The New York Knicks‘ trade for Mikal Bridges may have seemed complete, but even after details of a deal in principle were made public, it may not happen.
Because of the current structure of the deal (the team agreed to a massive contract with OG Anunoby on Wednesday that will bring him back to New York), finances are tight. The punitive rules of a new collective bargaining agreement are wreaking havoc across much of the league.
Now, the Knicks are stingy, not because they are stingy but because they have no other option. They may edit parts of Bridges’ exchange, which is not yet finalized, for reasons that will be explained in a moment. During Wednesday night’s first round of the NBA Draft, they maneuvered to save money, trading away the 24th pick in a series of deals that netted them six second-round picks. They used the 25th pick to select Pacome Dadiet, an 18-year-old winger who played last season in Germany.
Dadiet is a long-term project, someone the Knicks hope will help in the future, not today, although slotting him at No. 25 instead of No. 24 saved the team dollars. This is the new battle.
The Knicks’ biggest obstacle isn’t the Boston Celtics or any other contender. It’s a spreadsheet.
If the Bridges trade goes through as currently planned, meaning if the Knicks would send Bojan Bogdanović and a slew of draft picks to the Brooklyn Nets for the 27-year-old, then the team is in trouble. . One of the new rules that is about to paralyze part of the league is this: if a team receives more total dollars in a trade than it sends, then it will be capped at the first apron, a threshold just for above the luxury tax line.
In other words, if you trade Bogdanović, who makes less than Bridges, for Bridges, without including anyone else in the deal, you won’t be able to exceed $179.7 million in payroll.
The Knicks are already close to the top spot, just about $5 million away after Anunoby agreed to a five-year, $212.5 million deal on Wednesday, a league source confirmed to The Athletic.
That’s why speculation about Isaiah Hartenstein’s free agency began as soon as the Bridges trade hit the press. If the Knicks were to just pay him in the first round, they wouldn’t have the money to pay him.
Of course, the deal with Bridges isn’t official yet.
According to league sources, the Knicks have looked for ways to add money to the deal in the two days since their agreement with the Nets. Including a minimum salary would not cover the difference between Bridges, who makes $23.3 million, and Bogdanović, who makes $19 million.
The Knicks would still be limited on the first apron if they included, say, Jericho Sims with Bogdanović. Adding two or more minimums wouldn’t be legal, because this is the NBA, where the frustrating quirks of collective bargaining don’t allow for all the best trade ideas.
The team discussed the possibility of including Miles McBride in the Bridges trade, according to league sources, and not because they’re eager to trade a 23-year-old fireball for a minuscule contract — just $13 million over the next three seasons. It’s math. If they wanted to, the Knicks could find a third team to send McBride to, acquiring a future first-round pick in the process and avoiding the first-team cap. His salary plus Bogdanović’s would barely exceed Bridges’. But they have since avoided that scenario, a league source said.
On top of that, McBride underwent a procedure on the pinky toe on his right foot this week, the Knicks announced Thursday morning, but they expect him to resume basketball activities this summer.
Including a second player in Bridges’ deal would still severely limit the Knicks, but with the second player at $189.4 million, it would give New York another $11 million of breathing room.
Here’s a good rule of thumb in this new collective bargaining agreement: If two teams make a trade, it’s almost guaranteed that at least one of them will be subject to a strict salary cap.
Reporting on the Knicks today requires experience in the elimination process. No team wants to limit themselves too much on the first platform. But if it’s not one of the minimal guys, and if it’s not McBride, who?
The Knicks have evaluated the market for Mitchell Robinson, according to league sources. If they included Robinson in the trade, sending him to a third team, they could get another player back. Robinson makes $14.3 million next season, meaning they could trade him for someone making up to $10 million, tie him into the Bridges deal and still send more money than they’re getting.
But parting ways with Robinson wouldn’t be that easy.
The best reason for the Knicks to avoid imposing strict limits on the first apron lies in one man’s checkbook: Hartenstein.
If the Knicks traded Bogdanović and picks for Bridges outright, they wouldn’t even be able to make an offer to their starting center, who will become an unrestricted free agent this weekend. But if they figured out a way to get that extra $11 million (and maybe get some more money in the process), then they could present Hartenstein with the biggest offer they can make: $72.5 million over four years.
Of course, it’s possible that Hartenstein left anyway.
The Knicks have grown more pessimistic this week about retaining Hartenstein, league sources said. The Nets and Nic Claxton, the other top center on the open market this summer, just agreed to a four-year, $100 million contract on Wednesday. Not only is Hartenstein now the league’s top free-agent center, but he also has a nine-figure contract he can point to as compensation.
The momentum has shifted away from the Knicks, who feel that an offer of $72.5 million over four years, the highest New York could offer, may not be big enough to retain him.
A potential payday elsewhere for Hartenstein could also impact how the team handles Robinson. The Knicks, especially not with a head coach whose ethos is rim protection, couldn’t lose their two defensive-minded centers without having another proven big man already committed.
Amid all this consternation is one objective: The Knicks just put all their chips on the middle of the pack, declaring with the Bridges trade that they believe they are a contender, and contenders aren’t trying to get worse just to appease the spreadsheet.
Giving up McBride for a future first-rounder, no matter how juicy a pick, wouldn’t make them better today. Parting ways with Robinson for someone earning less could be risky, especially if Hartenstein were headed elsewhere.
There’s a world in which the Knicks wait until after free agency to finalize the deal with Bridges, which could allow them to include a sign-and-trade move.
For example, let’s say Precious Achiuwa, another of the Knicks’ free agents, is destined to leave. The Knicks could find a way to sign and trade him to their next team, and then add the sign-and-trade to Bridges’ deal, which would include a higher outgoing salary and thus avoid the strict first-team salary cap. But that proposal is risky.
The NBA doesn’t mess around with sign-and-trade deals, and given that the Bridges trade was negotiated and reported well before the start of free agency — potentially implying that any sign-and-trade deal would have been agreed to in secret back in June — that could set off alarm bells at the league office. A similar, albeit more scandalous, situation played out in 2020 with Bogdan Bogdanović and the Milwaukee Bucks, for whom Bogdanović never actually played.
Meanwhile, constructing hypothetical trades involving Julius Randle, no matter how bogus, remains an exercise in hair-pulling, especially if the goal is to include him in Bridges’ deal to avoid the first-apron cap hit.
However, the other path, which would include trading Bridges for Bogdanović with no other players involved, doesn’t seem ideal either.
It would lose Hartenstein to the Knicks. New York would fall just under the cap with the following members of its rotation locked in: Bridges, Anunoby, Randle, Robinson, McBride, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. Adding players for more than the minimum would require gymnastics.
Maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe Hartenstein is gone, regardless of what the Knicks offer. And it wouldn’t be surprising if players with above-minimum quality took cheaper contracts to come to New York. The Knicks are finally a draw for free agents, a competent contender who could inspire a discount on a title-chasing veteran or two.
In the NBA of yesteryear, when it was not as common to set strict limits as it will be now, teams avoided doing so. Maybe the Knicks will accept that they are destined for a ceiling on the first apron and move forward into the season understanding that they don’t have much flexibility, but they have a chance to win the title anyway.
Or maybe, with free agency three days away, an organization that’s obsessed with keeping its options open isn’t done making moves.
(Photo by Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via /Keynote USA/Getty Images)
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