Steve Popper: Which Knicks players will be back next season?
Knicks center Mitchell Robinson gestures against the Sacramento Kings in the first half of a game at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 27, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
When the Knicks were whisked away from City Hall and the confetti was cleaned up on Thursday, reality set in.
The team has to turn its attention to what’s next, who will be back when training camp convenes in about three months and which players who were on floats on Thursday could be in a different uniform next season.
It’s hard to imagine so soon after the Knicks’ first NBA championship in 53 years, but this is the reality of the salary cap and the building of a team: Change is a constant, as painful as it may be. This team will be etched into the hearts and minds of fans for decades to come, but the collective bargaining agreement can spoil that.
Even before the parade down the Canyon of Heroes began, Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan dimmed the mood.
“If we could bring back the whole team exactly as it is, why wouldn’t you?” Dolan said in an appearance on WFAN on Wednesday. “But I don’t know if we’re going to 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, and we’re not going to do those.
“One of them is the second apron. Cannot go into the second apron. But that’s up to Leon [Rose, the team president]. I’m just telling him how big of a check I can write. I’ll write as big of a check as possible, but I can’t write a check that goes into the second apron.”
For the Knicks, that means the work already is underway. Dolan said he met with Rose on Tuesday and began plotting out next season.
While the NBA Draft is just days away and the Knicks are stocked with three picks — No. 24 in the first round and Nos. 31 and 55 in the second — the team is still built for now.
With a veteran core and a starting five under contract for next season, the Knicks should be expected to contend for the title again. It takes a little bit of magic, and it arrived this season with historic performances, but also health and karma combining to make it all work.
So although the draft may be the hopeful time for most teams, the intent here is simple: How do you keep this team in place to run it back?
Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shamet and Jordan Clarkson are unrestricted free agents. Right now, the Knicks project to have a $209 million payroll without them, giving them a $13 million cushion before hitting the second apron of the salary cap. At that point, the punitive restrictions take hold, limiting the moves the team can make in the immediate future.
That simple math problem combined with Dolan’s matter-of-fact statement immediately had Knicks fans panicking that a breakup is coming.
The Knicks have eight players under contract for next season — the five starters plus Deuce McBride, Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet. Jose Alvarado has a player option worth $4.5 million for next season. Everyone else is either a restricted or unrestricted free agent.
So how do the Knicks hold it together? Assume that Dolan isn’t bluffing about the second apron; given that he met with Rose just the day before, it sounds as if that is the plan.
Brock Aller, the vice president of basketball and strategic planning, and his staff will have to find ways to create cap room.
The Knicks can trim around the edges. They can move the No. 24 pick and the guaranteed salary slot that accompanies a first-round pick; that would save a little, and even more if they package a player with it for some future pick. They can sign Alvarado to a longer-term deal, ripping up the player option and starting him at a lower salary in exchange for guaranteed years.
The other consideration is what the value of these players is to the Knicks compared to what it means to others.
Two years ago, the Knicks couldn’t match Oklahoma City’s offer and lost Isaiah Hartenstein (who coincidentally might be back on the free-agent market this summer if the Thunder opt out of the $28.5 million he’s owed).
Given his skills defending the rim and as an offensive rebounder, Robinson is the most likely free agent to draw a pricey offer elsewhere. The longest-tenured Knick also comes with the question marks of his injury history and struggles at the free-throw line that force his coaches to make a decision on when to play him. Does that all work as a starter in some other city?
Shamet is a prototypical wing in today’s game, a defender who can get red-hot from beyond the arc. A journeyman who has run through six teams in eight seasons, he showed his skill set in the postseason spotlight and could tempt someone to price him out of the Knicks’ range after he spent the last two seasons on veteran minimum deals.
Of the Knicks’ other pieces, it would seem that Mo Diawara, who showed flashes of potential as a rookie, is the most likely to return. Clarkson, Ariel Hukporti and Jeremy Sochan could be gone or back on cheap deals.
The reality for the Knicks is that Dolan spoke about the years that he spent being tempted by shiny objects. The ability to hold this together might be based on how shiny other teams consider Knicks rotation players such as Robinson, Shamet and Diawara.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
