We can almost say that the NBA right now has a hard cap

I mean also the numbers are just too far off right now. He’s eligible for 69m AAV and the reports are they’re starting off at $45-50m AAV. I don’t think he loves living in NY that much to give up his last big pay day.

Partially true but Pat Riley also coined the disease of more 40 years ago. The concept being that when you’re trying to win, players can buy in and sacrifice money or minutes or touches. But once you finally do win they begin to feel their sacrifice needs to be rewarded - they want more.

Literally the reason for the parity. Teams can’t stay together without insane tax hits

Dolan is a cheap ass regardless of the new CBA

It’s also a byproduct of the talent gap of nba players and too many Tier 2 players getting massively overpaid.

A #2 or #3 player on a contender is sooooo much more talented than a very good starter that you end up with players like Tobias Harris getting monster contracts because teams were desperate for talent and overpay and there aren’t better options.

It makes no sense that KAT should be in the same earning pool as Franz Wagner and Ja Morant.

Is this supposed to be more fun like this? They are selling it like all these teams get a chance, but for so many teams they basically have a 3 year window to be competitive before they need to start tearing down.

I do feel way more teams should just go into the second apron while competing, then go out of it.

But the more cases like this with KAT, the more the market will reset and players will get used to the new normal or enter a lockout lol

I really hope baseball doesn’t turn into this, where you can’t keep your core guys together due to cap issues

Dealing with James Dolan must be a nightmare

I mean, that’s how we got him, too. Feels fine to me. This is a cap system working as it should.

I think it’s too easy to just say every refusal of a team to pay top dollar is due to the CBA. It’s not like we didn’t have issues like this before the aprons

250 sticks seems like a reasonable discount. What number is each side at?

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He can technically enter free agency next year, if he declines the players option

KAT is a pretty rare example in his role, to be fair. There are very, very few true centers who can shoot like KAT does and who also have the size and speed to make Wemby work hard.

This is what I’ve been saying. I don’t understand the arguments that KAT isn’t worth a max lol. He is one of hte most unique players in the NBA. He is essentially the offensive version of Wemby. He is a unicorn. He obviously isn’t as good as Wemby because he sometimes disappears in games, gets into foul trouble or just has bad shooting nights, but he can really neutralize Wemby by being an excellent 3p shooter.

Not to mention he’s just a really lovable guy lol. Tons of teams want a wholesome player like KAT to help get butts in the seats and sell jerseys.

Windhorst at least offers an implication for why this news is leaking now. It seems like this is a pressure move to get James Dolan to go into the 2nd apron.

Seems unlikely, since he loves money more than Mr. Crabs, but guess it’s worth a shot.

They’re definitely around 10m a year off if we go of reports. Knicks are trying to offer him 45-50 and he’s eligible for 69m a year.

Rip Knicks dynasty

They seem to be off by about 15-20m a year.

He’s a Knicks legend either way

The team won a championship that KAT hugely responsible for, too.

He deservedly feels like he’s earned a huge contract. The general consensus around the league felt like most agreed he wasn’t good enough to be a second option on a championship team because he had a reputation for being soft/playing small/shrinking in big moments.

He proved everyone wrong, he should get his bag.

I mean if he doesn’t, they’re likely to let him go or trade him. They have a mandate from the owner on the second apron.

He’s insanely rich tbh I’d just stay in New York on a discount. Already made 400m by the end of this contract.

At this point in his career living in nyc and being loved as a legend will probably impact his life more than another 30m

Tbf there are lots of good sponsorship opportunities to being a Knick. Being on the kings probably means less sponsorship money since the market is small and they suck.

The fans did not beg for this. They begged for the Warriors and Nets to not have team salaries almost triple the salary cap

This is funny because before this last season he was known as a playoff liability compared to his contract.

This playoffs he put up 16 and 10 which isnt what you think of for 60 a year

This Knicks team wasn’t going to be a dynasty either way.

Which may shoot the league in the foot, as dynasties have traditionally driven big spikes in ratings.

Why is it unfortunate? The Knicks are a team that was created through trades and free agency. That such a team can’t remain together for a decade isn’t a bad thing.

If the Knicks wanted they could go into the second apron for two seasons to keep their roster more or less as it is. With that they got four years of continuity after the KAT trade. That’s good enough, no team needs to constantly hog the spotlight.

Good, no one wants to go back to KD Warriors

I mean, OKC has kept it together and positioned themselves to do so for a while

They just happened to get hurt last year and not make the finals but I think they’re proving it’s doable

This happens because teams pay tertiary players too much.

Jalen Duren is about to get 40-50 mil and isnt worth that. If the Pistons sign it, and they draft someone who is actually a #2/KAT level guy, they cant really pay him without shipping off Duren at, what will be assumed, a loss.

The fact dudes are already paid too much is a sunk cost situation. Dont overpay the next one

I think its going to show a split among players. Some are going to be willing to get paid less to keep a good team together while others will try and get paid no matter what. I’m willing to yo bet there will be some peer pressure among players to keep good teams together too.

Players salaries I think are a bit out of control and what we are seeing is downward pressure from the affects of the second apron.

Why is this a bad thing? Oh no, a player would have to take 150 million instead of 250 million to keep a dynasty going or stay with their preferred team. Cry me a river

funny how no one would’ve fathomed saying that about KAT 6 months ago. also in his last game he had 2 points and 6 fouls. very valuable player

It’s basically the fault of the NBPA. They didn’t realize this would affect the players that much. The new CBA is just a way for the owners to save more money. It did not, in fact, create parity.

