ON THE BOOKS

STAT 19,948,799
Melo 19,450,000
Chandler 13,604,188
Douglas 2,067,880
Balkman 1,675,000*
Shumpert 1,680,360
Jordan 762,195

TOTAL: $59,188,422.00**

*Balkman was waived to make room for J.R. Smith, but New York pays his salary because contracts are guaranteed in the NBA.

**Plus whatever cap holds exist for the two second round picks. (I don't know what these are off the top of my head.) If somebody links me the cap holds for the second round picks I will gladly add those in to make this even more accurate.

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS AND OPTIONS

J.R. Smith -- Smith has a $2,500,000.00 player option for next season. If J.R. Smith declines the option, he's free to leave as an unrestricted free agent. If Smith picks up the option it counts against the cap but doesn't

Jeremy Lin -- Lin is a restricted free agent under the Gilbert Arenas provision of the collective bargaining agreement. The Knicks are over the cap, so the maximum that they could offer Jeremy Lin is the full mid-level exception. The Arenas Provision protects the Knicks from being outbid because of the cap (meaning that another team that wanted to sign Lin could only offer the same maximum that the Knicks could offer under the cap, in this case meaning the mid-level exception). The bottom line is that the Knicks' front office gets to decide whether or not they keep Jeremy Lin, but his salary will count against the mid-level exception if it's more than the minimum.

Landry Fields -- Fields has played two years with the Knicks, making him an early bird player. (This information came from Knickerblogger) As an Early Bird player, Fields can be offered a contract that starts at 175% of his current salary or anything up to the average NBA salary (which is roughly $5 million). They can pay Fields this money without affecting their mid-level exception. However, if Fields just signs a one year deal for anything up to the average salary, then the following season the Knicks will have his full Bird Rights and then can re-sign him to a salary larger than the average salary.

Josh Harrellson -- Jorts has a $762,195 team option for next season. This counts against the cap if they pick it up but doesn't affect the Knicks' Mid-level exception.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

Mike Bibby
Baron Davis*
Bill Walker
Jarred Jeffries

*Baron Davis was amnestied by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2011-2012. The Cleveland Cavaliers owe him a salary of $14,850,000 and will pay the difference between that number and what he gets from another team (14,850,000 - Baron Davis' 2012-2013 cap number). Therefore, it is speculated that Baron Davis can once again be had for the veteran minimum salary.

SUMMARY

It is widely assumed that the salary cap will stay at or near $58 million, the same number that it was this season. If that's true, New York will be over the salary cap before even retaining their own players. Under cap rules, the Knicks would have the players in the "ON THE BOOKS" plus the mid-level exception.

VCoug wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:can we trade douglas for a second round pick to create more space?

Whoever we trade with would need to be under the cap so they could absorb his contract. Also, Douglas' contract isn't for that much, so dumping it won't put us under the cap.

I thought two teams over the cap could trade with each other as long as the salaries are within a certain percentage.

CashMoney wrote:

VCoug wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:can we trade douglas for a second round pick to create more space?

Whoever we trade with would need to be under the cap so they could absorb his contract. Also, Douglas' contract isn't for that much, so dumping it won't put us under the cap.

I thought two teams over the cap could trade with each other as long as the salaries are within a certain percentage.

Yeah, but he was talking about dumping salary, in which case we wouldn't be taking any back.

arkrud wrote:The over the salary cap expenses means nothing to Jimmy.
He was OK to pay 127+ millions for the crappiest team in the history of all pro sports.
The question only is what can Knicks retain by CBA.
How much it will cost is irrelevant.

This is right! Who can we retain according to the rules?

BRIGGS wrote:

arkrud wrote:The over the salary cap expenses means nothing to Jimmy.
He was OK to pay 127+ millions for the crappiest team in the history of all pro sports.
The question only is what can Knicks retain by CBA.
How much it will cost is irrelevant.

This is right! Who can we retain according to the rules?

We should be able to keep Lin no matter what, and I'm pretty sure we can keep Fields no matter what as well. After that, it's all about what players are willing to accept. JR will probably be getting a nice contract offer from someone, starting at at least $6M, so he's probably gone. I'm not sure what Novak's value is on the open market, Kyle Korver makes $5M/yr and JJ Reddick makes $6M/yr, but I'm hoping he'll accept one of our lesser exceptions if they're available. The only other free agent I think we should be trying to retain is Jared Jeffries, and I doubt that anyone offers him much more than the veteran minimum.

According to LC...

It’s was blown out of proportion. The rule is simply that if a contract is extended, then the salary in the first year of the extension can’t drop by more than 40%.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/salary-cap-chat-with-larry-coon-11812

matt wrote:Basically, if we can bring back Lin, Novak and possibly Fields (without overpaying), I'd consider it a win. JR is just a bonus if he decides to stay

doubtful we overpay fields at this point. he's not gonna get a big offer from anyone else with his play this year.

the most difficult thing will be trying to keep novak and jeffries, assuming lin gets the full mle.

fortunately, since we aren't paying luxary tax we have the bi-annual exception (about $2 mil), but is that enough to keep novak, at least?

problem is pieces we might be willing to deal:

fields and td

are not performing well.

could see jorts moved, but hard to say.

1) We need to address a 2nd PG/ capable of facilitating, a PG that can also play good defense solid defense, and insurance for Lin's knee,
I would actually look to add 2 PGs, Gaines and another... maybe Delonte West if we aren't looking to spend much

2) A shot blocking center to rest TC and continue to patrol the paint for our 2nd unit and provide insurance for TC.

Bulls, Noah... Omar Asik and Taj Gibson
Celtics KG...Greg Stiemsma

Dallas Haywood... Brandon Wright and Mahimi
Memphis, Gasol... Haddidi, Speights/Cunningham

are both major reasons why their teams are great defensive teams. They play important roles, with their ability to protect the paint.
Being able to have the players to play 4 of great defense/shot blocking is a great luxury to have. While the Bulls is the greatest example because of the ability to win without D Rose for much of the season vs good/great teams.

3) add an Athletic PF to provide insurance for Amare

4) continue to add shooters to spread the floor and play defense, on top of players of JR Smith and Novak, so if they are gone we have to replace them and add players...

I just don't see how we can address all these issues, while adding to our core, unless Amare, Melo, and TC are willing to restructure their deals, it is our best chance, unless we can trade Amare this off season for an expiring, and address it the year in 2013.

I am not asking for much, I think it is very reasonable for the players and organization, Lebron/Wade/Bosh, took less $ for a greater chance to be contenders.
We are almost there if we can add talent to this core while retaining most of our core, adding MLE worthy player and LLE while retaining Lin, Novak, and JJ

Amare 3-5m per year, while adding 2 more years to his contract *he is the most, because he is the least inconsistent and the weakest link of the 3.
He has the least chance of making such money again, probably closer to 5m at best the way things are looking after his current deal ends in 3 years.

Melo 1-3m while adding another year or 2, up to him, with the ability to opt out of his contract, because he probably believes he has a chance to still make all star like money.