What are Knicks' plans for Josh Hart and Immanuel Quickley?

A few notes on the Knicks’ salary cap, the 15th roster spot and Immanuel Quickley as we get closer to training camp:

15TH MAN?

The Knicks have 14 players on traditional NBA contracts at the moment. You can have a maximum of 15 players on traditional NBA deals in the regular season.

So the Knicks can still add a player to their roster via free agency or trade.

If I had to guess, I don’t think they’re planning to add a rotation player with that open roster spot. Prior to the 2023 FIBA World Cup, some strategists in the organization felt very comfortable with Josh Hart playing power forward in the second unit and thriving as a screener/short roller in that unit, per SNY sources. (** I mention the FIBA World Cup because there is a chance that thinking has shifted, based on performances from Hart or RJ Barrett during the tournament.)

The support for Hart at backup power forward indicates that New York isn’t looking for a rotation player at the position with their open roster spot. Maybe they add another veteran with that spot? (Until they retire, Taj Gibson and Ryan Arcidiacono will at least get consideration if New York wants to add someone with a good impact in the locker room/on team culture.) The Knicks may opt to keep the spot vacant; New York can carry as few as 14 roster players during the season (not including two-way players).

There is a financial implication to adding another player.

New York is hard-capped at $172.34 million in 2023-24. So they cannot exceed $172.34 million in team salary at any point this season. Both likely and unlikely bonuses count toward the hard cap. (New York has roughly $3.6 million in likely bonuses and $5.1 million in unlikely bonuses in 2023-24. Currently, New York has roughly $165.6 million in salary. So they have roughly $6.6 million left to spend before they hit the hard cap. They can add a 15th player without hitting the hard cap or the tax line (assuming the unlikely bonuses don’t hit.)

IQ IMPLICATIONS

Immanuel Quickley is eligible for a rookie extension. The deadline to reach an agreement is Oct. 24 – one day before the regular season.

Traditionally, negotiations with players in Quickley’s situation (mid to late first-round picks who have played well enough to earn a significant extension) start to pick up in earnest prior to training camp.

Teams generally don’t want these young, important players unhappy as they enter camp. We’ll find out in a few weeks whether the Knicks and Quickley can reach an extension agreement.

I would be a bit surprised if they didn’t get a deal done.

Dating back to early last season, members of the organization felt that New York was unlikely to extend both Quickley and Obi Toppin. Plenty has happened since then. But Toppin, obviously, was moved to Indiana for two future second-round picks. And Quickley is coming off of a phenomenal season.

So he should command a significant extension and the Knicks have the resources to offer him one. A Quickley extension will likely push the Knicks over the luxury tax threshold. Let’s say the Knicks extend Quickley on a deal that starts at $18 million in Year 1. This would leave them roughly $4.5 million shy of the luxury tax with other roster spots to fill (*this figure doesn’t account for new deals for Miles McBride and Isaiah Hartenstein; both would be up for new contracts in 2024-25 – the first year of Quickley’s extension.)

The club also has to account for a Quentin Grimes extension (starting in 2025-26) and new contracts for Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle. So the current iteration of this team could be pretty expensive in two seasons.

But Knicks governor James Dolan has never shied away from writing big checks for players, coaches and executives. So it would be a shift in philosophy if he became skittish about paying the luxury tax to fund a competitive team in 2024-25 and beyond.

Something else worth noting on Quickley extension talks: if the Knicks extend Quickley, it becomes extremely difficult to include him in a trade in the 2023-24 season. Quickley’s extension would come with a "poison pill" provision. The provision creates a wide gap between incoming and outgoing salary in any trade that involves Quickley.

Let’s say, for example, that Quickley’s extension is four years and $72 million. If the Knicks included him in a trade in 2023-24, his salary would count for roughly $4 million in outgoing money for New York. Quickley’s salary for trade purposes would be roughly $15 million incoming to the team acquiring him in a deal (this number is the average of Quickley’s 2023-24 salary and the average annual salary of his extension).

The Knicks could add a third team in a Quickley deal to satisfy league trade rules. But those trades become cumbersome. So a trade involving Quickley in 2023-24 post-extension becomes close to impossible to execute.

Hypothetically, one option for New York would be to include a significant amount of salary in a deal involving Quickley. In the hypothetical extension discussed above, the Knicks could take back between $39.6 million and $42.6 million in salary if they moved Quickley, Evan Fournier and Mitchell Robinson in a trade during the 2023-24 season. The window for this kind of trade also depends on the receiving team and how much flexibility they have under the league’s trade rules. So there are plenty of hurdles to clear to complete a trade involving Quickley if he signs an extension.

If he and the Knicks don’t agree to an extension, Quickley’s $4 million 2023-24 salary is the only number to consider in potential trades. In this scenario, a trade involving Quickley becomes much more straightforward.

Again, the guess here is that the Knicks and Quickley find common ground on an extension before opening night.

But if they don’t find common ground, Quickley will enter the 2024 offseason as a restricted free agent. The Knicks will have the option to match any offer Quickley agrees to with another team during the 2024 offseason.