What's the Right Price for New York Knicks to Bring Back Andrea Bargnani?

Until recently, letting go of Andrea Bargnani in free agency seemed like the obvious choice for the New York Knicks, but after a resurgent half-season, bringing him back is suddenly looking a lot more appealing.

Bargnani's 29 appearances in 2014-15 saw some of the best basketball he's played in a long time—at the very least the best we've seen from him in a Knicks uniform. With averages of 19.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per 36 minutes, Bargnani was one of the few standouts for New York.

This was not only evident in his individual production, but in the way he adapted to the triangle offense compared to most of his teammates.

Shooting 37 percent from downtown, Bargnani finally started to stretch the floor the way the Knicks expected him to when they traded away three draft picks to the Toronto Raptors for him back in 2013.

In general, jump shots were his bread and butter, making up 83 percent of his attempts, according to 82games.com. Typically, this would be concerning, but with 79 percent of those jumpers coming off assists, he was scoring in the flow of the offense with suitable efficiency. 

Defensively, Bargnani has been a laughing stock for years now, but that isn't entirely fair. For a 7-foot center, he has indeed been awful at team defense and protecting the rim but has been quietly solid in one-on-one situations.

This past season saw him take small steps toward being a more well-rounded defensive player, although that's certainly not yet a strong point. With a "real" center in the middle, however, it's not impossible to see him playing his part in an improved unit.

Of course, the big issue with Bargnani right now is his contract. With a cap hold of $17.25 million, the Knicks will have no choice but to renounce his rights, making him an unrestricted free agent.

This does give New York the opportunity to bring Bargnani back at a reasonable price, but they will still have to compete with offers from other teams. There should certainly be a market for bringing in someone like Bargnani on a low-risk, high-reward contract. The question is how much the Knicks should be willing to pay for him with their eyes on bigger fish this offseason.

Assuming they end up with the No. 2 overall pick in the draft, the Knicks should have roughly $26 million to spend in free agency. That sounds like a lot, but it can be spent quickly and is unlikely to bring in more than two to three quality starters. With the right moves, that could be enough to put New York into contention for a low playoff seed, but it's hard to see where Bargnani fits in.

Bart Young/Getty Images

If they're comfortable in using their cap space on Bargnani, realistically anything more than $2-3 million would leave too big of a dent in the Knicks' plans for bigger free agents. It's more likely that New York will have to either offer him the minimum or use a portion of its mid-level exception on him—moves that would require Bargnani to either take a major pay cut or wait until the Knicks go over the salary cap before he can be signed.

A similar situation with Alexey Shved also needs to be factored in. Shved was equally impressive in 2014-15 and is another player whose performance has earned him another shot in the NBA. Like Bargnani, it's easy to envision him being payed up to $3 million in unrestricted free agency if the Knicks renounce his rights.

If they won't take the minimum, the ideal scenario would be for the Knicks to make their moves in free agency and return to Bargnani and Shved once they're over the cap and have access to the full $5.45 million mid-level. This would allow them to sign one-year contracts for each at $2.7 million.

The big X-factor here is Jose Calderon. It wouldn't be surprising to see the Knicks try desperately to get rid of the remaining two years and $15.1 million on his contract, which would open up their offseason big time if they could pull it off. It would leave plenty of money to bring back Bargnani and Shved and still spend $30-plus million on new free agents.

As long as he's on a short-term deal—and thus playing for his future in the league—Bargnani has the potential to be a solid role player for the Knicks. He impressed in the triangle offense, and bringing him back to play off the bench—or even as a starter in a pinch—could end up paying off.

He isn't going to make or break New York's offseason by any means, but if a one-year deal of $2-3 million can be spared, he'd be worth the risk.