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The Knicks Final Roster Spots and How it Impacts Their Second Apron Situation

The Knicks are looking to add two veterans to fill their final roster spots. I show the type of trade that would be required to make it happen and how it leaves them with more in-season flexibility.

Yossi Gozlan
Sep 12, 2025

It doesn’t feel like the eve of training camp until the New York Knicks start getting active.

They emerged from the slumber of August with an agreement to sign Landry Shamet to a one-year veteran minimum contract, according to Shams Charania. He’s been rumored to fill the Knicks’ last veteran roster spot for a while now. They just threw that in a loop by signing not just one, but two more veterans in Garrison Mathews and Malcolm Brogdon.

The Knicks are operating under a tight second apron crunch for a second straight year. They only had enough flexibility to acquire one $5-6 million player to their rotation while staying under the second apron. They achieved this by signing Guerschon Yabusele to a two-year, $11.3 million contract using the taxpayer mid-level exception (T-MLE).

Yabusele took $185,000 less on his first-year salary than the maximum amount he can get with the T-MLE. This was required for the Knicks to fill up their roster under the $207.8 million second apron hard cap. Teams must roster at least 14 players throughout the season, but could stay below that amount for up to 28 days, and for no more than 14-day intervals.

The expectation for most of the offseason was that the Knicks would only be able to sign two veteran minimum players to their roster. Jordan Clarkson took one of them, and the other would go to someone else. Players like Ben Simmons and Russell Westbrook were rumored, but it will now go to one of the players they recently signed.

The 14th roster spot would go to a recent second-round pick, such as Mohamed Diawara or James Nnaji. That’s because they’d only have enough room below the second apron to sign a player to a $1.2 million rookie minimum salary. Those two players would qualify for that since the Knicks own their draft rights, and that part of the equation is still likely.

That plan would leave the Knicks with just under $150,000 in space below the second apron. That is virtually no breathing room to make additional moves in the season. The soonest they’d be able to sign a player to their 15th spot would be on April 2. The last day of the regular season is April 12.

They could sign a player to a 10-day contract earlier, but that would prevent them from signing a player to a rest-of-season contract until the last few days of the season. They could also create more space by using up 14 of their 28 days below the 14-player requirement to start the season. They did this last year before signing Matt Ryan and Ariel Hukporti to prorated minimum salary deals, and could do the same with one of their veteran minimum signings and Diawara.

It appears the Knicks' plans have a different course in mind, one that includes two of Shamet, Brogdon, and Mathews being on the team. That would mean they would need to make a cost-cutting trade to fit two of those players under the second apron hard cap. According to Stefan Bondy, there is an expectation around the league that the Knicks will make such a move.

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nycericanguy wrote:IDK, it sucks to give up Kolek who is cost controlled and showed flashes.

Shamet brings a valuable skillset, but he's a 1 year deal and hasn't proven to be a big difference maker.

Brogs COULD be a big difference maker, but he's also always hurt and I could see him being another Kemba that plays 20-30 games and then basically retires. But the upside is much bigger with him.

Ultimately we cant keep everyone though and if Kolek turns out to be a solid player ala TJ McConnell its just going to be something we have to accept.

Heck even Matthews is interesting. Sucks that the new CBA is ironically hurting the lil guys more than the stars.

Can't disagree with any of this.

Championship is on the line. And I'd guess that Knicks are bringing in all the guys and putting them through the hoops and paces to see if they still have it, can hopefully make it through the season, and how they fit the different rotation possibilities. Brogdon doesn't have to even play 50-70 games. He needs to be healthy enough at the end of the year or the 10-20 games Brunson is down and out with injury and the rest really doesn't matter. Like, if Brogdon has a hammy that keeps him out for 2 months in the middle of the season but is available during playoffs and is good enough as a backup, it don't really matter. IF Brogdon is healthy and a viable player still, he can start, he can be a very competent bench PG/SG and play very competently next to Brunson... Kolek has none of those things yet.

In particular to TJ McConnell v Kolek. Kolek is 25 now and is just in the unfortunate position of being a second year player who didn't get much opportunity for minutes during his rookie season. I'd guess that he could dominate the SL more regularly but didn't.

