J.R. Smith planning to not use his player option to re-sign with New York Knicks – NBA Update
This year`s free agency will be the start of some testing times for New York Knicks. With the league commissioner David Stern deciding to appeal against the early bird rights ruling. Now the Big Apple franchise will have to wait on another wording which
may possibly lure away Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak.
They face the prospect of losing another one of their key players in J.R. Smith who, according to New York Times, is planning to decline his player option of $2.4 million and is looking to head into a list of players who are going to be free agents after
July 1.
No official announcement has been made as of yet but with only 5 days left till free agency starts, Smith is bound to make a decision soon.
If Smith decides to not re-sign with the Knicks, he would be looking at a 20% raise from his $2.382 million salary from this season.
The maximum he would be looking at is a contract worth $12.2 million for four years from any other team in the league. Smith also has the option of coming back to the Knicks for next year and earn $5.3 million for the 2013-14 season.
Knicks signed Smith in February for a contract worth $2.5 million with a player option at the end of the season from Chinese league team, Zhejiang Golden Bulls. He went over to China while the lockout suspended the start of the season for two seasons.
Smith was a big part of the Knicks run to the playoffs and played his best basketball under then interim coach Mike Woodson by averaging 12.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game; however his averages saw a drastic drop in productivity against Miami
Heat in the first round of the playoffs as he could only conjure up 22 points in the final three games.
As the current situation stands if Smith does not re-sign and Landry Fields along with Lin and Novak are unable to secure a ruling in their favour Knicks are going to be very short handed at the guard position for next season. Baron Davis is set to miss
out the whole season and Iman Shumpert sitting out a few months because of a torn ACL.
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