Updated

Updated · ESPN · Jul 3

Andre Drummond Joins Knicks on 1-Year, $3.9 Million Deal After Mitchell Robinson Exit

Updated

Updated · ESPN · Jul 3

Andre Drummond Joins Knicks on 1-Year, $3.9 Million Deal After Mitchell Robinson Exit

Q: Is the NBA's punitive new salary cap forcing top teams to dismantle their successful cores?

Yes — the NBA’s new second-apron system is clearly pressuring contenders to break up parts of successful rosters, even if it is not forcing every top team to fully dismantle its core. The Knicks are a direct example. Mitchell Robinson left for Boston on a three-year, $47.4 million deal, and New York replaced him with Andre Drummond on a one-year, $3.9 million contract largely because owner James Dolan has said crossing the second apron is “suicidal.” With the Knicks already carrying nearly $192 million tied up in Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart, keeping Robinson at market value would have pushed them into the apron’s harshest penalties. Those penalties matter beyond tax payments. Teams above the second apron lose major roster-building tools: they cannot aggregate salaries in trades, cannot take back more money than they send out, lose access to the taxpayer mid-level exception, face limits on trading future picks, and risk having a future first-rounder frozen or pushed to the end of the round. That makes retaining expensive depth much harder. So the new cap is not necessarily breaking up star trios overnight, but it is forcing contenders to shed quality rotation players and replace them with cheaper options. The Knicks’ Robinson-for-Drummond swap shows the effect in practical terms: a title-level team keeping its stars, but downgrading or reshaping the supporting cast to stay financially compliant.

3 articles · Updated · ESPN · Jul 3

$3.9 million will bring Andre Drummond to New York for one year, giving the Knicks a veteran backup center behind Karl-Anthony Towns.
Mitchell Robinson's departure created the opening after he agreed to a three-year, $47.4 million deal with Boston and Knicks chairman James Dolan resisted crossing the NBA's second luxury-tax apron.
Drummond arrives with a profile similar to Robinson's on the glass, having led the NBA in offensive rebounds per game for seven straight seasons and topped the league in total rebounding four times.
Philadelphia used him as Joel Embiid's backup over the past two seasons, where he averaged 6.8 points and 8.2 rebounds in 19.2 minutes across 103 games.
The move asks the two-time All-Star to help preserve the rebounding and defensive formula that powered New York's championship run.