Knicks Second Apron Mystery: Facts, Fiction & the Free Agency Fallout

The Knicks are NBA Champions, but the offseason questions are already piling up. What exactly is the NBA's second apron? Are the Knicks really in cap trouble? And how much of what you're hearing is fact versus fiction?

In this episode of Knicks Unleashed, we dive deep into the myths, rumors, and realities surrounding New York's salary cap situation. We'll break down what the apron rules actually mean, how they impact roster construction, and whether the Knicks can keep their championship core together while remaining contenders for years to come.

Plus, we'll cover the latest free agency news, trade rumors, potential targets, roster moves, and the front office decisions that could shape the future of basketball in New York.

🏀 What is the Second Apron?
 🏀 Which Knicks rumors have real substance?
 🏀 Latest Free Agency Updates
 🏀 Potential Trade Scenarios
 🏀 Can the Knicks build a dynasty?

Join us as we separate fact from fiction and uncover the truth behind the Knicks' offseason strategy.

#KnicksUnleashed #NewYorkKnicks #NBAFreeAgency #KnicksNation #NBAChampions #SecondApron #JalenBrunson #NBAOffseason #KnicksBasketball #NBARumors #KnicksPodcast #NBATalk #LeonRose #MadisonSquareGarden #KnicksFans

Transcript

Champion Talk And Today’s Agenda

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Oh, we're gonna be saying that every single game, every single year, every time the Knicks are announced, it's gonna be current NBA champion, the New York fucking Knicks. Oh, you gotta love it. We want to talk today about the second Apron. We want to talk a little bit about uh free agency. We also want to talk about the draft. Um, there's so many things going on. Listen, I can bash James Dolan for a lot of things. And James Dolan had a moment, and maybe that moment hasn't passed yet where he can be another George Steinbrenner. He can look at what he has and says, you know what, we're gonna run this shit back. Damn the torpedoes, full steam, fucking ahead. We don't care what we're gonna have to pay under that second apron. And we're gonna talk about the second apron because there's a lot of misconceptions, and we're gonna get into the additional value financially that Dolan would have to pay if we went, came back, brought back Jose Alvarado as at his player option of one point, uh, excuse me, 4.5 million. We re-signed Landry Shaman and we brought back Mitchell

Diop Contract And Depth Pieces

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Robinson. We got to talk about uh Mohamed Di Oara's contract real quick. He signed a multi-year contract the other day for $10 million. It looks like it's gonna be an estimate of four years, roughly two and a half million dollars a year. That of course is if it is spanning the uh the four years. Um, this was financed using his non-bird rights, which basically is gonna allow the Knicks to retain him without triggering the hard cap of the luxury tax separate apron. Uh DOR, of course, is that 6'9 forward, 51st overall last year in the draft. He was on a one-year standard minimum contract with 1.2 million. You know, it was one of those things. He took a gamble on himself, appeared in 69 games, averaging 3.6, uh 3.64 points a game, 1.4 rebounds and nine minutes. He is a guy that, like you said, there was gonna be there was gonna be a lot of interest in DiOara this season. I think there's gonna be a lot of interest in Ariel Hakaporti as well, because while Ariel Hakaporti is not gonna give you much offensively, it's gonna be his defensive prowess, it's gonna be his reboundings, it's gonna be the guy to get you that he. I'm not gonna say he's a Jeff Bookaboom. Uh, Ranger fans will remember that name. He's gonna give you those hard fouls when needed, but it's just um, you know, it was a good signing. It's you know, you bring it back another 6'9 forward. We're gonna need some more strength at the forward position depending on what we do in free agency. Listen, I understood what the Knicks were doing in the draft. I literally have four paragraphs of every trade they've made and everything they went through. And I think I'll go through that another time and maybe

Draft Anger And Cameron Carr

SPEAKER_01 3:26

we'll set that to some music. But one of the things that I hate was the fact that this second apron issue with with James Dolan is just getting out of fucking control. You had an opportunity, listen, Cameron Carr in any other draft would probably have been a lottery pick. You have a draft that is what some draft experts say is the deepest draft in the last 30 years. Cameron Carr fell to the Knicks. He is a guy with a seven-foot wingspan, good defensive instincts, and is a certified three-point shooter. You know, he was projected earlier as high as Go is 14 and the lowest to go as 19 before the draft process. But like I said, this was he was this was a shock to me that he was sitting there and we're taking the likes and we're thinking to ourselves, well, you know what? Pacom Dottier is a better prospect than Cameron Carr. And I thought to myself, boy, you know what? Gentlemen, which brings me to my next point. Don't smoke crack. We just, I'm sorry, he's got a seven foot one inch wingspan on a 6.45 frame. He is the he is the envisionment, he is the embodiment of three and D. He will get you the rebounds. He he will he will take the he will take that tough three-pointer. He will do so many things. And he fell to the Knicks, and the Knicks were like, we we can't go over the eight, we can't go on that second apron, so we're gonna keep Pacom Dadier. That almost we're gonna keep Pacom Dadier and Tyler Koak. And listen, I like Kolick. I think Koch is a good guy to give you six minutes a night, maybe. I think Pacom Ghadier is a good guy that you can send overseas and let him stay there forever. But to to basically sit there and say, listen, we we don't even we don't even want to go over by a little bit. Because of the fact that if we did, James Dolan may have to pay a little bit more cash.

