Knicks will sign Nate Robinson to one-year deal
Photo credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara | Guard Nate Robinson has at least one more year with the Knicks.
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Nate Robinson
The Knicks appear to have come to terms with at least one of their two restricted free agents less than a week before training camp opens in Saratoga.
Nate Robinson has accepted a one-year contract offer, a source told Newsday Wednesday morning. The contract is for more than Robinson's qualifying offer of $2.9 million and will include performance bonuses. Because it is a one-year deal, Robinson has a right to veto any trade.
An agreement is in place, but the deal is not officially completed and will not be announced until Thursday at the earliest, the source said.
The team is currently still in negotiations with its other restricted free agent, David Lee, who is also expected to take a one-year deal for above his qualifying offer of $2.6 million.
The 5-9 Robinson, who averaged a career-best 17.2 points per game last season and saw his popularity rise around the NBA after he captured his second Slam Dunk title, told Knicks president Donnie Walsh that he wanted to remain in New York and had no interest in seeking offer sheets from other teams. As a restricted free agent, the Knicks would have had seven days to match any offer made to Robinson.
He will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, but his salary will still have some impact on the Knicks' salary cap budget in 2010 because of an NBA stipulation known as a "cap hold". If his salary is more than half of the league average, Robinson is slotted into the 2010-11 budget at one-and-a-half times his salary until he signs a new deal or if the Knicks opt to waive his Larry Bird Rights, which allow a team to exceed the salary cap to resign a player.
