The New York Knicks are finally giving up on Pacome Dadiet. ESPN’s Shams Charania reports that they are declining his $5.4 million team option for the 2027-28 season. This immediately turns him into an expiring contract, and most pivotally, a more attractive trade asset to other squads.
Nobody who’s paid cursory attention to the Knicks is surprised by this decision. Dadiet has never been a part of the rotation, and Mike Brown essentially confirmed that’s never going to change.
Declining his team option, of course, is a painful trip down memory lane. Looking back to the 2024 draft, the Knicks had so many other more tantalizing avenues they could have explored.
Turning Dadiet into a more tradeable contract comes as little comfort when you start going down that rabbit hole. But the fact he’s easier to move at all is comforting all the same.
The Knicks can send Pacome Dadiet just about anywhere now
Jettisoning Dadiet has never been about how little he’s shown at this level. The 21-year-old is earning under $3 million. Even as a purely net-negative asset, he is by no means as expensive.
The Knicks already know what it will cost to get off his salary: approximately one second-round draft pick. That’s nothing to them. They amassed like a kabillion of those things this past June.
Dadiet’s fourth-year salary was the lone hang-up. Though $5.4 million would only take up about 3 percent of the cap, teams would rather dedicate that salary spot to someone capable of actually playing. Dadiet has never even sort of hinted that he’s worth regular rotation minutes.
New York has removed that obstacle from the equation.
Junking Dadiet’s team option ensures his inclusion will never scuttle a trade that they make. Not only is he now cheap, but the investment is also short-lived. And the benefits don’t stop here.
Trading Dadiet also shouldn’t cost the Knicks as much draft equity
If and when the Knicks trade Dadiet, they no longer have to worry about giving up any enticing draft picks. It might not even cost a guaranteed second-rounder anymore. The front office could potentially get by with a swap. Or even cash.
That wasn’t true before.
Executives around the league generally believe a team needs the equivalent of one second-round pick for every $5 million in negative salary they absorb, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line. Up until now, Dadiet represented $8.4 million in bad money: roughly $3 million this season, and around $5.4 million in 2027-28. That could’ve forced the Knicks to surrender two second-rounders to offload him.
Erasing his team option from the ledger moves this number below $3 million. And in reality, it’s not even that much. Anyone who acquires him doesn’t have to worry about carrying him for the full season. By the time New York moves him, it’ll probably be after December 15, when the NBA’s trade season unofficially tips off.
At that point, the Knicks can use cash to convince another organization to take on his $3 million cap hit. That would enable them to create a roster spot they can use on a veteran buyout candidate.
Granted, the Knicks could still end up attaching second-round picks or even first-round compensation to Dadiet. But if they’re doing that, it’s because they are taking a bigger swing.
Either way you slice it, whatever the Knicks plan or want to do by the trade deadline, it can now more effortlessly include Dadiet’s contract.
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