What Would the Finances of a Randle / Fournier Trade Look Like

Ten games through the regular season, the Knicks stand at 7th in the east with a .500 record. Fans have been vocal about team adjustments during this opening stretch and two players have been the most decisive among the fanbase - Julius Randle and Evan Fournier.

Julius Randle started the year hot, but now the honeymoon phase is over. Before last night's game, Randle had been shooting about 24% from three and playing lacksadasical defense, often leaving his man wide open from behind the arc. He constantly over dribbles and is a black-hole on offense, averaging a career high 3 turnovers a game. The Randle that won 2020-21 most-improved-player is long gone, leaving behind a shell of his former all-NBA self.

Evan Fournier is shooting a lowly 39.7% from the field and is also playing teflon defense, as Walt Frazier would say. Anytime Fournier is trying to defend the ball, with a below-average defensive rating of 112.9, he is a liability.

The biggest factor in trading Randle and Fournier would be the fact that it would open up playing time for talented, young Knicks that lack playing time. 

Obi Toppin is shooting about 42% from three and brings a dynamic athleticism to the team, sprinting down the court and getting easy dunks in transition. Toppin has looked terrific so far this season, yet he only plays about 17 minutes a game.

Once he returns from injury, the shooting guards on the Knicks will be Quentin Grimes, Immanuel Quickely, and Cam Reddish. All these players have three-point-shooting prowess, like Fournier, but they also bring something else - defense. Last year the Knicks’ defense was 5.7 points better with Grimes on the floor. This year Quickley and Reddish, with help from their lanky arms, are getting into passing lanes and disrupting ball handlers.

But even if fans want and the originization should trade these players, how could it be completed? 

The NBA salary cap for this year is around $123 million. Currently the Knicks total cap is about $142 million, but they are still $7.7 million under the luxury tax. They would not want to go even into the luxury tax, $1.50-$4.75 per dollar over the league cap, so that means whomever the Knicks trade Randle and Fournier for would have to match salaries or only be slightly above it.

The easier of the two contracts to move would be Fournier. The Frenchman is expected to make $18 million this year, $18.8 million next year, and $19 million the following year. There are plenty of teams that could and would like to have an above average three-point marksman on that kind of deal. It’s not that much more money than the league average this year, about $11 million. So if it doesn’t work out, it wouldn’t be hard to move him again.

Now, as for Randle’s contract, it becomes a little trickier. He’s making a fair amount of money, owed $23.7 million this year, $25.6 million in 2023, $27.5 million in 2024, and $29.4 million in 2025. If the Knicks had traded Randle right after his MIP season, teams would have readily jumped at the offer to get him; however, now it is not clear whether that will be the case.

Every GM around the league has been watching Randle, just like the fans. They too have seen the regression and poor play. Despite this, there is still a team willing to take a chance on a guy who just two years ago averaged 24 points, 9 boards, and 6 assists. 

One team that a deal would work out nicely financially would be a team within New York’s division - the Philadelphia 76ers. 

Together Randle and Fournier’s contracts total about $41 million. There is a player on the Sixers whose role has been steadily decreasing and is making a little less than that total. That man is Tobias Harris. Philadelphia signed Harris to a max deal in 2019, with some calling him the most “overpaid player in the league”. Pair Harris with another Sixer who has recently fallen out of the rotation in George Niang, making about $3.5 million, and you end up with around $41 million.

Financially, it works out. Both teams don’t move any further into the dreaded luxury tax. The Sixers are already $4 million over the luxury tax, so it was very important for any trade to work that they didn’t go over that number. The Knicks on the other hand could have absorbed a little more money from Philadelphia, but in the end they didn’t need to.

On the court, the Knicks open up more playing time for their young guns in Toppin, Quickley, Grimes, and Reddish. They also add Harris, who can play the three alongside Toppin and will provide more floor spacing. 

The Sixers get another player who can create and score for himself in Randle, which the team will need with Harden out for a month or so. They also add another three-point marksman to help stretch the floor for Embiid in Fournier.