2024 NBA Offseason News

[jpotter33]

I don't know why folks are sleeping so much on the Knicks. They won 50 games last year. Their 2nd best player only played half the season. Their 3rd best player only played half the season. Their 3rd best big only played one third of the season.

They are going to be much better next season. Even before they got Mikal Bridges. They should be a high 50s low 60s win team.

It is not easy to jump from 50 wins to 60 wins.  It?s way easier to get from 40 to 50.  Bridges is not going to get them there, and while you can say missing Randle hurt them, it?s not clear that he?s actually a good fit for how they played in the second half of the year anyway.  I think that team is a 48-52 win team.  Easy money on the under total for wins if Vegas is as high on them as I expect they will be.

Yeah, I saw someone say on Twitter that this was a super team of role players - high-level role players but role players nonetheless.

I think they still lack the top-tier talent to truly compete for a title and beat us, especially when your lone star is a 6 foot guard. Should be a great regular season team and very consistent in their play, but I still don?t think their ceiling is at that level yet.

[hpantazo]

Maybe someone can actually give us a little bit of a fight next season. We basically ran away with it this past year and dominated through the playoffs

[Vermont Green]

I think the Knicks will be good next season.  Bridges is a good player.  Anunoby may be the one that is left out of this.  But if their goal is trying to get better than the Celtics, I think they are going about it the wrong way.  They aren't going to be better than the Celtics guards and wings.  Teams with good bigs are the teams that could give the Celtics problems.  So if the Knicks lose Hartenstein and/or Randle due to this trade, they may be worse off when playing the Celtics.

Bridges is probably better than Anunoby.  So if they are able to keep Randle and Hartenstein, add Bridges, but lose Anunoby, they are going to be better and will continue to be a touch match up for the Celtics, and most other teams.

[BringToughnessBack]

I think the Knicks will be good next season.  Bridges is a good player.  Anunoby may be the one that is left out of this.  But if their goal is trying to get better than the Celtics, I think they are going about it the wrong way.  They aren't going to be better than the Celtics guards and wings.  Teams with good bigs are the teams that could give the Celtics problems.  So if the Knicks lose Hartenstein and/or Randle due to this trade, they may be worse off when playing the Celtics.

Bridges is probably better than Anunoby.  So if they are able to keep Randle and Hartenstein, add Bridges, but lose Anunoby, they are going to be better and will continue to be a touch match up for the Celtics, and most other teams.

If they add Embiid I will worry a little.  You are right, their guards and wings wont beat us head to head.

[tazzmaniac]

That's a good trade for the Knicks especially if they can keep OG.... They will be right behind us next season...

I agree, somewhat.  The Knicks have to be thinking that several of those picks will be in the high 20s. 

2025 - #25-30
2027 - #25-30
2028 (Bucks) - Top four protected, but could still be a lottery pick if they can't keep Giannis
2029 - This is where it gets dicey. Will salary cap issues and age start to affect the Knicks?
2031 - Total crapshoot.  This could be like the C's getting Tatum with the Nets' pick

But still, none of those later picks are guaranteed to even be in the teens. 

So this trade is still TBD on who "wins" it.

From what I read it is the 2025 Bucks pick not 2028.

[Surferdad]

So to me it looks like the Knicks are trying to be the Celtics

It?s a copy-cat league and teams will try to emulate whoever wins a chip. I said this about OKC adding Caruso while they already have Dort. Boston?s superb point-of-attack defense (Jrue, DWhite) is being copied because, well, it is hard to copy a wing duo like JT/JB.

[BitterJim]

As I understand it, the reason people are saying the Knicks will be hardcapped is because they're taking on more salary than they're sending out.  There seems to be a simple solution to that, though.

2024 salaries (if trade made before 7/1/24):  Bridges: $21,700,000; Bogs: $20,000,000
2025 salaries (if trade made after 7/1/24):  Bridges:  $23,300,000; Bogs: $19,032,850

It's only a $1.7 million gap before July 1.  Is it worth including Jericho Sims or Miles McBride in the trade so that NYK preserves cap flexibility?  That would theoretically allow them to keep both Hartenstein and OGA.

If and when something like this happens, you heard it here first.

Wouldn't aggregating salaries in a trade have the exact same hard-capping effect?

It seems like the Knicks will have to pick between Robinson and Hartenstein, which should be interesting. I have to think they would go with Hartenstein (assuming they can agree on a contract) and trade Robinson for a cheaper big man

I'm not sure if it counts as aggregating salaries under the CBA, since the salaries don't need to be combined to make the trade math work.  Possibly, but not necessarily.

That's a good point. I wonder if not aggregating the salaries requires treating them as separate deals, though (similar to how you could make that trade and use the second player to create a TPE). If that's the case then it might still be treated as bringing in more salary.

It would be interesting to see what someone like Larry Coon has to say about it

[Celtics2021]

As I understand it, the reason people are saying the Knicks will be hardcapped is because they're taking on more salary than they're sending out.  There seems to be a simple solution to that, though.

