Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
There comes a point on the trip when you have to pay the toll.<\/p>\n
You can avoid it with back roads and creative mapping, but, eventually, you can\u2019t cross the body of water without firing up the E-ZPass.<\/p>\n
Or turning around.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the Knicks are right now.<\/p>\n
For the four years under Leon Rose, the Knicks have never paid the luxury tax. Not once. You can imagine the jealousy around the NBA. The team in the biggest market \u2014 which is raking in a top-shelf annual revenue with the highest franchise valuation \u2014 has been collecting even more money from the luxury-tax pot. <\/p>\n
In fact, the Knicks had the league\u2019s lowest payroll in Rose\u2019s first season (2020-21), according to Spotrac. They were 28th out of 30 in his second season. They were No. 20 in his third. Last season, they were up to only No. 18. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s crazy to think about given the history of the franchise, which, up until fairly recently, had a stretch of over 15 years with the league\u2019s worst record AND the highest luxury-tax payments. \u2019Twas the double whammy of mismanagement.<\/p>\n
Under Rose, who benefitted from a clean cap sheet and plenty of draft picks when he took over, the Knicks were cautious. They prioritized flexibility. They also won because you can\u2019t tell Tom Thibodeau that losing is a part of rebuilding. The trip for the last four years was largely an enjoyable, low-risk breeze. Tremendous gas mileage.<\/p>\n
But now they\u2019re at the bridge. It\u2019s time to pay up. <\/p>\n
If the Knicks indeed \u2018run it back\u2019 \u2014 which I\u2019ll define later \u2014 they\u2019ll be in the luxury tax category and even threaten the second apron, which severely limits how teams can build their roster (second-apron teams lose access to the mid-level exception and can\u2019t trade more than one player in any deal). The biggest money decision involves OG Anunoby, who is widely expected to reject his $19 million player option to become an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n
This is why the Anunoby trade in December was such a high-risk maneuver. It wasn\u2019t just swapping out RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley \u2014 it was a commitment to re-sign Anunoby at a number that probably only got higher after last season. <\/p>\n
His three-plus months with the Knicks enhanced both the excitement and concerns around the 26-year-old. <\/p>\n
His fit and impact on winning was tremendous, as evidenced by New York\u2019s 26-6 record with Anunoby in the lineup. But he was also frequently injured \u2014 an issue that followed the 3-and-D forward from Toronto. Now there are reports and whispers of Anunoby testing the free-agent market, potentially leaving the Knicks for an enormous deal with the rival Sixers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to believe that is more than a negotiating ploy. The Knicks, operating from a disadvantaged position during these talks, only hold the leverage of the market price. Whatever another team offers, they\u2019ll have to exceed it. They didn\u2019t trade Barrett and Quickley for a half-year rental.<\/p>\n
Over a decade ago, I covered another team, the New Jersey Nets, who were in a similar position. They had given up a haul to acquire Gerald Wallace from the Blazers, but also needed to re-sign him the following summer. Wallace used his leverage for a deal well above his value, and it became the final contract of Wallace\u2019s NBA career. He took the money and retired to his lake in Alabama (yes, he built a 2 \u00bd-acre lake called \u2018Gerald Wallace Lake\u2019).<\/p>\n
Although a similar player with similar injury concerns, Wallace was three years older at the time than Anunoby is now. He\u2019s the cautionary tale. More recently, the Mavericks traded for Kyrie Irving, overpaid to re-sign him, and it got them into the NBA Finals. That has worked out.<\/p>\n
Regardless, the Knicks are past the point of putting much weight on the Anunoby financial implications. Losing him for nothing would be a disaster. I don\u2019t think that will happen. So let\u2019s say the Knicks run it back \u2014 meaning they re-sign Anunoby, re-sign Isaiah Hartenstein (he\u2019s drawing interest that could drive up the price) and pick up Bojan Bogdanovic\u2019s option \u2014 they\u2019d be flirting with that stifling second apron. And that doesn\u2019t even take into account potentially re-signing Precious Achiuwa. It\u2019s partly why we\u2019re hearing about trade rumors involving Mitchell Robinson and shedding his $27 million remaining salary.<\/p>\n
The Knicks are at the toll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic There comes a point on the trip when you have to pay the toll. You can avoid it with back roads and creative mapping, but, eventually, you can\u2019t cross the body of water without firing up the E-ZPass. Or turning around. That\u2019s where the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-137052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137054,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137052\/revisions\/137054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}