State of the Cap: New York Knicks

By Josh Redetzke
redball77@yahoo.com
4/25/06

2006/07 New York Knicks Payroll: $134 million
2006/07 Estimated NBA Salary Cap: $52 million
Roughly: $82 million over cap





The Good: Despite the cesspool that is the Knick's salary cap situation, there are some things to feel good about. New York's rookies showed a lot of promise this year, especially their first pick, Channing Frye. The big man showed excellent scoring abilities from both inside and out and rebounded the ball pretty well. Frye established himself as the only Knick that is untouchable in trade offers. Unfortunately, the bad mojo on this team caused Channing to tear a knee ligament and miss the end of his rookie season. He was one of the few Knicks that actually earned his contract.

Even though he is a horrible shooter and doesn't pass much for a player that stands 5'9", Nate Robinson still brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm to a team that needed it. If the slam-dunk champ can polish his game and be more of a distributor, he could end up being a nice player in this league.

Allan Houston, Jalen Rose, Maurice Taylor, and Shandon Anderson all come off the salary cap after next season, potentially savings the Knicks $54 million dollars. No, that number is not a typo.

The Bad: Where do I begin? How about with one of their newest acquisitions, Eddy Curry. The center from Chicago will make just over $10 million dollars per year the next five years. For that, New York will get an underachieving post player that averages 13.8 points and 6 rebounds. Plus, he has a bad heart that could cause trouble at any time. Plus, they gave up their next two first round draft picks to get him, the first of which is likely in the top three. They don't call Isiah Thomas the best for nothing.

Next, we go to Jerome James, an even more underachieving post player. Jerome will get $6 million dollars each of the next four seasons. He averaged 9 minutes a game this year. Every basketball fan that mildly followed the NBA knew Jerome James wouldn't be worth it. Why the Knicks didn't see that is anyone's guess.

Stephon Marbury's production was down this year and his whining was way up. He averaged a career worst 6.4 assists per game and scored just 16.3 points a night, a figure he hasn't been near since his rookie season. Marbury will still get over $20 million a year for three more years no matter what happens. With a contract like that, it's a wonder that his name ever comes up in trade talks.

With slightly less whining and slightly worse stats, Steve Francis wasn't exactly the beacon of hope that New York thought he would be. I guess that's okay since he makes slightly less money than Marbury, right? ($16 million a year the next three years) Can we please stop calling this guy "The Franchise" already?

There is much more, which I will quickly go over. Quentin Richardson has four more seasons that will pay him about $8.5 million per. That is one million dollars per point on his scoring average. He also shoots a blazing 35% from the field. Malik Rose will get $6.5 and $7.1 million the next two seasons. He barely plays, logging 15 minutes a game, which is less than rookie David Lee who is paid 1/7 of what Rose is making. Jamal Crawford's deal is similar to Richardson's, with an extra year tacked on. While Jamal is the team's second leading scorer, 14 points a game and 42% shooting isn't that great. At least he has some potential to earn his contract.

The Future: After all that, I still haven't mentioned how Allan Houston, Jalen Rose, Maurice Taylor, Shandon Anderson, and Jerome Williams will count $60 million dollars against the cap combined next season. Why is that not a bad thing? Because all of it can disappear after next season. That's right, the New York Knicks have a chance to save $60 million dollars to get their payroll down to around $70 million. That is still over the cap, but its a much more manageable figure.

Is it nearly time to rejoice in the Big Apple? Not quite. Having that many expiring contracts in the hands of Isiah Thomas can only spell trouble for the Knicks. Unless Thomas changes his ways, some of those contracts are likely to be traded for more overpaid players with long-term deals. That is not what this team needs right now.

One player the Knicks would like to get rid of (at least Larry Brown does) is Stephon Marbury. At this point, I don't know who would want to trade for a player with such a bad contract and attitude. However, with the Timberwolves as desperate as they are, perhaps Isiah can convince the second worst GM in the league, Kevin McHale, to take Marbury off his hands. New York will definitely be dealing this summer, and I can't even imagine the possibilities.

The Knicks finally have a chance to drag themselves out of salary cap hell. Something tells me that simply will not happen.

Bonus Points… for… ummmm… not giving Allan Houston a contract extension?

Grade: F

There's a thought. Let all these guys expire and only trade for expiring contracts. Let the youngins develop next year.

Every basketball fan that mildly followed the NBA knew Jerome James wouldn't be worth it.

apparently the writer doesn't read these forums.

Here we go...

First move :
Trade Steve Francis to Memphis for Eddie Jones and Future 1st rounder

Second move:
Trade Statbury to Miami for J. Williams, Posey and Future 1st rounder.

Third move:
Buyout both J. Rose and M. Taylor

Fourth move:
Trade Curry and 29th pick to Lakers for Mihm, McKie, Bynum and 2nd rounder this year (51st)
Waive(buyout) McKie

Fifth move:
Sign Butler to LLE or part of MLE

Our Roster would be
Eddie Jones
J. Williams
Q1
Posey
Mihm
Bynum
Butler
M. Rose
J. Crawford
J. James
Frye
Nate
D. Lee
2 draft picks (1 1st and 1 2nd)

Draft Hilton Armstong/Josh Boone type player with the DEN pick
Draft Euro for the 2nd rounder - let him get more experience in europe or NBDL

Starting 5
PG - J. Williams (stop gap)
SG - E. Jones (stop gap)
SF - Posey
PF - Frye
C - Mihm

Bench -
9 man rotation - Jamal, Lee, Butler, Q1
Pine - NAte , Bynum, Hilton Armstrong

INACTIVE list : J. James, M. Rose

Why would the Lakers want both Curry and Brown. Nice trade up to that point. The Lakers want a scoring pg, in the ways of Steve Francis. The problem with the Lakers are that they want to get really better but can't afford to give up their assets. I spent some time trying to trade them Francis without giving up Odom to be fair to them but it doesn't work. They have to trade Odom and Bynum just to make the Francis deal work. I think it is the same issue they had with Orlando, the Magic didn't need Bynum after acquiring Darko, so it makes sense why they blew them off. Now, odom is close to being untradeable after his late season showing.

[Edited by - pharzeone on 05-10-2006 4:52 PM]

Not so sure if I would call Nate a "horrible shooter." He needs to continue to work, but he certainly improved his jump shot, not just the 3 which he hit to win a few games, but the mid-range J later in the season.

Also no mention of the nice contribution David Lee provided either. I'm not saying the rookies are the "next coming" or anything, but all 3 have a very good chance to at least be solid/good NBA players.

Just to nitpick about the writing/editing, this article is poorly edited since the author chose to say early on in "The Good" that the Knicks will loose $54 million off the cap, neglecting Jerome Williams, and then later say:

After all that, I still haven't mentioned how Allan Houston, Jalen Rose, Maurice Taylor, Shandon Anderson, and Jerome Williams will count $60 million dollars against the cap combined next season.

Actually, you did. What should have been done in the article was to list all of the correct players that come off the cap the first time, and then refer simply to the figure ($60 million) in the summary at the end which was labeled "The Future." It's a bit redundant, confusing, misleading, and discrediting of one's writing to say $54 mil could come off the cap in one sentence and then (I'm paraphrasing here) "I never mentioned this but the Knicks have $60 mil coming off the cap" in a later sentence.

I'm also not so sure there is anything we don't already know in this article either. Regardless, thanks for posting it.

[Edited by - PresIke on 05-10-2006 7:04 PM]