The Jazz have reached an agreement to trade veteran big man Ed Davis to the Knicks, league sources tell Tony Jones of The Athletic. New York will also receive a pair of 2023 second-round pick in the deal, per Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Davis, who signed a two-year, $9.8M deal with the Jazz a year ago, didn’t end up being relied upon as a regular part of the club’s rotation. He appeared in just 28 contests, logging 10.8 minutes and establishing new career lows in points (1.8) and rebounds (3.8).
Davis is owed a guaranteed $5M salary for the 2020-21 season, so this is essentially a salary dump for the Jazz, who are hoping to re-sign Jordan Clarkson and maintain enough cap flexibility to utilize their full $9.3M mid-level exception. The Knicks will have upward of $40M in cap room in free agency, so they’ll have no problem taking on Davis’ contract.
After acquiring the Pistons’ 2023 second-round in Wednesday night’s draft, the Knicks will pick up two more second-rounders for that draft in this swap. It seems the team’s focus on ’23 is no accident — Marc Berman of the New York Post suggested that the Knicks “really love” the 2023 draft, which they believe will be the first without the one-and-done rule in place, allowing high-schoolers to enter.
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