NBA Market: Salary Situation and Roster of the New York Knicks for the Upcoming Season

For the New York Knicks, the 2024-25 season was the best in a quarter of a century. The team returned to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since that memorable 1999-2000 roster led by Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell, and Patrick Ewing. If not for the excellent level of the Indiana Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton's outstanding performance, New York would have contested their ninth NBA Finals.

However, finishing third in the East is not enough. It is undoubtedly a significant step forward, and the constant progress under the guidance of Tom Thibodeau and Leon Rose should not be overlooked. Although the elimination against Indiana, for the second consecutive postseason, left a bitter taste, the present state of the Knicks is, or should be, a reason for optimism. All this growth and talent accumulation ultimately aim at winning a title.

Now, the franchise faces a summer with a veteran and established roster, but with no clear margin for further growth from within. Their main rotation consists entirely of players at least in the young veteran stage. As promising as the future may seem for profiles like Tyler Kolek or Pacome Dadiet, it would be naive to think that the Knicks can rely on explosive development from them. After investing a significant amount of salary and draft assets to form their starting five —crowned by the unexpected addition of Karl-Anthony Towns—, the Knicks will have to find value in the margins: hitting on minimum contracts and staying alert to the big market moves, despite not having the most powerful asset arsenal in the league.

What they do have going for them is the appeal of being an already competitive team. They are close, although Haliburton has made the distance seem wider than it is. They need to make some adjustments, but not a revolution. With that context, the roster's situation and spending options for the New York Knicks for the 2025 offseason are analyzed below.

2025/26 Salary Situation

• Players under contract: 11 (including two team options: PJ Tucker and Ariel Hukportl)

• Two-way contract players: 0

Guaranteed salaries: $194,354,847
Non-guaranteed salaries: $5,424,337
Total salary: $199,779,184

Projections for the 2025/26 season:

• Projected salary cap: $154,647,000
  → Cap space: none

• Luxury tax threshold: $187,895,000
  → Space under luxury tax: none

• First apron: $195,945,000
  → Exceeded by approximately $4 million

• Second apron: $207,824,000
  → Available space: approximately $8 million

Spending Options (if they stay below the second apron):

• Mid-level exception for luxury taxpaying teams: $5,685,000 (projected)

• Trade exception (if they align with spending limits):

  • Jericho Sims trade exception: $2,092,344 (expires on February 6, 2026)

Spending Options (if they exceed the second apron):

• They can only use the minimum salary exception

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Mercado NBA: Situación salarial y plantilla de los New York Knics de cara a la próxima temporada