Wednesday was decision day regarding players on nonguaranteed contracts.
Players on most nonguaranteed deals have their contracts become fully guaranteed Saturday, so if teams did not want to have a player’s contract guaranteed, they had to be cut Wednesday in order to clear waivers by Saturday.
The Knicks did not make any moves with Kevin McCullar Jr. and Trey Jemison III, both of whom are on two-way deals, as well as Landry Shamet, who was on a nonguaranteed deal for the veteran’s minimum.
Their contracts will become guaranteed.
But the Knicks waived Tosan Evbuomwan, who was on a two-way deal.
That opens up another two-way contract spot for the Knicks — they have until March 4 to do that — or saves them a bit of money.
Unlike Evbuomwan, both McCullar and Jameson — though neither played in the Knicks’ 123-111 win over the Clippers on Wednesday night — have at least some role in coach Mike Brown’s rotation. But two-way players aren’t eligible to be on playoff rosters — the Knicks would have to convert them to a standard contract if they want them for the postseason.
Shamet’s shoulder sprain at the end of November, and the decision to rehab rather than have surgery gave Knicks a decision to make — whether to waive him for immediate help or keep him while he rehabs and lack a bit of depth.
They had until Wednesday to see the progress of that rehab and make that decision. Evidently, they’d rather wait for Shamet to return than free up his contract for someone else.
Evbuomwan, who spent last year with the Nets, hardly got any NBA action with the Knicks. He appeared in just five games — all in garbage time — and did not score. In six games in the G-League with the Westchester Knicks, Evbuomwan averaged 17.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
In 50 career NBA games, he has averaged 7.4 points and 3.6 rebounds.
He went undrafted in 2023 after starring at Princeton.
Jeff Van Gundy — the last coach to take the Knicks to the Finals — was back on the sideline as a coach at Madison Square Garden for the first time since Nov. 20, 2006, when he was in charge of the Rockets.
He is currently in his second season as a Clippers assistant.
“From Day 1, just coming in, the no-nonsense mentality, his hard-work mentality,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said of Van Gundy before his squad’s 123-111 loss to the Knicks. “He’s in the gym 5 o’clock in the morning, prepping, looking at film. … Everyone sees how hard he works, what he brings to the table with his hard work.”
Director and Knicks fan Josh Safdie, whose “Marty Supreme” movie is currently in theaters, joined the MSG Network production crew for the night and helped with the broadcast.
