Why Knicks needed to dance round Karl-Anthony Cities questions at media day: 'Do not know who that's'

Karl-Anthony Towns is in New York for Knicks media day. The blockbuster deal bringing him to the Big Apple has been agreed to, and the entire basketball world is aware of the place he will probably be enjoying this season. But Cities is not going to communicate at Knicks media day, and no one on the group is allowed to handle the deal by league guidelines. So what is going on on?

Nicely, the reply is each deceptively easy and doubtlessly fairly sophisticated. This is the quick model: the commerce just isn’t technically full. As of this second, Karl-Anthony Cities continues to be a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, whereas Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo are Knicks. The place issues get sophisticated is why the deal has but to be accomplished. 

We principally know the reply to that. It is a wage matter. And we’ll dive into in a second. First, we should cowl the odd dance of Knicks media day, the place coaches and gamers couldn’t touch upon the commerce since it isn’t but official.

“Cannot touch upon it,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Good attempt.” 

“Who’s Karl?” star guard Jalen Brunson quipped. “Do not know who that’s.”

So why is the cash within the yet-to-be-completed deal so sophisticated? Each the Knicks and Timberwolves have been above the primary apron earlier than making this commerce. Groups above the primary apron can not deliver in additional wage than they ship out in a commerce. That meant that they might not commerce with each other except the greenback figures getting into each instructions have been even, as taking again extra money in a commerce triggers a primary apron laborious cap that neither group is presently capable of work below. That is the place the Charlotte Hornets are available in. They’ve agreed to take again the mandatory cash as a 3rd group to make this commerce work.

However the reporting proper now means that this is not going to be conventional wage. No, so as to make the cash work right here, it appears as if the Knicks will probably be signing-and-trading a number of of their very own free brokers to Charlotte for matching functions. These gamers are Charlie Brown Jr., Duane Washington Jr. and DaQuan Jeffries. Which means negotiating three separate contracts that match inside sign-and-trade guidelines, that means that the offers should final not less than three years (although solely the primary must be assured). 

Additional complicating all of this? Washington has signed a contract with Partizan in Belgrade, that means he might want to work out a buyout there so as to take part. Most worldwide contracts have NBA buyouts, so it should not be a real holdup, however that does not imply Partizan has any cause to function on New York’s timeline.

That’s what we all know, or not less than what has been reported at the moment. It is also value noting that we do not know the place this commerce stands so far as physicals and medical reviews go, and it is also attainable that both group may try and broaden the deal by together with different veterans and picks with a possible fourth group. We all know the fundamental framework at play right here. We are able to moderately assume that the commerce is finally going to occur. However, simply because the NBA forces draftees to put on the mistaken hat on draft night time when there’s a reported commerce, league guidelines dictate that tampering guidelines be noticed till the deal is official. Proper now, Karl-Anthony Cities just isn’t a member of the New York Knicks, and till the entire i’s have been dotted and the entire t’s have been crossed, the group should act as if no commerce has occurred.