One small trade could pay more dividends for the Knicks than you’d think

Jericho Sims has been mentioned in trade rumors for weeks. Trading him (or others) could help the team in more ways than one.

There are 20 days until the NBA trade deadline on February 6th, just under three weeks.

The Knicks have made an in-season trade in each of Leon Rose’s first four seasons as the president of basketball operations.

In 2020-21, he reunited Coach Thibs with one of his favorite players, bringing Derrick Rose in from Detroit for Dennis Smith Jr.

In 2021-22, he brought in Cam Reddish from Atlanta, who causes discussion in this fanbase to this day.

In 2022-23, he flipped Reddish to Portland for Josh Hart, a trade paying dividends to this day.

In 2023-24, he made the first of three franchise-altering trades in acquiring OG Anunoby, while also trading Quentin Grimes at the deadline for bench scoring.

Will he make it 5-for-5? That’s unknown.

The Knicks don’t have the same assets as they used to, as well as absolutely no financial flexibility. Their only reasonable trade salaries are their backup bigs in Precious Achiuwa and Mitchell Robinson. Behind them, the only player making more than the minimum is Deuce McBride, whose contract itself is valuable to the team.

Most people recognize that the Knicks need to make at least one move to pad the bench for the playoffs, but they don’t have an effectively dead salary as they did with Evan Fournier to improve the team without cutting out a rotation player.

One player’s market is reportedly being explored, but the return he could get is unclear.

By himself, Jericho Sims can pretty much get you nothing by sheer NBA rules. As a first-apron team, the Knicks are prohibited from taking on more salary via trade than they send out. Sims only makes a minuscule $2.09 million in the third and final year of his contract.

Now, Sims can be combined with a rookie or another veteran minimum like Cam Payne or Landry Shamet for a slightly larger salary, as long as both combined make more than the incoming salary. That may be the move.

But let’s say that the Knicks can’t find a move that makes sense. As much as it would suck, it’s reasonable. I’ve always held that Mitchell Robinson holds more value in what he can do when on the court than what he can bring via trade. Precious barely makes enough to get anyone viable + he remains good Mitch insurance.

In that circumstance, there’s still one move they can make, even if it doesn’t add a player.

Trading Jericho Sims for a second-round pick may seem useless. You’re trading depth for a random late-draft pick. If nobody is coming through the door one way or another, why subtract?

The reason why lies in the cap table. As currently constructed, the Knicks cannot sign a player to their open roster spot until at least March. This means they cannot participate in the buyout market for at least a month and if help isn’t acquired via trade, it may never be acquired.

Trading Sims would get his salary off the books, an amount that, depending on when he was traded, would save the Knicks over $700,000.

This may not seem like much, but if you look at the rest-of-season salaries of players signed in the February buyout market, they range from $600k to $1 million, depending on years of service.

By trading Jericho Sims, the Knicks will be able to participate in the buyout market much sooner, as well as having a second vacant roster spot to potentially sign guys to 10-day contracts if injuries necessitate immediate help. It’s hard to convince bought-out vets to wait a month for us to sign them with other contenders calling.

The exact $ they would save and how much they would have is currently unknown. SalarySwish says NYK is only $22,000 shy of the second apron, but that seems inconsistent with reporting that suggests the Knicks have around $400,000. Either way, the flexibility would be a big benefit for a team that might not have a trade they can make due to several circumstances.

As for the buyout market, the Knicks cannot sign a player who made more than the MLE, per apron rules, but that shouldn’t stop them from getting a quality player in this circumstance. The Knicks could even go internal, calling up TJ Warren, but they aren’t able to do that for a while without this move.

Something small like that could pay dividends down the road.