http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/19565/the-knicks-summer-spending#comments
If you thought dissecting the collective bargaining agreement and a team's spending cans and cannots were tricky, you're definitely not the only one. In fact, as one veteran NBA journalist put it, "It's a minefield. Even GMs call the league and say, 'Can I do this?'"Now that the Knicks' season is in the books, what are their options when the free-agency period starts July 1? ESPN New York's Jared Zwerling consulted with NBA salary cap expert Larry Coon to get the answers you need and more.
For starters, the Knicks are currently $5.6 million under the league-mandated $58.044 million salary cap. (On July 1, if the cap stays the same, which it likely will, they will be $5.65 million over.) Currently, the main players under contract for next season include: Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Iman Shumpert and Toney Douglas. In addition, J.R. Smith has a player option of $2.443 million, Josh Harrellson has a team option of $762,195, Jerome Jordan has a non-guaranteed salary of $762,195 and while Renaldo Balkman cleared waivers this past season, he's still owed some salary that counts against the cap. The team's restricted free agents are Jeremy Lin and Landry Fields, and the unrestricted pool includes: Steve Novak, Baron Davis, Jared Jeffries, Mike Bibby, Bill Walker and Dan Gadzuric.
Looking ahead to the offseason, the key moves for the team include Smith's opt in or out, potentially re-signing Fields, using their mid-level exception of about $3 million (taxpayer) or of about $5 million (non-taxpayer), potentially using their bi-annual exception of $1.98 million and then spending a couple of veteran's minimums of $1.4 million each. Their biggest hurdle will be deciding which amount of their mid-level exception to give to Lin.
