The New York Knicks entered the offseason trying to keep as much of their championship roster together as possible in an impossible task due to owner James Dolan’s second-apron mandate. Alas.
New York, very obviously and inevitably, lost longtime center and Knickerbocker Mitchell Robinson to the Boston Celtics of all teams, and fellow big man Ariel Hukporti to the all-five-no-bench Philadelphia 76ers.
But, hey! Not all is bad news, as the Knicks still retained several rotation players and depth pieces
after winning the NBA title, while they still wait to know more or act on others, such as veteran Filipino Jordan Clarkson and his future.
Once the moratorium lifted on July 6, and as stupid as the waiting is in this, the year 2026 of our Lord in which everything is reported a month before it actually happens, the Knicks made official the new deals for the Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Mohamed Diawara bench trinity.
Better than the Knicks just dropping three posts on X and elsewhere was the reveal of a bunch of tiny-but-saucy details about those contracts and how Leon Rose and Brock Aller worked their ways to structure them.
The Athletic’s Fred Katz reported that Shamet’s money is only partially guaranteed in the last two years of the contract, while he also included a player option in the final season of his new four-year, $24 million deal, per SNY’s Ian Begley.
“Landry Shamet has a player option in the final year of his deal, per SNY league sources. Structure gives Shamet long term stability with team & coach that highly value him while maintaining flexibility.”
Shamet became a key bench piece last season under Mike Brown, eventually earning a regular role through the Knicks’ postseason run. And now, by leaving the last year of his contract as an option, we might be in front of another Alvarado-like situation four years from now.
According to HoopsHype, only one player (Mikal Bridges, $41.5 million) was under contract for the 2029-30 season before Shamet inked his deal. Now both have player options to execute the summer before, albeit we still don’t know (although I think we all agree what’s coming) what the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson will be operating under at that time once they re-sign with the Knicks.
The Athletic’s James L. Edwards III touched on Alvarado’s three-year, $14 million deal, reporting that it’s guaranteed for $12 million, with a $2.7 million partial guarantee in the final season.
Alvarado declined a $4.5 million player option at the end of June before returning to New York on a cheaper per-year deal, with the potential of reaching a slight bump up in total earnings if he gets that partially-guaranteed chunk of dough.
Finally, in the biggest news of the day and those impacting the current offseason plans in the biggest way (considering the tiny margins for maneuvering), Katz reported Diawara’s new contract is worth $11.2 million over four years, with only the first two seasons guaranteed.
Katz added that Diawara’s starting salary is at $2.6 million in 2026-27, above the minimum but lower than the deal’s AAV of $2.8 million.
No new details emerged over Drummond’s contract with the Knicks after the franchise made it official at midnight, along with the other three. The veteran center signed a one-year, $3.9 million deal (although only $2.4 million count against the cap) with New York, and all of the money is guaranteed, so it’s a fairly simple piece of business to understand.
After all of those moves, the Knicks have a hair above $6 million in cap space left before hitting the second apron, and New York still needs to fill two roster spots. Veteran minimum deals start at $2.18 million (one year of experience) and go all the way up to $3.87 million for players with 10-plus years of experience.
As far as I know and believe, all Knicks’ reported or discussed FA targets (your Clarksons, Looneys, Valanciunases, DeRozans, etc…) come with that 10+ tag attached to them, so I guess it’s fair to assume New York would try and sign one veteran and leave the other roster spot open for rookie Tyler Nickel… unless they can dump someone (looking at you Paco) and open space elsewhere. Anyway, trust nothing you just read, cause I’m no capologist.
You can follow Antonio on Twitter at @chapulana.
