It’s been two months since the Knicks made their initial moves in free agency, signing Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele to fill out their bench. With Clarkson signing a vet min and Yabusele inking a deal slightly below the taxpayer mid-level exception, the Knicks had just enough room to sign one more veteran to a deal before giving their final roster spot to a young player on a second-round contract.
After two months of speculation and rumors, the Knicks made two signings on Thursday, seemingly
making it a competition for who gets the last roster spot. Shortly after bringing back Landry Shamet on a non-guaranteed deal, it was reported that sharpshooting wing Garrison Matthews would get a similar deal to compete with Shamet for that roster spot. The Knicks then signed former Sixth Man of the Year Malcolm Brogdon on Friday, which lowers the odds that Matthews cracks the roster.
Matthews, who turns 29 in October, is a six-year NBA veteran, playing for the Wizards, Rockets, and Hawks. The 6’5” wing out of Lipscomb has been known for one thing over the years: being a dynamite shooter. Over the last two seasons with the Hawks, Matthews had averaged six points in 16.1 minutes a game while shooting 42.4% from the field and a blistering 41.4% from three.
The Knicks already boast two high-volume corner 3pt shooters in the starting lineup and have Deuce McBride as a solid catch-and-shoot option, but Matthews can stake a claim as the very best in basketball. Last season, he led the NBA with a 58.0 corner 3% in 69 attempts.
His path to a roster spot is going to be complicated. Shamet absolutely has supporters in the building after a good playoff run last season, and now that Brogdon is in the fold, he feels like a long shot. Maybe this is a move to get him in Westchester as emergency depth, similar to T.J. Warren and Chuma Okeke last season? We’ll have to wait and see.
If the Knicks want to keep two of the three players that they picked up in the last 36 hours, they’ll have to make a move. The cost to sign two more vet mins would be $4.6 million, which is $900,000 more than the Knicks can spend. They could trade, say, Tyler Kolek for no returning salary and open up room to sign two veterans and narrowly dip under the cap after signing a 14th player to the second-round exception.
