Who could the Knicks target with the last vet min spot?

A minor Yabusele paycut just opened a spot for extra veteran depth.

While still relatively early in the offseason, the Knicks have gotten the bulk of their work done.

With no major trade seemingly on the horizon, the Knicks’ goals were to make their draft pick and try to find playable depth in free agency with their limited resources. After drafting Mohamed Diawara at No. 51 and signing both Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele, they had appeared to have done what they needed to do. Time to sim to October, right?

Not so fast.

Yabusele was assumed to have taken the full taxpayer mid-level exception (TPMLE) that would put his 2025-26 salary at $5,685,000. That would’ve essentially prevented the Knicks from signing another player to a veteran minimum while meeting the roster requirements of 14 players and staying below the hard-capped second apron.

However, it was revealed on Saturday (a day before the NBA moratorium lifted) that Yabusele had actually taken less than the full TPMLE. According to Fred Katz, his 2025-26 salary will come in at $5.5 million, saving his new team $185,000. Considering what his old team was offering, it’s not all that surprising that Yabusele was willing to accommodate a request that likely came from cap guru Brock Aller.

So, with enough space to add some veteran talent, who should the Knicks’ target? We know they could use some center and wing depth, with wings that can shoot and hold their own defensively as a personal top priority. What does that look like?

Landry Shamet

First, we have to discuss an internal free agent. None of the Knicks’ internal free agents have found a new home and a few seem unlikely to return as is. One that could return, who has been linked as a candidate by HoopsHype’s Mike Scotto, is Landry Shamet.

Shamet signed just before training camp and stayed on the team through the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, but he didn’t open the regular season with the club after dislocating his shoulder in the preseason. Shamet would recover by late December and re-sign with the club, playing 50 games as the team’s eighth/ninth-man. After a slow start, he came into his own and eventually finished shooting 39.7% from three, his best mark since his 2018-19 rookie season.

Shamet would start the postseason in the rotation, but was phased out quickly before re-entering in the Eastern Conference Finals, jolting energy into a despondent Knicks team along with fellow UFA Delon Wright.

The Knicks could do a lot worse than Shamet, a reliable three-point shooter who has his moments defensively. He fits in the backup wing role as the first or second guy out of the rotation. He’ll probably want to go somewhere where he’ll get consistent playing time, but New York could be his fallback.

Alec Burks

Next, a retread. Alec Burks has had two stints in the orange and blue.

The last we saw him as a Knick, he was stepping up as Donte DiVincenzo’s only help in a 2024 Game 7 effort in which the Knicks were down five rotation players by the end. Burks sneakily stepped up in that Pacers series, averaging 17.8 points a night from Game 3 to 7. Burks spent 2024-25 as a part-time player in Miami, going back to the dead-eye shooter he’s been for almost his entire career (42.5% from deep).

This would be more realistic if there wasn’t a coaching change this offseason, but the Knicks could do worse than adding a 6’6” career 38.6% 3-point shooter.

Torrey Craig

While the team’s interest in Craig in last year’s buyout market was never confirmed, he seemed like a fit until he was scooped up by the defending champions that proceeded to essentially never use him.

Craig could absolutely re-sign in Boston and get meaningful minutes on a retooling Celtics team, but the Knicks could also target him as a bench wing that can make an open 3 and play good defense. He used to have CAA connections, you know!

Caleb Houstan

Last for the cheap wings, Houstan is significantly younger than all of the dudes mentioned previously. The former Magic forward is only 22, but remains unsigned over a week into free agency. On a Magic team with absolutely no shooting whatsoever, Houstan shot 40% from deep. At 6’8” with long arms, he fits an archetype that the Knicks don’t have a lot of: tall, lanky wings.

While a veteran might be down to ride the pine on a team contending for a championship, it’ll be very hard to convince a young player to do so. After all, Houstan could always sign a one-year deal with a rebuilding team, put up numbers on an uncompetitive team, and cash in next year.

Thomas Bryant

If you can beat them, join them?

Bryant spent the vast majority of the 2024-25 season with the Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers and knocked down three big triples in Game 6 to put the final nail in the coffin for the Knicks’ title hopes last year. Bryant is 6’10” and a sniper in the corners, shooting 41.5% from the corner in the regular season.

The problem? The Pacers just lost Myles Turner and their center depth chart behind recent acquisition Jay Huff and Tony Bradley. Bryant would have substantially more opportunity if the Pacers came calling.

Mo Bamba

Is this finally the year that the New York native comes home? After years of rumors, Bamba appears to be on the periphery of the league without a concrete path forward.

The Harlem product played just 32 games with the Clippers and Pelicans in 2024-25 and appears to be at the point in his career where he’d accept being a depth piece. With the injury histories of Karl-Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson, and even Ariel Hukporti, he could find a way to crack the rotation at various points in the season with his strong rim protection and solid offensive game (for a big).

The Mike Brown Guys

The new coach might want to bring at least one guy that he’s coached before.

Alex Len and Trey Lyles are both forwards on the market who played in Sacramento under Mike Brown, while Gary Payton II is a gritty defensive guard that played under Brown while he was Steve Kerr’s associate head coach from 2020-22.

Lyles would be a confusing signing, as his skillset seems to be redundant with the addition of Yabusele. Len could look for a bigger opportunity after being a hot commodity on last year’s buyout market. Despite how unrealistic it sounds, I think GPII would be a slam dunk if they could get him on the minimum. They need defense and they could also use a guy with this much athleticism.