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<\/a><\/p>\nIn a move that has been expected for quite some time, the one and only JC is back for year-two in New York. Like Andre Drummond, this goes down on the books as a $2.45 million veteran minimum signing for cap\/apron purposes even though Jordan will get nearly $4 million in his bank account. <\/p>\n
The Knicks now have $3.27M in second apron space, and as Jeremy Cohen<\/a> points out, they can sign a vet (potentially a third big) and have $824K in space remaining or sign a rookie (like Tyler Nickel) and have $1.92 million in space instead. For whatever its worth, if the Knicks swapped out Pacome Dadiet for a vet minimum salary, they should have just enough room under the second apron to sign Nickel as a 15th man. There\u2019s also lots of potential chicanery regarding dipping under the mandatory 14 players for a few weeks during the season, as well as signing a veteran later in the year to a pro-rated contract, but we\u2019ll cross those respective bridges when we come to them.<\/p>\n For right now, we should all be happy to have Clarkson back in the fold. I was a tad concerned there might be a team out there willing to offer him a guaranteed rotation spot, or at least a cleaner path to consistent playing time. As it stands, he\u2019ll be ready to step in should someone ahead of him in the rotation go down or if Mike Brown simply needs a jolt of energy off the bench. It\u2019s worth noting that he appeared in every playoff game save one, so I wouldn\u2019t expect him to stay buried on the bench for long, even if he starts the season on the outside of the fully healthy rotation.<\/p>\n