What The Second Apron Changes

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Let's let's get into the second apron a second. And the second apron is not one of these things, it's not a death sentence. There are portions of it that are very restrictive, but the question is gonna be this what happens if you go into the second apron? And I think that's what a lot of the misconception is. It's you it's it's almost like the fact that you kind of have to live in the second apron for an extended period of time. You don't, it's not like if you go in there for six months, if you go now, other teams have gone to the second apron without all these repercussions, and the Knicks have more choices to make after next season, after Carl Anthony Town's 61.2% or 61.2, 61 million dollar player option. But here's the thing about the second apron. Right now the threshold is 222 million. And all of a sudden, if you go over that, if you go into the second apron, you're you're going to incur some punitive damages. Are you potentially, and it's again, the immediate and the long-term consequences are a little bit different. And you have to kind of look at it that way. Now, some of the severe trade restrictions are gonna be the Knicks will be basically forbidden for combining two or more player salary to equal a single player with a larger contract. All right, I'm I'm okay with that. They can't send out any money to other teams in trades, which eliminates the buy the second round pick. We have 19,000 fucking second round picks. I don't care about that right now. They cannot bring take back more money than they send out in a trade. The incoming salary must be 100% or less of the outgoing salary, which I have no problem with because I don't see the Knicks really making any any any big trades this season. There's no trade exception. The front office would lose the ability to use the trade exception. Okay. Again, I'm not I'm not seeing I'm not seeing the limitations yet. They're gonna now one of the things I do see is the loss of the mid-level exception that will completely you they're gonna completely lose access to the taxpayer mid-level exception. That could be a burdensome for the Knicks, especially when they're gonna try to bring in some players on some bit of veteran minimum contracts. They would not be allowed to acquire a player via sign-in trade. Again, I don't really see the Knicks acquiring anyone. I think I see more of the Knicks retaining players. They cannot sign a buyout during a buy-out contract or buyout player during free agency during the season. If the player's pre-waiver salary was above the non-taxpayer MLE. Now, again, if you're gonna get into a little bit before you're gonna get into it a little bit more. Now, if they finish over the second April during the season, the first round pick seven years into the future. I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna say this again, Marty. Seven years into the future will become frozen and cannot be traded. Well, we all know how the next draft, so I'm not really that concerned about that as well. Now, there's also the draft position demotion. Now, if they remain the second apron, now see this is the thing where the punitive damages are only if you're gonna be in there for an extended period of time. If you stay in the second apron three out of five seasons, the first round pick is automatically stripped and moved to the very end of the first round. If you think you're gonna be a championship contender, who fucking cares? Regardless how poor or how well the team basically did. Now, right now, the core five, that's Bridges, of course, OG

The Real Tax Bill For Dolan

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Anobi, Brunson, Carl Anthony Towns, and Hart are roughly tying up 192 million. Now, staying under the $220 million apron and signing both Mitchell Robinson and Shamit, that's gonna be a little tricky. There's gonna be a little angst there. And there's gonna be angst in reference to the cost of James Dolan to pay going into the second apron. Now, if the Knicks decide to re-sign Mitchell Robinson and their other free agents, the projected market total for those players will be close to about, we'll say, 200 237 to 238. Now, there are spending brackets that you will fit into other penalty brackets, and tax rate escalates dramatically as you get into the apron. So we're just gonna say if the Knicks are $36 million over, that's $36 million over that rate, they will have to write an additional check for $109 million. Their tax rate, their incremental tax rate owed, if they go over with signing Shamot, if they go over and they bring back Mitchell Robinson, they will be at $109 million penalty. So they're gonna be taxed. So the total cost to James Dolan will be the $237 million plus $109 million for a total cost to James Dolan of $346 million, which would include both the payroll and the tax. Now, the Knicks are currently paying the luxury tax for a second consecutive season right now. And if they stay at that tax line for this season, they will officially treat rey officially trigger another penalty, which is called the repeat repeater tax penalty for 27 to 28. Now, under the red that rule, the tax practice listed above increases by a dollar to a dollar fifty, which would then turn that 109 million into 150 million plus penalty. Okay, did you get all that? So we're asking a billionaire to do a George Steinbrenner to run this shit back and pay $346 million, which includes the $237 million, plus the estimated luxury tax bill, which is $109 million for a total cost of James Dolan to $346 million. George Steinbrenner would not have even blinked. Would not have even blinked. Now, if you go to Forbes, the estimated value by Forbes for the James Dolan or the Dolan family is seven billion dollars. I'm gonna say this again. Their total value as a family, according to Forbes, so it's not like you're Googling this and saying, Google, what is the net value of James Dolan's family? This is from Forbes magazine from last year, is seven billion

