The Knicks are exercising the team option on center Ariel Hukporti and they are planning to decline the team option on veteran PJ Tucker, league sources told SNY.
Declining Tucker’s team option decreases the Knicks’ payroll by $3.5 million.
The Knicks currently are above the first apron in total team salary and have access to the $5.6M taxpayer exception (they have roughly $196 million in team salary). Contracts signed with this exception can be no longer than two years and contain five percent raises — you can split the exception to sign multiple players.
By declining Tucker’s option, the Knicks also have the flexibility to sign-and-trade their free agents to bring back a player under contract who makes up to the $5.6 million exception.
If you use the exception to sign a free agent, you are hard-capped at the second apron — this means you can’t spend more than $207.8 million in team salary.
The Knicks can also use the veteran’s minimum exception to sign free agents.
New York has decisions to make on its own veteran free agents in Delon Wright, Precious Achiuwa, Landry Shamet and Cam Payne.
The team will monitor the backup guard market.
The Knicks are among the teams who will have interest in Shamet once free agency opens at 6 PM on Sunday, per SNY sources. Contending teams in both conferences are expected to have interest in Shamet, league sources say.
The 28-year-old returned from a dislocated shoulder during the 2024-25 season and shot 40 percent from beyond the arc across 50 games in the regular season. He was out of the rotation for much of the postseason but was reinserted to the rotation in Game 3 of Knicks-Pacers.
Shamet delivered, hitting 7-of -13 threes during the series and defending well. The Knicks were plus-21 when he was on the court against Indiana (52 minutes).
The Knicks also on Sunday extended qualifying offer to Kevin McCullar Jr., league sources confirm, as first reported by the New York Post.
Read the full article here
