Along the way, O’Quinn outperformed his contract for next season, leaving the Knicks with a difficult decision to make this summer.
O’Quinn, 28, is likely to opt out of his $4.25 million player option this summer. authentic nfl jerseys cheap The native of Queens, New York, has said that he prefers to remain with the Knicks and be near his family, but he’s also going to draw interest in the open market.
O’Quinn has averaged 14.2 points, 12.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.5 blocks per 36 minutes in 73 games for the Knicks this season. Entering Thursday, O’Quinn is shooting 58.5 percent from the field and ranked seventh in assists per 36 minutes among centers who played at least 1000 minutes this season.
The market for O’Quinn is unclear, but backup centers such as the Chicago Bulls’ Cristiano Felicio (four years, $32 million) and Milwaukee Bucks’ John Henson (four years, $48 million) may provide framework for O’Quinn’s market this summer. New York can exceed the salary cap to re-sign O’Quinn, which is something that, based on coaches and executives’ opinions of him, will be considered in July.
Knicks coaches have been impressed by O’Quinn’s consistency this season and his ability to find cutters and shooters as a passer.
“We love his passing. I think his consistency this year has been probably greater than it ever has been in his career,” Hornacek said of O’Quinn. “That’s one thing that we were kind of striving for with him. Again he came in the beginning of the year and he wanted to earn those minutes and he took them. I think he’s had a great year.”
The Knicks couldn’t find a suitable trade of Noah and the expectation is that they will consider waiving him via the stretch provision after Sept. 1, at which point they would have $6.4 million on their cap over the next three seasons.
But don’t discount the idea that Noah could remain with the Knicks if management decides to part ways with Hornacek. If the next coach the club hires is open to Noah returning, nfl jerseys for cheap it makes the most sense financially for the Knicks to have Noah remain on the roster rather than stretching his contract.
Would the club be able to forgive Noah for how things played out between him and Hornacek in January? That’s unclear but some people familiar with the dynamic between Noah and the Knicks believe it is a viable option.
