New York Knicks owner James Dolan said Wednesday he will not go into the punitive second apron to keep his team together for the 2026-27 season, even after it won its first NBA title in 53 years.
"We cannot go into the second apron," Dolan said on WFAN radio in New York.
If any team surpasses that threshold, it is limited in what it can do in free agency and other roster-building mechanisms. Only the Cleveland Cavaliers exceeded the threshold this past season.
According to ESPN's Bobby Marks, the Knicks are projected to be $13 million below the second apron this summer. Rotation players Mitchell Robinson and Landry Shamet are free agents. Jose Alvarado could be too; he has until Monday to opt in to a $4.5 million player option for next season.
That could pose a problem, as the Knicks were just $200,000 under the second apron this past season.
New York's starting five is under contract for next season, and should the team want to, there's no rule restricting it from re-signing its own players.
The Knicks and All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns couldn't come to terms on a contract extension before the start of the 2025-26 season, and they can go back to the negotiating table this summer. Towns helped key the Knicks' record 13-game playoff winning streak.
During the interview on WFAN, Dolan was asked if he wanted to bring back the entire team, which would be one of the favorites to get back to the Finals if intact.
"I don't know if we'll be able to. We're willing to stretch, but there's certain things in the NBA that you'd have to be suicidal to do. One of them is the second apron," he told the WFAN.
Only Cleveland, the Boston Celtics, the Phoenix Suns and the Minnesota Timberwolves have gone into the second apron since its inception in the latest collective bargaining agreement in 2023. If the Knicks were to follow suit, they wouldn't be allowed to send cash in a trade, use the $6.1 million tax midlevel exception on a free agent, aggregate salaries in a trade or use more than 100% of the traded player exception.
A team also can't trade its first-round pick seven years out if it finishes a season over the second apron. That same first also could be moved back to the end of the first round if a team finishes over the threshold in three out of four seasons.
Dolan said he'll put the personnel decisions in the hands of Knicks president Leon Rose.
"I'll write as big of a check as possible, but I can't write a check into the second apron," Dolan told the WFAN.