The Waive And Stretch: The Nets Are Re-Building (Again), Knicks Empty The Pick Clip, And Houston Diversifies Their Draft Capital
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What Caught My Attention This Week
A Bombshell Before Draft Day
Wow, I certainly was not expecting this.
This is an absolutely bombshell with massive implications for both the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets. The fact that a deal was even made between these two franchises is insane in and of itself. Let’s assess the fallout from the deal for the two teams.
New York Knicks
What an absolute splash this was from the Knicks. but at quite the hefty price tag. The full tally: 2025, 2027, 2029, 2031 NYK 1sts (unprotected), 2028 swap, 2025 MIL first (5-30), with Bojan Bogdanovic being the salary matching in the deal. That is a lotttttt to give up, but I applaud the Knicks in going all in on this roster. They had a roster full of win-now guys and didn’t have forever to wait around to cash in their picks, so they emptied the clip for Mikal Bridges.
As reported in the Woj tweet, this deal would hard cap the Knicks at the first apron for the 2024-2025 season, as they are taking on more money than they are sending out. However, if they were to include additional salary so that they are sending out more money than they are taking in, then that would only hard cap the team at the second apron, as they would be aggregating salaries in a deal. The issue here is that they cannot simply just tack on the minimum contracts of Mamadi Diakite and DaQuan Jeffries and do a 3 for 1 deal, as there is a new rule limiting the number of minimum contracts that can be used in a trade in the offseason. The Knicks could avoid the first apron hard cap by including Jericho Sims along with Bogdanovic and do the deal before the new salary cap year turns over, however. But we will see how the deal unfolds, as it could get folder into other moves potentially down the line.
This is pretty important as the team is currently will likely be about $43 million under the first apron with OG Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein as free agents. That’s probably not enough to bring back Anunoby and fill out the roster, so I would have to think that the Knicks will be including more salary in the Bridges deal so that they are only hard capped at the second apron. The Knicks could explore deals sending Julius Randle or Mitchell Robinson into someone’s cap space to free up room to bring both back, but the latest rumblings seem like Hartenstein may be a casualty of this trade.
This deal has heavy implications for the future finances of the Knicks as well. Randle and Jalen Brunson both have player options in 2025/2026 that they will almost certainly opt out of and be in line for bigger paydays. Bridges is up in 2026/2027 and he will be getting paid. And OG Anunoby is in line to make over $35 million annually starting next year. Even conservative numbers on new deals for Anunoby/Brunson/Randle would have the team deep into apron territory starting in 2025/2026. Its likely that one of Randle/Josh Hart/Donte Divincenzo becomes an apron casualty down the line, but I’m guessing the Knicks figure they will deal with that when the time comes.
A small note, but I'm fascinated to see how Precious Achiuwa’s restricted free agency plays out now. If Hartenstein walks, which is looking likely, then they need Achiuwa to backup an injury prone Mitchell Robinson. He has a $6.3 million qualifying offer, but even offering that could be a big hit to their apron space.
Brooklyn Nets
It would appear the Nets have embraced the re-build yet again. As hard of a pill I’m sure it was to swallow, it was clearly the right call. They definitely sold high on Mikal Bridges, bagging all those unprotected picks. To boot, they also pulled the below deal with Houston.
Giving up on that 2027 and 2029 PHX firsts couldn’t have been easy, but getting back control of your own draft in 2025 and 2026 had to be imperative if they were to move on from Bridges. This gives Brooklyn a chance to go through a complete re-set over the next two years and hopefully come out the other side competitive, when Houston owns their swap in 2027.
Looking forward, the Nets will be able to create over $70 million in cap space next summer, and also have Ben Simmons $40 million expiring this year if teams are looking for long term cap relief. I’d imagine guys like Dennis Schroder and Bojan Bogdanovic will be shopped heavily this summer and up until the trade deadline, with the hope of wringing out a second round pick or two. The Nets are going to probably be one of the worse teams in the league. It must be nice to at least have their own picks back, considering all the top picks that they’ve handed out to other teams in the past.
Houston Rockets
I like what the Rockets did here. They essentially gave back Brooklyn’s picks in 2025 (eliminated swap) and 2026, and in return got a 2025 PHX swap, 2027 PHX 1st, the most favorable of 2029 DAL 1st and 2029 PHX along with the ability to swap their own first for the other of DAL/PHX 2029. More importantly, it diversifies and lengthens the duration of their draft capital pool from a trade perspective. They still have a Brooklyn 2027 swap, but now have Suns future draft capital and a claim on a Dallas future pick. Woj also put it pretty plainly that Houston had an emphasis on buying up the future picks of the Suns specifically, so that they could eventually target Kevin Durant or Devin Booker if (when) the Suns ever combust and need to blow it up. I do love that thought process, but it is a little funny that they were trying to do that with Mikal Bridges and the Nets ended up going a different direction and still got their picks back. Regardless, this was some good dealing by the Houston front office. Now we wait and see what the next step is for the Houston Rockets.