Knicks Rumors: NY Maintaining Salary Flexibility for 2020-21 Free Agency
Even after using significant cap space in free agency, the New York Knicks should still have plenty of flexibility going forward.
According to Bobby Marks of ESPN, the contracts for Bobby Portis, Reggie Bullock, Wayne Ellington and Taj Gibson all come with team options for next season.
This keeps the options open going into the 2020-21 season if there are better free agents available.
The Knicks missed out on the biggest stars in the 2019 class, including Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but they remained aggressive on the open market with several two years deals for Bullock ($21 million), Portis ($31 million), Gibson ($20 million) and Ellington ($16 million), via NBA.com and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Julius Randle was the biggest signing after agreeing to a three-year, $63 million deal, but the third year is a team option, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
This prevents any contracts from clogging the salary cap and instead allows the Knicks to develop their young players and target bigger free agents in the future.
Anthony Davis and Draymond Green could potentially hit free agency next summer, while New York could even roll the cap space forward to 2021.
Per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, the team could sell fans on the possibility of signing Giannis Antetokounmpo in two years.
Knicks president Steve Mills has already tried helping fans look forward after missing out on the big names in this class.
"While we understand that some Knicks fans could be disappointed with tonight's news, we continue to be upbeat and confident in our plans to rebuild the Knicks to compete for championships in the future, through the draft, targeted free agents and continuing to build around our core of young players," Mills said Sunday, per Mark Fischer of the New York Post.
After finishing with the worst record in the NBA last season, the Knicks will have to hope for more fortune in the future.
