The offseason already is going well for the Knicks: Commissioner David Stern announced yesterday that the projected 2010 salary cap is larger than expected.
The new figure of $56.1 million is at least $3 to $6 million more than Knicks president Donnie Walsh was told it would be last summer when the NBA released dire revenue projections.
Now the Knicks are roughly more than $34 million under the estimated cap — giving them enough money to pay two full maximum contracts and have about $2 million extra to play with. LeBron James and Chris Bosh, who hit the free-agent market on July 1, could have the full monty in New York if they want it.
“That’s good,” Walsh told The Post yesterday. “It gives us more room to work with, if it proves out in the end.”
The Knicks were worried that even after the Jared Jeffries/Jordan Hill cap-clearing trades made on Feb. 18, they would come up $1 million short of being able to hand out two max contracts.
Even if the Knicks do not get their pie-in-the-sky scenario of landing any of the big five free agents — James, Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson and Amar’e Stoudemire — the extra room gives them even more flexibility to break up their cap space into smaller pieces, signing a handful of mid-range free agents, perhaps to go along with free agent David Lee.
The cap bump also increases the Knicks’ desire to trade for a late first-round draft pick by packaging their two second-rounders (No. 37 and 38 overall) if there is a player they love. The Knicks previously were leery of trading up into the first round because of the cap space it would eat up.
Stern, during a press conference after the Board of Governors meeting, said revenues “will not be as down as much as we had feared at the beginning of the season.” Stern said “Herculean efforts” were made by teams’ marketing departments. The 29-53 Knicks ranked fifth in attendance.
The flip side to the news yesterday is that if Walsh had known the figure would be $56.1 million and not the projected $50 to $53 million, he may have locked up Lee last July with a five-year deal at an average salary around $7 million. Now, after an All-Star campaign, Lee may ask for as much as $13 million per season.
Moreover, had Walsh known the new cap estimate in February, he may have been reluctant to include Hill, the team’s 2009 lottery pick, in the Tracy McGrady deal.