According to Yahoo! Sports, the Knicks are rumored to be making the following trade with the Houston Rockets in the coming days: Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries, Jordan Hill, and a bunch of draft picks for Tracy McGrady, Brian Cook, and Joey Dorsey. Various reports have been thrown around about how far under the cap the Knicks will be, but here is the reality of the situation:
First and foremost, the Knicks have 17,782,904 in guaranteed salaries between Curry, Gallinari, Douglas, and Chandler. After that, a cap hold is put in place for each roster spot under 12, filling in some of the Knicks' projected cap space. Because a team must have 12 players under contract at all times in the regular season, the CBA makes sure teams account for the minimum contracts they must use to fill out their roster before they use their cap space. The minimum rookie contract for the 10-11 season is 490,180. The Knicks thus also have 3,921,440 in cap holds (8 roster spots) to add to their salary in the offseason, putting them at a total of 21,704,344.
Teams are currently projecting the salary cap next season to be approximately 53,000,000, so under that projection, the Knicks would have 31,295,656 in cap space available. To free up a little more cap space, the Knicks can opt to buyout Eddy Curry's 11,276,863 contract. Because the minimum salary for a 10-year player is 1,399,507, Curry and his agent should agree to a buyout saving the Knicks that amount, a deal that is in both of their best interests and will not lose Curry any money, assuming he finds someone to sign him to a minimum deal (and the league pays a good portion of the minimum deals for veterans – a team will actually only have to flesh out 788,872 for Curry, with the league covering the rest).
Assuming the Knicks and Curry agree to the buyout as stated above, that would net the Knicks cap savings of 909,327, because they'd have to add yet another cap hold to account for Curry no longer being there. This would put the Knicks up to 32,204,983 in cap space. If the goal is to sign two max players, you can also deduct two roster spot cap holds from the team's guaranteed salary, seeing how the max players would be filling those voids, so that brings the cap space up to 33,185,343.
With the cap for 2010 projected at approximately 53 million, the max contract for Lebron, Bosh, or Wade would be 16,568,908. Seeing how 16,568,908 * 2 is 33,137,816, the Knicks would have just enough space available (by a mere 50,000) to sign two max players to deals, but nothing else beyond that.
In full, under this projection, the Knicks would have two max contract players, Gallinari, Douglas, Chandler, and then ten minimum contract players to round things out. That is all they would be able to add. There is no MLE, there are no Bird Rights for David Lee and Nate Robinson, there is nothing else. In order to use your cap space, you must renounce all your exceptions, including the MLE and any player Bird Rights you have.
Some random notes: Amare and Joe Johnson could both yield higher max offers than Lebron, Bosh, and Wade, as Amare's salary this season is higher and Johnson has 10 years of service in the league, entitling him to a higher first year salary, but it's doubtful anyone offers them deals starting at higher than the big three, meaning you can probably swap them into any scenario under the same price. Rudy Gay, on the other hand, would have a max deal starting at 25% of the cap or 13,250,000, so if the Knicks can only grab one of the big five players and want to add Gay as their second star, they'd be able to save 3,318,908 in doing so, meaning they could then add a free agent for that amount plus a cap hold (for a total of a 3,809,088 starting salary).
All of these numbers are based on a cap set at 53million. If the cap were slightly higher, it'd give the Knicks a little more breathing room in signing two maxes. It it were any lower than 53million, it's unlikely the Knicks would be able to sign two maxes unless they got Curry to agree to a smaller buyout or traded away one of their young players for no salary in return.
An interesting angle to watch in all this is what happens if Amare goes to Cleveland, Amare and Lebron both re-sign there after winning a championship, the Heat miss the playoffs, and the Raptors get knocked out in the first round. I don't think you'd find anyone around who would think that Bosh or Wade alone could build a team strong enough to knock off those Cavs (or even the Lakers or other teams), so it may become a necessity for Bosh and Wade to team up if they want to have a legitimate shot at winning a title in the near future.
As things stack up right now, the only two teams capable of offering max deals to both Bosh and Wade would be the Knicks and Heat (though Chicago and New Jersey are capable of maneuvering to that point with extremely aggressive moves in the next few days). Regardless, comparing the Knicks' situation to the Heat's situation, the Knicks will have a core of Gallinari, Chandler, and Douglas, while the Heat will have a core of Beasley, Cook, and Chalmers, though the Heat have a little more cap space and a first round pick to add to the mix. Still, with the allure of New York City and Gallinari being the best player of those named, it definitely makes a strong case for Bosh and Wade choosing New York over Miami. It's a big risk for the Knicks to take, but unlike those taken by Isiah Thomas, there actually is upside to this one.
It's a lengthy read, but I urge Knicks fans to read it in order to understand the true nature of the cap and what our realistic options are.
, hopefully he starts, still having Duhon FTL
