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NBA Rumors: Knicks used CBA loophole to complete Karl-Anthony Towns trade with Wolves | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

NBA Rumors: Knicks used CBA loophole to complete Karl-Anthony Towns trade with Wolves | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

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The New York Knicks used some creativity and a loophole in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement to complete their deal to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Because the Knicks are unable to aggregate minimum contracts into trades, Fred Katz of The Athletic indicated that they will sign DaQuan Jeffries, Charlie Brown Jr. and Duane Washington Jr. each to contracts worth $1 above Minimum salary to make signing easier. Trade agreement.

Katz noted that the NBA was “not happy” about the Knicks exploiting a loophole.

Fred Katz @Fred Katz

I’ve heard from various people that the league isn’t thrilled about this – but that’s how it is with new CBAs. The NBA tries to fill gaps, and then smart people who work for teams find new ones. https://t.co/7qfQEujxRi

The Knicks officially announced the trade on Wednesday.

The Knicks were already projected to be above the first tax apron for the 2024-25 season before Towns was added. $49.2 million Salary.

Under the new NBA collective bargaining agreement, teams will face a hard cap on the second front if they use part of the mid-level exception to sign a player; combine several contracts in a trade for the purpose of salary adjustment; Send cash via trade; or you can send a player out via a sign-and-trade and use that player’s outgoing salary to redeem a contract.

The Knicks managed to stay below the second frontcourt despite taking in more salary through financial maneuvers.

Yossi Gozlan @Yossi Gozlan

The New York Knicks managed to increase their payroll on both Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges despite being a frontcourt team.
They did this by increasing their required exit salary, with every remaining free agent from last year having some form of Bird rights…

ESPN’s Bobby Marks previously explained the different applications of the frontcourt rules and how teams must operate under the new restrictions:

Even after Town’s salary is added to their books for the 2024-25 season, the Knicks are staying put $3.6 million under the second apron. First-line teams are prohibited from signing buyout players who fetched more than the median exception ($12.8 million), and they cannot take back more money than they spent in a trade.

All of these clever maneuvers highlight how much attention each team needs to pay to the frontcourt rules, since they are so restrictive once you get to the second frontcourt.

The Knicks’ ability to retain some flexibility after acquiring Towns and Mikal Bridges this offseason is a major coup for the organization. They want to improve on their run to the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.