The soaring salary cap, combined with the massive cap space cleared out through a string of "roster cuts," had the Knicks' front office feeling extremely confident!
They were full of ambition, preparing to go all in and build a championship-caliber team around Chen Xi in this very off-season.
Worth mentioning were Aquaman and Drummond.
This interior duo, which had once posted the league's best frontcourt rebounding efficiency in Motor City, had unexpectedly reunited years later with the New York Knicks.
It truly made one sigh at how unpredictable life could be~~
Life was unpredictable... Just as New York was making a big splash by signing several players in quick succession, something rather hard for them to stomach happened elsewhere.
They had just spent heavily to sign Adams, projecting an air of "money is no object."
Then, another of their targets, Buddy Hield, announced that he would exercise his $18.57 million player option for the final year of his contract and remain with the Kings.
That derailed New York's plans to further strengthen its perimeter shooting.
After Hield announced he would exercise his player option, the Knicks could only acquire him through a trade.
But first of all, since he had said he would remain with the Kings, he was most likely unwilling to leave on a personal level.
And New York's current assets clearly were not especially convenient for initiating a trade.
For one thing, they did not have many draft picks.
For another, they no longer had suitable "trade pieces" on the roster to match salaries...
Besides, was Hield really worth an annual salary of nearly $19 million?
That was also a question worth considering. Strus was only making $13.5 million...
So, even the deep-pocketed Knicks ultimately gave up on that option under the pressure of the luxury tax