On one hand, if the Knicks are committed to stretching Noah, it definitely makes more sense to wait a few weeks. Before Sept. 1, stretching Noah means the Knicks would have to spread out the remaining balance of his salary ($37,825,000) over “twice the number of years remaining on his contract, plus one” (so, for Noah’s two-year deal, that’d be five seasons). Getting rid of Noah now, then, would mean signing up for a $7,565,000 salary cap hit for Noah’s services next year and for four more seasons after that.
By waiting until after Sept. 1, though, the Knicks would take the full $18.5 million hit for Noah’s 2017-18 deal, and then only have to stretch his final season’s salary ($19,295,000) over three more years (“twice the number remaining, plus one”). That would set the Knicks up for a smaller annual amount of dead money (about $6.43 million) that’d stick around for two fewer seasons, limiting their cap space only through the summer of 2021 rather than the summer of 2023.
Since the Knicks are already over the salary cap for this season, it’s not like stretching Noah in the next three weeks to reduce his ’18-’19 cap hit would provide any meaningful roster-construction benefit in the short term. By swallowing this year’s salary and waiting until September, though, the Knicks would be able to open up an additional $12.86 million in cap space for next summer, affording them much more flexibility with which to go big-game hunting in a free-agent pool that could include more than a half-dozen bona fide All-NBA talents.
