Knicks Just Did THIS... | Knicks News | The Knicks Recap Podcast

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Every team, every topic, everywhere. This is Beliefs.

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The Knicks just made a surprising decision, and we need to talk about it. We're going to break down all of these latest reports today.
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And now, let's get started.
The Knicks make a surprising decision. Free agency begins today at 6 p.m. and the Knicks are already making moves to prepare for it. But even I didn't see this move coming. Late in the night, New York made the decision to make Ariel Hukporti an unrestricted free agent. Take a look at this update. Shout out to ESPN's Vincent Goodwill for giving us this following information. According to him, the New York Knicks are not extending a qualifying offer to center Ariel Hukporti, making him an unrestricted free agent. Hukporti has played 79 games across two seasons with The Knicks. And if you were curious, here's the math behind that move. Shout out to Jeremy Cohen on the AppX for breaking down this information for us. According to him, behind one door, you can pay Ariel Hukporti the minimum worth $2.45 million. Behind another door, you can give Hukporti a qualifying offer worth $2.66 million. And it comes with the ability to veto any trade. Now ask yourself, what do you think would be the wisest choice for The Knicks?
But why did The Knicks make this move? Well, one popular theory, which Jeremy Cohen basically just supported, is that New York did this so they can re-sign Hukporti at a lower rate. Shout out to postingandtoasting.com for giving us this following information. According to them, the minimum salary for Hukporti this upcoming season is worth $2.4 million. So should The Knicks still decide to keep The Big Man, they can do so and save themselves a couple of hundred thousand dollars in the process.
Robinson, of course, should be the priority for The Knicks. However, keeping him might require them to dive deep in the second apron anyway, especially after signing Landry Shammit. But re-signing Ariel Hukporti to a lower contract for next season may not be the only motivation for New York to make this move. They might have something else planned too.
Shout out to Posting and Toasting, and Steph Bondy for giving us this following information. According to them, Bondy laid out one realistic path, New York can stay under the second apron. According to him, bringing back Clarkson and Hukporti, both on minimum deals, worth $2.45 million each, while signing a veteran center, let's say that center's going to be Kevon Looney because there is mutual interest that has been reported for roughly the same price. If they make all of those moves, they can round out their roster, sign Clarkson and Hukporti for next season, and have another veteran center in the process. But this would also mean Mitchell Robinson is gone in free agency.
The Knicks clearly have a plan in place, and if I'm a betting man, what we just reviewed is likely to happen, where New York brings back Jordan Clarkson and Ariel Hukporti, both on minimum contracts, because that helps them retain the roster that they had this past season, at least most of it. For a couple of days now, we have all been saying, the reports have indicated that New York will not be able to keep Mitchell Robinson. Number one, they don't have enough money to do that without triggering the second apron. And number two, a number of teams are willing to give Robinson more money than the Knicks are per season. So because of that, it's likely Mitchell Robinson leaves. However, this is Leon Rose, Brock Aller, Worldwide West we're talking about. If anybody can make the impossible happen, it's these guys in the Knicks front office. So I'll never say anything is a guarantee, but at least at this point, given the money that they're committing to this roster for next season, given the fact that they want to stay out of the second apron, and they're likely going to bring back Clarkson and Ariel Hukporti, it seems the biggest stage in world soccer is here and every goal changes everything.

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