you might not know how the apron works

you can’t just cross the apron to sign a new FA to a large salary

Those aren’t the “massive benefits” you think they are. National broadcast revenue is split evenly among all the teams - there’s not a boost there - and most merch sales are split, too.

Right away teams realized they don’t want to be there most of the time, but sometimes it might be worth it. It’ll be the same this season, and the future ones.

I am and have been a longtime Mitch supporter. This season winning the chip with him having an impactful, but limited role was the ultimate payoff for him and as a fan. I’ll always wonder how far the Knicks go if Randle didn’t get his shoulder popped out and miss the playoffs before getting traded, or if Mitch was healthy against the Pacers years ago. But that is the thing, getting Mitch to the playoffs took some of the most intense load managing of a non-star player I can remember. It still almost ended up coming up short because he is a bit of a head-case and broke his hand a week before the finals. The Knicks could not sign him for 3 years and risk a broken foot and suddenly can’t combine contacts on trades, in addition to the other limitations of the 2nd apron. Losing him is a major blow because he is the perfect complement to KAT in addition to being a top 5 offensive rebounder in the league. But the lose of roster flexibility for a back up, 15-20 minutes a game player who is injury prone could not be done. I hate the 2nd apron because letting him go was the right choice from a risk standpoint.

I just think the knicks title window is pretty small. The last year, this year, and another 2 years is probably the best time you’re gonna get. Yes, Mitch by himself isn’t a huge bonus, but he is significant piece that you need to get you over the top.

This isnt a situation like the celtics where you have a 28 year old tatum and all your picks.

You have a 30 year old brunson, 31 year old KAT, 30 year old mikal and 29 year old OG, 31 year old hart. You traded all your future picks and most of your flexibility. These last two years and the next two years are probably your run. I don’t see a re-tool around brunson in like 2-3 years being that productive.

Personally I would’ve gone for it, mostly because I traded most of my picks and I think I would’ve had to blow this core up around 2029-2030 anyway. That would align with when the repeater penalties and apron would become restrictive regardless.

Obviously there’s no way to say for certain the knicks will regret it or not. If you lose a close playoff series this year you can probably say the difference would be mitch. If you don’t retool the roster in 2 years, you didn’t really gain any flexibility from losing mitch.

The only flexibility you gain by being in the second apron is to aggregate Salaries for a trade. With the way the Knicks’ structure is set up, it just does not seem likely that they would actually try to trade any of their players to upgrade at a position. The only guy that maybe they could trade would be Hart but otherwise it just doesn’t really make sense that they need to combine salaries to move up to get somebody better.

I think there’s a big misunderstanding on what the second apron actually limits you to doing. The second apron doesn’t stop you from keeping a core together. It stops you from continuously increasing your spending by aggregating salaries for bigger and bigger players, like the Clippers did. And then if you stay in it for too long, you got the penalty of losing your draft pick seven years out but that’s only when you’ve been in it for three out of the five years. That’s not really relevant for teams dipping in and out of it.

You also get access to the taxpayer MLE but The Knicks haven’t even used that to sign anybody.

There likely will not be a move the knicks will make that hte second apron would’ve prevented. this is entirely a cost cutting move by dolan.

That depends on if Dolan’s directive to stay under the second apron was Mitch specific

It was gritty as hell to play through it, but Mitch with that broken hand was about as good as Drummond anyway. We still won. Definitely better to save the second apron for when the big dogs start signing extensions.

The team-building restrictions are heavily overblown for a team like the Knicks, who have their main core locked up for multiple years. It’s really only relevant for teams who want to aggregate salaries to trade up for somebody.

I agree. The real issue is the tax not the limitations of the second apron.

It might be that Boston gave the 6ers Brown or that Lebron showed up.

It might also be that they see OKC or a better SAS team.

They won the right title at the right time.

Bucks were one of the highest spending teams for years. They got players in that way. If there’s a hardcap and what they can offer X player is the same as what LA and NY teams can offer them, that will hurt their ability to be more competitive.

I agree that you should be able to keep the guys you drafted well and maybe they should do something to not tax if you go over the apron in that situation because that’s from great team building but without this apron or a hard cap teams can just sign and trade and build the team however they want.

Hard cap and it also limits players just wanting to go to certain markets - they simply don’t have the money to add them or would have to give really good players on the way out.

So many NHL teams have been built and dismantled so fast and can rebound simply because of this reason and makes it then enjoyable in the nba that you can rebuild quick

Also that a union represents ALL players, not just the high end star ones.

Why extra money? Less teams over 2nd apron means less total salaries.  Biggest stars aren’t taking a paycut: with exception of Wemby everyone who should get a super max or max is getting it. It’s players who might get otherwise a better contract from their current club (when they have bird rights) are often unable to get this offer now because of 2nd apron

Yeah, sample is too small, but I think it’s what we’re seeing.  The middle class players are getting squeezed.

I mean they have to take risks to not get fucked by the second apron, so good on them having a roadmap for which path to take. I think IHart is too valuable asset, but will see! Caruso seems like someone I would part with even tho he’s a demon during the playoffs.

Caruso is most likely one to leave. He is 32 years old and coming down from his athletic peak.

Yeah there’s no reason to take a team friendly one here. The only one that benefits is the owner.

OG Anunoby.

Every young player should try to prove they can defend early on. Once they get the rep as a defender, they get a lot more leeway to defend aggresively.

Small market owners: “we want less free money from the richest billionaires so that our on court product can be better”

Reddit: waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah for some reason

It’s specifically bad for good but not great players who thought they’d get a max extension or close but now are getting more moderate contracts because of the second apron.

Everyone else is pretty much the same or better - max guys get maxed, min guys get min-ed, and everyone loses a little less in escrow deductions because teams aren’t blowing the 51%BRI limit by as much.

Would be such a loss, agreed. I think they keep him tho