Knicks Owner Dolan Determined To Avoid Second Tax Apron

Fresh off the franchise’s first title in 53 years, Knicks owner James Dolan said in a radio interview that he wants to avoid the second tax apron.

Speaking on WFAN’s The Carton Show (video link), Dolan said it would “suicidal” for the franchise to become a second apron club.

“There’s certain things in the NBA that you’d have to be suicidal to do. One of them is the second apron,” he said. “Cannot go into the second apron. I’ll write as big of a check as possible, but I can’t write a check that goes into the second apron.”

If that’s the case, the Knicks will have some hard decisions to make this offseason. Topped by Karl-Anthony Towns‘ $57MM contract for next season, the Knicks have approximately $201MM tied into eight guaranteed salary commitments. Most of that total is invested in starters Towns, OG Anunoby, Miles Bridges, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.

Several key reserves are headed to free agency and it will be impossible to keep them all without going over the second tax apron. Jose Alvarado holds a $4.5MM option on his contract — if he exercises it, that would add to the Knicks’ guaranteed salary total. Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shamet and Jordan Clarkson are headed to unrestricted free agency, while Mohamed Diawara and Ariel Hukporti will become restricted free agents at the end of the month.

A new market-value contract for Robinson alone could push the Knicks close to or into the second apron, which is projected at $221.7MM for next season. Retaining Alvarado, Robinson and Shamet would almost certainly make them a second apron team and they’d still have to fill out the remainder of the roster.

Re-signing Diawara could also be difficult if another team aggressively pursues him, since the Knicks only hold his Non-Bird rights. Diawara appeared in 69 regular-season games, though he had a minimal role in the postseason.

What Dolan didn’t clarify was whether he wanted to avoid the second apron due to its restrictions or to keep the payroll under control. However, to avoid that apron the Knicks would more than likely need to fill most of their bench with players on veteran’s minimum deals and rookie contracts.

Those restrictions include using any portion of the mid-level exception; Aggregating two or more player salaries in a trade; Sending out cash as part of a trade; Acquiring a player via trade by using a signed-and-traded player for salary-matching purposes;’ Acquiring a player via trade using a traded player exception if that TPE was generated by sending out a player via sign-and-trade; and having its first-round pick in the draft seven years away “frozen” — that pick would not be tradable.