By 25, McConnell had 2 full seasons at 20mpg behind him and then had a playoffs performance of 12 games at end of 3rd season that was pretty darn good. Kolek just doesn't have that history, and that's not to say that he can't get there. But if he is following the McConnell mode, he is at least a year or 2 away from bench production at the level the Knicks are currently shooting for.

If I'm the Knicks, I keep asking myself HOW much upside does Kolek have. Bro still struggles with (admittedly ragged) SL games at times.

Dadiet is 20 and we keep hearing whispers of how good that shooting is behind the scenes, whereas we never hear that about Kolek. Could be nothing, could be something.

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Am I correct in thinking that trading just Kolek would not open enough enough salary cap space to sign both Shamet and Brogdon? It would have to be a trade for either Pacome or Deuce, right? - @_leeescobedo

Thanks for the question, Lee. Some background first: the Knicks have signed Malcolm Brogdon and Landry Shamet to nonguaranteed contracts ahead of training camp. If they want to keep both players on the regular season roster, they will have to trade one of their players signed to a traditional NBA deal. They need to do this because their team salary cannot exceed the second apron this season. There are many different trade routes the Knicks can take to keep both Brogdon and Shamet.

A trade of either Pacôme Dadiet or Miles McBride would clear enough cap space to sign both veterans. The Knicks can also trade Tyler Kolek and have enough space under the second apron to sign both Brogdon and Shamet. But, to Lee’s point, trading Kolek and signing both vets would leave New York just $44,000 under the second apron. Unless they made another trade, in this scenario, the Knicks wouldn’t be able to sign another veteran on a pro-rated contract during the season. New York used this approach last season when signing veteran P.J. Tucker in March. Cap expert Yossi Gozlan expertly explained these trade scenarios in his Third Apron Substack.

I don’t think the Knicks will make a trade ahead of training camp. I’d expect them to let things play out during camp/preseason before they made a move to keep both Brogdon and Shamet. But if I’m betting today, I’m betting that both Brodgon and Shamet are on the regular season roster. This Knicks team is in win-now mode, and injuries to Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton give them a direct pathway to the NBA Finals. Veterans like Brogdon and Shamet are preferred options for a win-now team like the Knicks.

ramtour420 wrote:Ok. the question is when did we trade Simms. Because that's when we went from development( he doesn't look like he is developing) to win now. And now we need championship level players. Brogdan and Shamet could be those players, but it's up to our stars to bring it home. Just look at Walt Frazier. He was the star to make it happen

Huk replaced Simms in the development chain. Not sure it was a turning point so much as Mitch was on his way back and we needed the space. Simms was also 25 years old, likely not in our future plans, and we gave him an opportunity to join a team that would.

Nalod wrote:

ramtour420 wrote:Ok. the question is when did we trade Simms. Because that's when we went from development( he doesn't look like he is developing) to win now. And now we need championship level players. Brogdan and Shamet could be those players, but it's up to our stars to bring it home. Just look at Walt Frazier. He was the star to make it happen

Huk replaced Simms in the development chain. Not sure it was a turning point so much as Mitch was on his way back and we needed the space. Simms was also 25 years old, likely not in our future plans, and we gave him an opportunity to join a team that would.

This. He was not in Knicks long term plans. They gave him a shot and he failed out, just like countless others. And perhaps they wanted a backup PG in someone like Wright.

that's a trade that I think would make us favorites.

martin wrote:I never thought of McBride this way, he will 100% hit UFA.

If Knicks can't come to a number agreement with McBride before free agency so they can sign him immediately before the OKC-iHart deal hits, he is probably gone?

So, 2 years from now, if not next summer, Knicks will hit the second apron it seems

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the new CBA is killing guys like Mcbride though, i'm not sure what a "big" payday looks like for him. Maybe $10m per year?

If he walks in 2 years it kind is what it is but we need him these next 2 years to try to win it all. he's an important and durable piece.

KAT is the guy we gotta keep an eye on, maybe not this summer, but if he's a reason we dont win it all next season, getting his contract off our books or even just swapping it for someone making a bit less gives us so much flexibility.