NBA salary cap exercise: What player would every team amnesty?

New York Knicks – Frank Ntilikina

As easy as it is to make fun of the Knicks they have more flexibility this summer than many fans realize. Looking at their cap sheet they are set to have a payroll of $101.3 million but even that figure is misleading. They have three large team options they could move on from easily: Bobby Portis ($15.75 million), Taj Gibson ($10.3 million) and Wayne Ellington ($8.2 million). Elfrid Payton is also not guaranteed for next season and is on the hook for $8 million.

Should the team decide to move on from all of those players that would drop the team down to $59.1 million. This gives the new front office plenty of money to either build the new roster or make mistakes with. So this move is not necessarily about saving money.

It is hard to imagine any team and player needing a change of scenery from each other more than the Knicks and Frank Ntilikina. The support has just never been there for him, even though his numbers are improving as his minutes go down. This season he averaged 6.3 points, 3.0 assists and 2.1 rebounds in only 20.8 minutes per game.

He may be a perfect Tom Thibodeau player with his defense-first mentality but he still needs to get out of there. Ntilikina has had an impossible go with coaches not believing in him and the franchise continuing to bring in guards to block his progress. He has not been a perfect player either but he has been done no favors. With the team connected in rumors to Chris Paul and Fred VanVleet that does not look to be changing any time soon.