Tuesday, several different outlets reported free agent Marcus Morris was considering reneging on his deal with the San Antonio Spurs and instead signing a more lucrative deal with the New York Knicks.
To understand financially how this situation arose, you have to look at the latest news about the Knicks and free agent Reggie Bullock restructuring his verbally agreed upon deal.
In the video below, the situation is explained with cap figures to show how this situation was created.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTM0A23hebc]
Going forward, the news to watch will be on Bullock, then Morris. If Bullock agrees to a deal with the Knicks near the room exception or if he signs with another team, that will allow the Knicks to offer Morris more money than the Spurs.
If Morris were to walk from his agreement with San Antonio, then the Spurs would have three main options with the vacant 15th roster spot:
A) They could sign a free agent with either the full or part of the mid-level exception worth $9.2 million. They could also hold onto the MLE and sign a player for the veteran minimum.
One free agent who fits at the 4 where Morris would have played is Trey Lyles. He’s an unrestricted free agent at the moment and it probably wouldn’t take the full MLE to sign him.
B) They could leave the spot vacant and see if someone can earn the roster spot in the preseason or they could wait until someone lands on the buyout market that they like during the season.
C) They could look back at the trade market to see if they can upgrade the roster via trade.