Dolan’s Wealth And The Run-It-Back Plea

SPEAKER_01 12:33

dollars. I mean, think about that. So you're asking a billionaire to come now. You're he probably loses some of this in Vegas on a weekend. You have the Knicks. Now that's that's just what his approximate value is. That's not what his asset value is. If you take a look at James Dolan's sports asset, Forbes values the Knicks at 9.75 billion. He values the Rangers at they value the Rangers at 4 billion. So now we're at 13.75 billion just in his sports assets. He also includes in Sphere Entertainment, company behind the Las Vegas sphere, MSG Regional Television, the radio networks, which is which are huge moneymakers. Listen, I'm not gonna tell other people how to spend their money. That's that's not up. That's not up to me to say, hey, listen, James Dolan, you need to spend your money X. I'm not gonna tell you that. But if you have an opportunity to repeat a championship, how important is that to you? The year prior when the Knicks made the NFC, NFC, when they when the Knicks made the Eastern Conference final. I'm getting ready to do a giant live stream, so I'm a little confused today. I actually have 15 minutes before I can jump on the giant live stream. But you basically came out of that finals, excuse me, that yeah, the Eastern Conference Finals. If it wasn't for the OG Ananobi injury, it wasn't from the fluke shot in game one, and it wasn't for the collapse in game two, you could have already won a championship last year. But you have an opportunity to run it back again this season. So, James Dolan, I am begging you, hike up your fucking skirt. Take a look at what the team listen, the draft was such a fucking fiasco that I don't I don't even want to get I don't even want to get into the draft because like I said, literally, I have a paragraph of shit for the Giants,

Draft Night Trade Chain Breakdown

SPEAKER_01 14:35

oh the Giants. Again, the Knicks trade the 24th pick to the Lakers for the 25th pick, the 25th pick, then we traded that 25th pick over to the Dallas Mavericks for the 30th pick and two second rounders. That pick was then sent over to the Suns for the sword 47th pick in two second rounders. The 31st pick was then traded for the 55th pick to the Rockets for the 39th pick and the 53rd pack, and the Kings 2029 second round pick. The 39th pick we kept, the 47th pick to cap, the 53rd pick we kept for a day, and then we traded it over to the Suns. So basically, we came out from a guy from a German uh guy from Germany, Tyler Nickel, who is a good catch and point uh catch and shoot three-pointer, but I don't see much else. And uh five future second round picks, one from the Sun Kings, 76ers, Mavericks, and Suns. And we also acquired draft rights of three European players. One of them happens to be fucking 35 years old. James Dolan, run this shit back, hike up your skirt. You're not gonna be in the second apron forever. You can do some things. I don't want to trade Miles McBride. If you want to trade Tyler, uh Tyler Koch and Paco Madier, go right the fucking head. But I'm I'm listening I love the Knicks. You have all the Knicks now have in my mind, the Knicks now have carte blanche for like the next five years. I don't care what you do. I got my NBA championship, I got my I got my replica NBA championship trophy, I got my parade. I after 53 years, I'm like I said, not for me, 53 years, because I've only been watching the team since 81, but I I got I got my championship. I got my trophy. But as an analyst and as a beat writer, there was there was an idiot who said she was a beat writer. Um, I'm gonna just say this. You have an opportunity to do something special. You have an opportunity to own this city, you have a George Steinbrenner moment. You wrecked it with Cameron Carr. You wrecked it with this draft. So if you don't bring back Shamit, Alvarez, and Mitchell Robinson, this offseason is an F. Oh, we're gonna have a lot of videos coming up. We're gonna talk about the draft and talk about a whole bunch of things. We're gonna talk about free agency, which we're not gonna be involved in. But again, this is Tim, New York

Offseason Grade And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Knicks Unleashed. Like, subscribe, ring the bell, do all that fun shit, and I'm out of here.