Wednesday afternoon, New York Knicks fans were greeted with the news they've been waiting months for, as ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is "ready for a new home" and that the ball club is now entertaining trade offers for their cornerstone.
Though it should go without saying that this officially opens the door for Leon Rose and company to actively pursue a blockbuster deal with Milwaukee prior to the February 5 deadline, as their interest in the two time MVP has been well documented since the summer, the odds of them actually succeeding are reletively low thanks, in large part, to the contract of Guerschon Yabusele.
Guerschon Yabusele has Knicks hard-capped at second apron
The road to pulling off a deal for the two-time MVP was always expected to be rather treacherous.
Considering the bulk of their draft capital was shipped off to both the Brooklyn Nets and Minnesota Timberwolves last offseason via the Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns trades, respectively, their assortment of future assets is far from luxurious.
On top of this, it's not as if the Knicks have any top-billed, young prospects residing on their roster that would pique Milwaukee's interest in an exchange for their all-time great cornerstone.
However, the most crippling handicap New York faces is the fact that they're hard-capped by the second apron, and Yabusele's $12 million deal inked this past summer proved to be the move that ultimately led them to this unenviable salary predicament.
Now, though being pressed up against, or surpassing, such a tax threshold doesn't necessarily take away a team's ability to execute trades, it certainly limits their flexibility to do so, as it prevents front offices from including first-round picks seven years down the road and combining multiple players' salaries, among many other things.
In other words, it takes away many of the creative routes the Knicks would have likely tried to take in their chase for Giannis.
At this point, the only realistic way they'll be able to pull off such a blockbuster between now and the deadline will be by hoping the Bucks or a third team is interested in taking on Towns' remaining two-and-a-half years of his $220.4 million contract and getting experimental with navigating around the second apron's restrictions by striking on a few separate salary-shedding deals.
With all this in mind, assuming no trade is made between now and February 5, New York's best bet at adding the Greek Freak to their roster will almost certainly be during the coming offseason, when a few player contracts can officially come off the books (Mitchell Robinson, Jordan Clarkson, etc.) and spots on the depth chart open up.
For a signing that was initially regarded as an undeniable win for the Knicks, it's shocking to see how this MLE contract has created so many hardships for the franchise just six months later.