, there is no debate that it had an impact on the New York Knicks. All of a sudden, Leon Rose and company have earned the reputation as one of the smartest front offices in the NBA. There is not a single person worth their weight that was not praising the performance of the Knickerbockers’ front office over the last week.
What made the deadline maneuvering of the Knicks so brilliant was the fact that they were able to go get some talent to increase their depth while maintaining cap flexibility AND keeping all of their first-round picks as potential trade chips going forward.
In what was clearly a seller’s market, teams reportedly asked for outlandish prices, or else chose to hold onto their guys until teams become more desperate and more picks become available this summer. So, whether you choose to believe that the Pistons once turned down two firsts for Bojan Bogdanovic, it is no doubt impressive that the Knicks were able to land both Bogdanovic and Burks without parting with a single first-round pick.
Between the Anunoby and Bogdanovic deals, the Knicks offloaded the majority of their young talent from the last few drafts (but not Miles McBride!), as well as the majority of their tradable contracts. The Fournier contract was the big piece to attach to every theoretical star trade the Knicks could make, and they exchanged it for a much more interesting, flexible, and valuable contract to use in the future, in Bojan Bogdanovic.
Evan Fournier was an expiring contract with a team option that could have been picked up to move him as an expiring for next year. Instead, they moved him for Bojan Bogdanovic’s 19 million dollar partially-guaranteed contract for 2024-2025. What that means is due to contract stipulations with games played, the Croatian is only guaranteed 2 million dollars for next year. So in layman’s terms: the Knicks have until June 29 to decide whether they want to pick up Bogdanovic’s contract and pay him the full 19 million for next year or let him go and only keep that last 2 million on the books.
If the Knicks pick up the contract, they’ll have a 19 million dollar expiring under contract for next year as a trade chip for a bigger contract. That is remarkably similar to the 19 million dollar expiring contract that the Knicks could have picked up for Fournier, except unlike Fournier, Bogdanovic has value on a basketball court. That gives additional flexibility to the Knicks who could flip Bogdanovic for something of value, as well as clearing way for a bigger contract.
If the Knicks do not want to pick up that contract, they all of a sudden have 27 million dollars coming off the books between Bogdanovic and Burks’ 10 million dollar expiring contract, which they could get creative with, taking back salary in something like a sign-and-trade, although logic would suggest the Knicks’ plan on retaining both guys with bird rights in hand, which gives them the ability to take on additional salary and continue fleshing out their roster.