NBA's complicated CBA frustrating for Knicks players too
FILE - New York Knicks' OG Anunoby (8) runs up the court after hitting a shot against the Indiana Pacers during the first half of Game 2 in an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, May 8, 2024, in New York. Anunoby intends to stay with the Knicks on a five-year contract worth more than $200 million, a person with knowledge of the details told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
The reason that nearly 20,000 fans pile into Madison Square Garden 41 times every season is to watch the elite athletes perform at a level unimaginable to those in the crowd. But in the offseason, they are us. We are them.
And none of us can quite grasp the intricacies of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement and the newly restrictive rules of the first and second aprons.
Allow Josh Hart to put it in simple terms.
“You know what I really want to know,” he said on the podcast he hosts with Jalen Brunson, The Roommates Show. “We all over here like lifting the couch cushions, trying to find spare change. Where is Boston pulling all this damn money from? We’re here looking through couch cushions for change and Boston just throwing bags out.”
It’s an understandable question. The Knicks just saw Isaiah Hartenstein leave one of the NBA’s marquee franchises for nearly twice the salary they could have paid for a chance to play in the major market of . . . Oklahoma City. Seems odd, no?
But it is the strange reality of the CBA that changes were implemented to prevent teams such as the Knicks from using their wealth to blow past the salary cap restrictions. So in this case, the Knicks were able to offer Hartenstein only a deal topping out at four years and $72.5 million after getting him for two years and $16 million and developing him from a fringe part of the roster to a starting center.
The glitch, although intentional, in the system of Early Bird Rights restricted the Knicks but allowed another team, in this case the Thunder, to swoop in and sign the player.
“Guess what,” Brunson said. “They can change it in a couple of years if they want. Nothing is permanent.”
Maybe so, but for now, the Knicks have to contend with what has happened in the offseason. It’s their own improvements and the counters by the other teams in the Eastern Conference.
As Hart noted, the Celtics handed out huge deals to Jayson Tatum and Derrick White, adding to the already huge deals for Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. The Philadelphia 76ers remade their roster by signing Paul George to a four-year, $212 million deal. They also added Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon and Caleb Martin and gave Tyrese Maxey a five-year, $204 million contract extension.
The Knicks conducted their own cap gymnastics after trading for Mikal Bridges in a deal that became official Saturday. The package included a sign-and-trade with Shake Milton and partially guaranteed the contract of Mamadi Diakate to make up the difference between the salaries of Bridges and Bojan Bogdanovic so they could avoid getting locked in at the first apron.
They were able to keep OG Anunoby with a five-year, $212 million deal, and, if the sides agree, they will be able to sign Brunson and Julius Randle to contract extensions later this summer. And there still is enough room before locking into the second apron for a $5.2 million mid-level exception and signing another player, maybe their own free agent, Precious Achiuwa.
“I feel like in those situations, you shouldn’t be restricted on what you can sign your own guys for,” Hart said of Hartenstein. “Especially, like, he signed a two-year, $16 [million], he played well for you guys, under your coaches, your system. Then you should be rewarded in helping develop that guy and should be able to offer him whatever. You guys did really good, he played well. [But] let’s slow down, you can only offer him this? That’s idiotic.”
“For the one time,” Brunson said, “I actually agree with Josh.”
Associate head coach Bryant off to Cleveland
A league source confirmed an ESPN report that Knicks associate head coach Johnnie Bryant is departing to take a similar role with the Cleveland Cavaliers under new head coach Kenny Atkinson. Bryant has been with the Knicks since Tom Thibodeau took over four seasons ago and now reunites with Donovan Mitchell. Bryant served as a developmental coach during Mitchell’s time in Utah.
The Knicks recently added Maurice Cheeks to their coaching staff, and a source indicated he is arriving as a front-of-the-bench coach — which would have been crowded before the departure of Bryant.
Best wishes
Brunson and Hart expressed their happiness for Hartenstein, but not before taking a shot at him.
“He’s dead to us,” Hart said. “We don’t care about him no more.”
“I haven’t spoken to him at all,” Brunson said. “Actually, I have his text. Let’s read it for the people. Remember how we had that conversation, sometimes me and Josh don’t save numbers? He texted me, ‘Yo bro, I appreciate everything, killa.’ I was like, ‘Who’s this?’
“I’m happy he was able to make a decision for him and his family. Just don’t play against us. Sit out those two games.”
Defensive plans
On the podcast, the two discussed how Bridges might fit in the defensive schemes of Thibodeau, and it was noted that Bridges has played in the top of a 1-3-1 zone in his previous stops in the NBA. That didn’t go over well with the current Knicks.
“We’re not playing zone,” Hart said bluntly.
Brunson agreed. “We’re not playing zone.”
“Tom Thibodeau will not play a zone,” Hart concluded.
Coming soon
The Knicks are expected to announce their roster for the Las Vegas Summer League on Sunday, but it certainly will include draft picks Pacome Dadiet, Tyler Kolek, Kevin McCuller Jr. and Ariel Hukporti. SNY reported that Creighton forward Alex O’Connell will play for the Knicks’ summer squad and Marist’s Samkelo Cele announced on Instagram that he will play for the Knicks in Las Vegas.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
