By Jordan Long
The New York Knicks are still planning to move on from center Joakim Noah. They have tried to trade Noah since the NBA trade deadline in February. Unfortunately, they couldn’t come up with a trade partner.
Noah has been in New York the last two years. The Knicks were hoping adding him would make the frontcourt improved. Noah was going to be a scoring threat and help the Knicks on defense, to make a run to the postseason. That didn’t happen.
In 2017 Noah appeared in 46 games. He averaged 5.0 points and 0.8 blocks. The Knicks could count on him to rebound the ball for fast break opportunities. Noah was able to box out opponents for rebounds averaging 8.8 rebounds per game.
Noah was in trouble with the NBA. He was forced to miss 20 games because he broke the NBA’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Noah was also shut down at the end of the season, April 11, 2017, because he needed surgery on his rotator cuff. The Knicks ended up with a 31-51 record, failing to make the postseason by 10 games.
Last year Noah played in 7 games. He was rehabbing his rotator cuff. Noah was not a starter and his role was to come off the bench. It was the worst year of his career to this point with 1.7 points, 0.3 blocks and 2 rebounds per game.
The Knicks need to make a move. It will be difficult to trade Noah. He has 2 years left with a cap hit of $18.530 million this year and $19.295 million next season, a lot of money for a team to take on.
If they can’t trade him, the Knicks can release him using the NBA’s stretch and release rule. This will allow the Knicks to spread his cap hit to $6,431,687 over the course of the next 3 seasons. The Knicks must do this after September 1st.
New York needs to let go of Noah. Dealing him to another team is highly unlikely because of his cap hit. It hasn’t worked out in New York for Noah and hopefully another team will be a better fit.
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