Good morning! The Knicks finish up their preseason at home tonight at 7:30 against the Raptors. Hopefully they can get a victory before the real games begin.
As for who will be on the roster by Tuesday night…
The Knicks have a logjam. Perhaps you’ve heard.
As of now, they have 13 players on guaranteed contracts. The 14th spot, it is assumed, will go to a third string center, which seems likely to be James Wiseman at this point. We’ve also had multiple reports that Bruce Brown is likely to make the roster as well. That’s an issue, as the Knicks don’t currently have enough room under the second apron to sign a 15th player. There are all kinds of ways they can open up some more space (Jalen Brunson for Jordan Poole, who says no?), but the easiest is sending one of their guaranteed contracts to a team able to take that contract back without sending any money back in return.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to put everyone to sleep (at least not right away) by boring you with the nuances of trade mechanics under the current CBA. Let’s just skip past all that and get right to dwindling down the list of 29 teams into three groups: those who aren’t in position to take on an extra contract, those that might be in a position to take on an extra contract, and those that almost certainly can take on an extra contract. After all that, I’ll name my most likely landing spot, and what trades I think make the most sense. Here we go…