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        <title><![CDATA[Knicks may get huge edge amid NBA’s coronavirus cap chaos]]></title>
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            <media:title type="html">Knicks may get huge edge amid NBA’s coronavirus cap chaos</media:title>
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        <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Bobby Marks, ESPN’s cap guru, predicts NBA free agency this summer will “slow to a crawl” and all players with opt-outs in their contracts will choose to opt in.</p><p>That’s one economic fallout from the potentially massive salary-cap reduction because of the season’s March 11 shutdown.</p><p>If all players are forced to opt in, that means Anthony Davis returns to the Lakers for another season and will be eligible for free agency in 2021. That’s a good thing for the Knicks as Davis likely will be more amenable to moving on as LeBron James turns 37.</p><p>“I think we will go 29-for-29 on player options picked up,’’ Marks told The Post.</p><p>Marks, the former Nets capologist, penned <strong>a salary-cap thesis piece for ESPN</strong> in which he sought ideas from agents and team executives.</p><p>The NBA insiders believe free agency will “essentially be frozen,” Marks wrote, because of the cap drop.</p><p>Marks told The Post he forsees only one-year deals — and at below-usual market value.</p><figure id="attachment_15672723"  class="wp-caption alignnone aligncenter"><strong><noscript><img data- data-src="/uploads/2020/05/030620_knicksthunder_017cs.jpg" class="lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" /><noscript><img  data-src="/uploads/2020/05/030620_knicksthunder_017cs.jpg" /></noscript></noscript><img class="lazyload" src='data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E' data- data-src="/uploads/2020/05/030620_knicksthunder_017cs.jpg" /></strong><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><span>Knicks GM Scott Perry and team president Leon Rose</span><span class="credit">Corey Sipkin</span></figcaption></figure><p>According to Marks, the NBA and its Players Association have yet to stage formal talks on the salary-cap reduction.</p><p>Marks wrote the NBA will lose between $1 billion-$2 billion in basketball-related income. The salary cap is calculated off a percentage of the BRI. If the NBA loses $2 billion in BRI, the cap would stand at $95 million — way down from the pre-coronavirus projection of $115 million.</p><p>Even if commissioner Adam Silver <strong>resumes the season in July</strong> with fan-less playoffs, the losses will be massive.</p><p>Marks said the Knicks would stand to gain if the cap and luxury-tax threshold dropped significantly. The Knicks have a series of team options they aren’t expected to exercise, especially now.</p><p><strong><b><i>Submit questions on your favorite New York teams to be answered in an upcoming mailbag</i></b></strong></p><p>“If I was the Knicks I would want the cap and tax to crash,’’ Marks told The Post. “It would give them a huge advantage. They can collect the tax money and also have flexibility while few do.’’</p><p>Knicks president Leon Rose <strong>hired capologist Brock Aller</strong> from the Cavaliers partly because of this new post-corona landscape.</p><p>Bobby Portis’ $15 million is a team option while Elfrid Payton, Wayne Ellington, Reggie Bullock and Taj Gibson count just $1 million each against the cap if waived.</p><p>The Knicks are nowhere close to being in luxury-tax territory. Instead, they will be among four teams with cap room to take advantage of below-market deals.</p><p>In fact, the Knicks could waive Gibson and re-sign him for less than the $10 million he stood to make. That is a distinct possibility if Tom Thibodeau becomes head coach. Thibodeau and Gibson were together in Chicago and Minnesota.</p><p>In gathering cap intel, Marks wrote some executives want the one-time amnesty clause to be restored. That allows teams to shed one onerous contract from their cap. For instance, if Detroit amnestied oft-injured Blake Griffin, he would still get paid the remaining $75.5 million of his salary, but none of it would count on the cap.</p><p>The only possible candidate the Knicks could mull for such a maneuver is Julius Randle. The power forward will make $19 million this season. Plus, if the Knicks didn’t pick up Randle’s third-year option, he would still count for $4 million on the 2021 salary cap when a splendid free-agent class emerges.</p><p>With the economic crisis potentially extending into next season, Oklahoma City could consider point guard Chris Paul as an amnesty case. Paul, a potential Knicks’ target, will make $41 million in 2020-21 and $44 million in 2021-22.</p><p>In Marks’ piece, he noted the league may agree not to use the mathematical formula and keep the salary cap at last summer’s figure — $105 million — with the luxury-tax threshold of $139 million.</p><p>That’s what happened when the NBA emerged from the 2011 lockout — using the 2011 figure for 2012. Marks said a stronger sentiment is leaving the luxury-tax threshold at the high mark of $139 million, so teams don’t get further crunched amid this financial catastrophe.</p><p>Marks said one of the understated highlights of his informal poll was concern over the revenue-sharing impact on the mid-market teams such as Indiana, OKC, Memphis, Charlotte and New Orleans.</p><p>With canceled home games, those mid-market clubs lose out on the bonus they got from the Knicks, Lakers and the Warriors, whose ticket prices are significantly higher.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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