The apron is more or less a fake hard cap for owners and a soft cap for players. Players should fight to get rid of it with how its being used, but doing so gets us stuff like warriors vs cavs for half a decade.

Seriously. Imagine winning the first championship in a generation and refusing to keep that core intact whilst home opener tickets are 2 thousand dollars for nosebleeds .

Make it make sense .

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It does.

The second apron basically prevents any roster flexibility.

You get no access to sign and trades, no access to trade exceptions, no access to the MLE, an inability to sign a midseason buyout if their original contract was above the MLE.

And if you are in the second apron ³⁄₅ years your pick automatically goes to the end of the first.

In theory a team built like OKC could stomach these penalties for a bit but you’re basically hoping you have perfect health and no decline in any of your players to commit to this and as we know that’s not how sports work.

Also the penalties are severe enough if the Knicks signed Mitch Rob and wanted to get under the tax next season teams basically get to hold a gun over their head because the Knicks HAVE to get out next year or they risk accidentally getting hammered with the pick thing if they need to go over at any point in the future.

One year dips can workout in a ideal scenario but you basically would have a high preference that the money is coming off the books next year and you are guaranteed to not be dipping into the second apron for the second year in a row.

Yeah, no one cares about Dolan spending more, but being in the second apron really hurts your ability to trade and make signings, plus it getting worse if you are a second apron repeater.

I get them not going it for Mitchell Robinson, but dipping into it for one year while they figure out KAT, Hart, and Bridges might make sense, though it gets much trickier after the ‘27-28 season, as after that Brunson is set up to get paid a ton.

Yes, the counter to that is that it’s more valuable to keep your current team together since you just won a ring and all that. Grass isn’t always greener and you can always go back below the second apron.

you cant give up dvo for a soft ass center bro

This entire news cycle is making it sound like the deadline is tomorrow.

Technically sure? But if KAT isn’t extended, he’s hitting UFA in the summer of 2027. Which would be disastrous. Which means there are 3 options, this gets done by the trade deadline, KAT gets traded at the trade deadline, or he’s a UFA in the summer.

If that was the only penalty of the second apron the thunder wouldnt have dumped role players and the ‘24 Celtics would probably be together.

Reality is that the second apron makes it near impossible to add pieces via signing or trades

Because of all the other restrictions that come with the apron?

The biggest penalty is actually the repeater tax. It costs so much more for even a vet min when you’re in it

The actual money Dolan would need to pay in the tax

this is honestly the best time to try an Aspiration scheme, because nobody would suspect it. Who would be stupid enough to try one right after the Clippers got the death sentence?

Dat beat is

Dat beat is

Dat beat is Daktronics

Dolan is a pos but he ain’t cheap

Anything can change. Maybe it’s made even stronger or maybe the individual salary max percentages are reduced at some point.

It’s good for Knicks fans too. Knicks wouldn’t have Kat (and in turn a title) right now if not for the CBA forcing the wolves to trade him.

I both enjoy the parity created by the new cap rules and hate these greedy owners for pretending they couldn’t possibly pay the 2nd apron taxes.

I’m also tired of the “oh it’s not about the 2nd apron tax! It’s just the other penalties that harm team building!” That’s nonsense. The penalties aren’t that onerous for 1-2 years over the 2nd. It’s ~95% about the bill.

feels like it’s not an owner thing, but i could be wrong. dolan has never had a problem paying people/spending money in the past, so i think it’s less that piece and more his front office telling him that going into the second apron isn’t the right strategy for sustained success.

did you think it would be easy to pay everyone even under the old CBA? this is normal after championships. Only reason this was all possible was Brunson took less

That’s very stupid. You think the players, not the owners, wanted the 2nd apron? You’re doing the exact dance those billionaires want you to do. Keep dancing.

Perhaps slapping the fuck out of the hawks in the last couple was an early message to him.

The players have no chance in these negotiations. I don’t know why people always miss this. The majority of the union are players that will only be in the league a couple years. It’s literally irrational for them to worry about cap rules or small revenue sharing changes when they’re worried about having a contract next year. That’s why these leagues always offer goodies for the average and replacement level players because they are most of the voters and they can use small things to help them to get bigger concessions.

Its a genuine tragedy that KAT might finish his career with 500 million career earnings instead of 600.

Jaylen Brown had 4 years left on his contract when they gave it “1 more year” and reportedly tried to trade him at the deadline in the middle of a career year to Golden State for what I assume would have been Jimmy Butler. They didn’t want to run out of options and be left holding the bag because they knew his value around the league was not going to get any better

The Knicks don’t have the luxury of time. They can try to find a trade for KAT with 0 leverage and get a shit return, or risk him walking for nothing, or just pay him the extension and destroy any hope they had of adding pieces around this team to stay competitive. If they pay KAT, Anunoby is gone and they can try to replace him with a minimum contract player as their stars age out into their mid 30’s

Good plan to waste Brunson while they have him

A really well balanced roster too. Just pay the 2nd apron. You’ll make it up in ticket sales by Christmas

2nd apron has only been in effect for 2 years, lmao. The actual reason is injuries

Yes

As he should

They just wasted $16M per season for Mitchell Robinson who never plays

I crack a smile for every brick Tatum throws up against the Knicks

It is better for everyone if this gets wrapped up though.

Otherwise, the news spin cycle will become another year of “Kat trade rumors” on top of “will the Knicks run it back”.

It will only the make the subreddit even more insufferable with even worse hot takes and trade suggestions that don’t make sense