Miles McBride’s departure from the New York Knicks is considered by many to be fait accompli—not because they don’t value or need him, but because they can’t feasibly afford to pay him after this coming season and stay beneath the second apron. And yet, with the NBA’s 2027-28 salary cap projections coming in higher than expected, this may not be true.
The league has raised next year’s forecast by $2 million. While that seems like a nanoscopic total in the grand scheme, every penny counts for a Knicks squad tap-dancing around the second apron.
Instead of roughly $7.2 million in space beneath the 2027-28 second apron, New York now has $9.2 million of runway. Though this figure only accounts for 10 contracts being on the books, it will also mushroom by a considerable margin if and when Karl-Anthony Towns signs an extension that pays him less next year in exchange for longer-term security.
No matter how you want to math out the projections, anyone assigning inevitability to a McBride trade is now officially exaggerating. The Knicks may have the flexibility to keep him and duck the second apron again in 2027-28 after all.
Another $2 million makes a huge difference when it comes to McBride
A $2 million cap-projection bump does a lot of lifting on the McBride front because, in all likelihood, he isn’t going to make as much as people think.
As we have discussed previously, Deuce falls into a weird player-archetype bucket. His defense, three-point volume, and outside efficiency are huge value-adds. But small guards who don’t orchestrate the offense don’t usually get paid.
Only 12 players last season, including McBride, handled above-average defensive assignments, posted true usage rates under 40, and stood no taller than 6 '4", according to BBall Index. Just two of those 12 made more than $6 million: Davion Mitchell ($11.6 million), and Gabe Vincent ($11.5 million), the latter of whom was considered a monster negative at his pay grade.
Since Deuce now has championship pedigree, give him a bump over his functional peers, and assume he nets a deal that pays him $12.5 million in Year 1. The extra $2 million infused into cap projections amounts to 16 percent of that value. That’s not insubstantial.
The Knicks have a clearer path to affording McBride
It is just as effective to look at this in terms of the Knicks’ proximity to the second apron. The adjusted projections will take them from $7.2 million underneath the second apron in 2027-28 to $9.2 million.
This space beneath James Dolan’s no-fly zone could represent around 75 percent of McBride’s salary in the first year of his new deal. That’s close enough for the Knicks to hold onto him, and count on jimmying up the additional wiggle room next offseason.
Heck, New York technically doesn’t even need to wait that long. If Towns signs a long-term extension before 2026-27 tips off, chances are pretty good his 2027-28 salary will drop off enough from his $61 million player option to cover the difference for McBride and leave the Knicks with enough second-apron space to flesh out the roster.
The margins will be tight. What else is new? New York has been jitterbugging around razor-thin margins essentially since the Mikal Bridges trade.
Relative to the free-agency landscape and the Knicks’ own spreadsheet maneuvering, keeping McBride instead of trading him wouldn’t be a risk. It’d be business as usual. And after digging into the numbers, retaining him is also starting to feel like the right call.
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