There has been a concern of mine for awhile that Irving will join up with someone in New York. The pull of Durant has to be enticing for a player.
Does NY have the cap space for 2 max deals?
I thought they onl had enough room for 1.
Their only guaranteed contracts are Hardaway, Lee, Ntilikina, Knox, and Robinson, which total like 42 million. They have the Zinger cap hold of 7.5 million. The open roster holds are like 5 million. So that puts them at like 55 million. Even with a top 5 pick that puts them in the low 60 million range. So with a 109 million cap, they'd have like 45-50 million, which gets them Durant's 38 million and gets them pretty close to a Hardaway salary dump away from Irving's 33 million. After they sign Durant and Irving, they re-sign Porzingis. And I think they could find a taker for Hardaway pretty easily as Hardaway has been pretty good (they can pretty easily add a future 1st or two if needed). Add some veteran minimum types and they have a pretty decent team with the right mix of veterans and young guys.
I think Zinger's caphold is more like 17 million from what I've seen.
Assuming they keep Burke and Vonleh's minimal caphold (3 million total), that puts them at 31 million of space without trading anyone, assuming they waive and stretch Thomas.
They'd have to trade both Lee (13) and Hardaway (18) to get close to space for two max contracts, but that still wouldn't be enough for Durant and Irving's max contracts.
And all Irving and Durant would have is Knox, Robinson, Frankie, and Zinger with vet role players. Zinger might never be healthy again and he doesn't always make the right unselfish basketball plays -- something both Durant and Irving value highly. I'm not sure the rest are going to be starters in league, and they're certainly not ready to contribute to winning championships.
When the Knicks stretched Noah, it was a white flag showing they didn't think they could get two max guys in 2019. That 6 million makes a huge difference. They could have traded Noah with their 2019 first (and probably another future first) to the Kings for Koufus' expiring contract and another small contract. That would have opened up enough space for two max contracts in 2019, but by stretching Noah, they made that almost impossible.