2024 salaries (if trade made before 7/1/24):  Bridges: $21,700,000; Bogs: $20,000,000
2025 salaries (if trade made after 7/1/24):  Bridges:  $23,300,000; Bogs: $19,032,850

It's only a $1.7 million gap before July 1.  Is it worth including Jericho Sims or Miles McBride in the trade so that NYK preserves cap flexibility?  That would theoretically allow them to keep both Hartenstein and OGA.

If and when something like this happens, you heard it here first.

Wouldn't aggregating salaries in a trade have the exact same hard-capping effect?

It seems like the Knicks will have to pick between Robinson and Hartenstein, which should be interesting. I have to think they would go with Hartenstein (assuming they can agree on a contract) and trade Robinson for a cheaper big man

I'm not sure if it counts as aggregating salaries under the CBA, since the salaries don't need to be combined to make the trade math work.  Possibly, but not necessarily.

That's a good point. I wonder if not aggregating the salaries requires treating them as separate deals, though (similar to how you could make that trade and use the second player to create a TPE). If that's the case then it might still be treated as bringing in more salary.

It would be interesting to see what someone like Larry Coon has to say about it

I think it would still count, because either you have aggregated the salaries to take on less money overall, or you have two separate trades, one of which takes on more salary and the other of which provides a trade exception.  If the Knicks could have traded Jericho Sims to avoid the hard-cap, I am sure that would have happened.

[Moranis]

Bam 3 years, 166 million extension.  That is a lot if money

[Who]

So to me it looks like the Knicks are trying to be the Celtics, the problem with that is the Celtics almost exclusively play lineups where all five guys are good on offense and good on defense. As long as the Knicks are playing Brunson they have a weak spot to attack on defense, and unlike the Celtics they don't have floor spacers at the five which gives the C"s someone to help off when they defend the Knicks. And on top of all that their wings aren't as good as the C's wings.

They're sort of a poor man's Celtics.

I don't see them as trying to be like the Celtics.

They are running a heliocentric offense around a ball-dominant PG in contrast to BOS team balance offense.

BOS plays a two guard two wing one big lineup. NY will play a one guard two wing two big lineup.

BOS benefits from having two ball-handling guards and two ball-handling forwards. NY has one ball-handling PG and a ball-handling big in Randle. Anunoby isn't that good at handling the ball. Mikal Bridges is okay. DiVicenzo is okay. Neither are at the level of a D White. Randle is probably closer to Jaylen than Tatum.

NY are building their own thing. As they should.

BOS is too difficult to replicate. It is like GSW a few years ago. You may want to reproduce but you can't. You have to create something different. That is what BOS did. They built something different. And they won. That is what DEN did around Jokic and they won. That is what Minnesota did with Gobert & Towns and they had their best season in 20 years.

Teams should not try to replicate BOS. There aren't enough two way big combo guards like Jrue & D White to go around. They may be even tougher to replicate than the Jays are who are darn tough to reproduce themselves. And Porzingis is called a unicorn for just how rare he is. As is Horford's skill-set. This is an extremely difficult near impossible team to reproduce.

Teams will instead have to forge a different path. NY is doing that.

I think they are on the right track in terms of maxing out there title chances. 

[Who]

The Mikal Bridges trade reminds me of Minnesota acquiring Rudy Gobert. Giving up a load of picks for a quasi-star non-franchise player non clear cut All-Star.

It worked out well for Minnesota despite the concerns at the time. I expect it will for NY as well.

[Moranis]

The Mikal Bridges trade reminds me of Minnesota acquiring Rudy Gobert. Giving up a load of picks for a quasi-star non-franchise player non clear cut All-Star.

It worked out well for Minnesota despite the concerns at the time. I expect it will for NY as well.

Minnesota made the conference finals which is nice, and they will still be good next year so the 2025 pick won't be a great pick, but who knows what they will look like in 2027 and 2029 (at least that has top 5 protection).  The Wolves could end up giving the Jazz the next Wemby and not advance further than the conference finals.

As a reminder trade was

Gobert

for

Beasley, Beverley, Bolmaro, Vanderbilt, 2022 1st (Kessler), 2023 1st (Keyonte George), 2025 1st, 2026 swap 1st, 2027 1st, 2029 1st (top 5)

[DefenseWinsChamps]

2nd Apron question: If a team that is currently over the 2nd apron trades away a player to get under the second apron, can they then aggregate salaries etc., or are they still considered a 2nd apron team until next year?

[Roy H.]

Bam Adebayo, one of the NBA's top defensive players and soon to become a two-time U.S. Olympian, intends to sign a three-year, $166 million extension with the Miami Heat when the league's offseason moratorium on such moves is lifted next month, according to multiple reports.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

So to me it looks like the Knicks are trying to be the Celtics

It?s a copy-cat league and teams will try to emulate whoever wins a chip. I said this about OKC adding Caruso while they already have Dort. Boston?s superb point-of-attack defense (Jrue, DWhite) is being copied because, well, it is hard to copy a wing duo like JT/JB.

The Caltics or the Celtecs maybe.