The New York Knicks are facing the challenge of filling out their roster under a second-apron hard cap for a second consecutive season. That’s got the Knicks poised to sign 2025 second-round pick Mohamed Diawara to a standard contract.
New York has to sign at least two more players to standard contracts. The challenge is that the Knicks only have room to sign one veteran minimum deal and one rookie minimum deal. The caveat being that the rookie minimum deal has to be for a player the Knicks drafted. The reason for that is that an undrafted rookie would count towards the luxury tax and tax aprons at the two-year veteran minimum amount.
New York triggered a second-apron hard cap via signing Guerschon Yabusele using the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception.
With Malcolm Brogdon and Landry Shamet presumably competing for the veteran minimum spot, that leaves the rookie minimum spot to fill. That spot will apparently go to rookie forward Diawara.
Last season, the 6-foot-9 forward played for Cholet in his native France. Diawara averaged 6.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 19.6 minutes per game. The then 19-year-old forward appeared in 49 total games for Cholet last season.
Much like last season, New York will be managing the end of their bench throughout the year. The Knicks should eventually have enough space to fill out the roster to full amount of 15 players on standard contracts before the end of the regular season.