What’s next for Knicks, Julius Randle post-Mikal Bridges trade, salary cap crunch

A few post-draft notes on the Knicks…

CAP CRUNCH

At the moment, the Knicks’ team salary is hard-capped at $178.6 million for 2024-25. They currently have $173 million in salary committed to 13 players for next year. (This assumes that first-round pick Pacome Dadiet and second-round picks Tyler Kolek, Kevin McCullar Jr. and Ariel Hukporti sign to standard second-round contracts.)

Obviously, New York would like more than $5 million at its disposal to fill out the roster.

They are hard-capped at $178.6 million due to the Mikal Bridges trade. The Knicks are currently sending out more salary than they are taking back. That triggers the hard-cap at the first apron.

They can remove the hard-cap if they augment the trade to send out more salary than they are taking in. Currently, they are taking in $4.2 million more than they are sending out.

CAPPED OUT?

Immediately after the deal, the Knicks felt that there would be feasible ways to avoid the first apron hard-cap.

They can do so by trading Miles McBride ($4.7 million salary for 2024-25) or signing and trading either Alec Burks or Precious Achiuwa, per Yossi Gozlan (who is a great resource for salary cap details).

If they can execute any of those trades and add it to the Bridges deal, the Knicks will avoid the first-apron hard-cap. They would then be capped at the second apron. So their team salary could not exceed $182.7 million.

(Yes, they also could generate more money to spend in free agency by trading a veteran like Mitchell Robinson or Julius Randle. But the Knicks didn’t pivot from the Bridges trade with a plan to move Randle, per people in touch with the team. I’m not here to predict the future and say definitively that the Knicks won’t trade Randle, but the Bridges trade did not trigger a distinct plan to make that kind of trade, per people in touch with the team.)

WHAT ABOUT HARTENSTEIN?

Let’s say the Knicks can add to the Bridges trade and exceed the first apron. They would then have enough money to re-sign Isaiah Hartenstein.

Entering the NBA Draft, Hartenstein was expected to be a top target of several teams at the start of free agency (Sunday, 6 p.m.). As we noted, that made it increasingly unlikely that the Knicks could retain the big man.

Again, they will be able to fit the $16.1 million max first-year salary they can offer him under the second apron. If Hartenstein signs elsewhere, the Knicks can use the $5 million midlevel exception to sign a free-agent center without exceeding the second apron.