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The Johnson dilemma

A thorough analysis of the Knicks' salary situation has revealed that president Phil Jackson's decision to lavish an extra 10 million on their star player James Harden has come back to bite the team in the a...

Even with Hickson, Sloan andÂ HamiltonÂ off the books (andÂ the continent)Â and goners Dudley and Acy renounced the team's cap hold would exceed the luxury cap, reducing New York's available midlevel exepction to 3.376 million.

That is not enough to accomodate starting small forward Wesley Johnson, who indicated he would prefer to come back.

Now what?Â Renouce Tyler Johnson as well to get under the luxury cap?

Or renounce Wes and try to get him back on the open market with a full MLE and keep the option of retaining restricted FA Tyler Johnson too?

Fat chance of both these things happening. The Knicks would be more likely to lose both.

But while Wesley Johnson has been a good fit, he is replacable and without bird rights he would eat the entire MLE. Plus there is playoff hero Kyle Anderson, who is being groomed as the future small forward anyway.Â

Tyler on the other hand is a RFA, who could be retained with Early Bird Rights. But it will likely cost GM points to do so. His contract is reasonable for the next two years, but has those two poison-pill seasons worth $19 million at the end. That may even serve as a deterrent for possible suitors. Or not, since this is the NLL.

Well, whatever the outcome, that raise for Harden is going to cost the team at least one decent player. If Jackson had done his homework, he would have structured Harden's extension a bit differently. A couple of hundred thousand really wouldn't have made a difference for a guy with a $100 million dollar endorsement deal and a new ugly signature shoe.

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