Ron Baker was a Knick, and now is a Wizard!

[Shockersarelife]

I will say his agent is a wizard. I can kinda get the money because once you are committed to using an exception to sign the player, the player pretty much has the leverage to push for the max. But the player option is truly astounding. Is there any universe where Ron doesn't a 2 year 8.9 w/o a player option? I can't imagine so. So it could only potentially cost the Knicks more money or they lose him to a better offer. Very strange move by the Knicks on that part.

It's nice to be wanted

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

I get it. I'm just saying they overpaid. I love Ron and watched a lot of bad Knick basketball last year waiting for him to get his chance. He shot 26% from 3, 38% from the field, and 65% from the line. He went undrafted. I don't see how what he did last season made teams everywhere decide they needed to pay $4+ to steal him from NY. NY has been terribly run for the last decade, and the hope was with Phil gone, the stupidity might stop. They way overpaid THJ and overpaid Ron. They need help, but now have no cap space left. Great for Ron, bad for Knicks and me having to watch more bad Knicks games just to watch Ron.

Just curious if you researched his opponents FG/3P/FT percentages while he made many leads shrink or disappear?

To me, keeping them from scoring is just as important as scoring.

[Dave Stalwart]

Just curious if you researched his opponents FG/3P/FT percentages while he made many leads shrink or disappear?

To me, keeping them from scoring is just as important as scoring.

You seem to be suggesting that defense wins championships.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

You seem to be suggesting that defense wins championships.

Dang, you are so elequent paraphrasing.

[shockmonster]

I get it. I'm just saying they overpaid. I love Ron and watched a lot of bad Knick basketball last year waiting for him to get his chance. He shot 26% from 3, 38% from the field, and 65% from the line. He went undrafted. I don't see how what he did last season made teams everywhere decide they needed to pay $4+ to steal him from NY. NY has been terribly run for the last decade, and the hope was with Phil gone, the stupidity might stop. They way overpaid THJ and overpaid Ron. They need help, but now have no cap space left. Great for Ron, bad for Knicks and me having to watch more bad Knicks games just to watch Ron.

I didn't watch the Knicks much last year but the only bright spot I saw for them was Ron Baker. He totally changed how they played when he was in the game. If you want to change from the Melo culture where it is about "me" to more of a "team" culture, you get rid of Melo (who they really overpaid) and sign Ron Baker. The analytics are on his side.

Ron was a 80% foul shooter in college(they didn't move that line back) and he will prove to be a 35-40%'3 point shooter. He will prove to be a better shooter.

[Kung Wu]

Baker looks good on camera and ... well .. he can read. Maybe the endorsement potential has substantial revenue value to the Knicks to compensate for some of that salary?

[rrshock]

Dont forget that the Knicks are still shopping Carmelo. Rons new contract isnt much compared to the one Melo has.

[champions5]

I wonder if this makes him WSU's highest paid basketball player historically. I know X and all those guys got paid a lot in their day, but no clue how much contracts were back then.

It depends if you mean total pay or highest per year deal.

X signed a 3-year deal at age 29 with the Celtics that paid him $1.65 million, $2.1 million, and $2.6 million for a total of $6.35 million, and was making $1.4 million the previous season with the Knicks. It's difficult to find what he was making the other 9 seasons but I assume the total is more than Ron's 2-year deal. Ron's deal per year is more than X ever made as far as I can tell.

[kcshocker11]

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2017/07/knicks-to-re-sign-ron-baker.html

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Gotta love the KWCH Facebook page posting the news and then asking the question "but is Ron worth the money?" under the headline...

Business 101. Do you know what determines the value of a thing?

How much will someone pay for it. He became worth the money when they made the offer and he signed it.

2 totally separate things. Yes, the market has technically set his "worth" at 8.9 mil. However, you and I both know what people mean when they say someone overpaid for something and it wasn't worth it. That's what KWCH was talking about, and that's a fair question.

Now, should KWCH be asking that question in that scenario? Maybe not. Seems kinda cheesy where a local station would be better served just focusing on the "hooray, good for him" aspect of a local boy's success. But I'm not hearing you critiquing KWCH that way. KWCH's cheesyness aside, the question is a legitimate one to ask.

[shockmonster]

I will say his agent is a wizard. I can kinda get the money because once you are committed to using an exception to sign the player, the player pretty much has the leverage to push for the max. But the player option is truly astounding. Is there any universe where Ron doesn't a 2 year 8.9 w/o a player option? I can't imagine so. So it could only potentially cost the Knicks more money or they lose him to a better offer. Very strange move by the Knicks on that part.

The following quote is from the article that explains why Ron would be signed for 4.9 Million a year. From what I've seen, the Knicks have a losing culture. They are obviously building around Kristaps (a rookie who really doesn't know how to lead) and have paid him a lot of money. Everyone says you need to build around stars so the Knicks sign Melo to a 24 million dollars a year for a long term contract. I don't follow the NBA very much but the Knicks have a losing culture and no one to show the way to building a "winning culture". If you have a LeBron James, you have a "star" and a player who knows how to create a winning culture. The Knicks have no one who knows how to win except for Ron. They may have over paid him for his services but when you are paying 100's of millions of dollars to players who are not creating anything, Ron is probably worth a short, relatively inexpensive two year contract for above market rate.

but retaining Baker was a solid move for a New York team desperately in need of talent and hustle moving forward.
In his rookie season, Baker appeared in 52 games (13 starts), averaging 4.1 PPG and 2.1 APG in 16.5 minutes per contest. The Wichita State product was one of the Knicks’ few positives this past season, showing energy, tenacity, and ability on both sides of the ball.

[Aargh]

I don't know much (actually lerss than that) about NBA contracts, but what is a "player option"?

[shockmonster]

I don't know much (actually lerss than that) about NBA contracts, but what is a "player option"?

A Player Option-gives the player the right to invoke the option year. There can be only one option year, and the option year can't be for lower salary than the previous season.

A Team Option-Gives the team the right to invoke the option year. There can only be one option year (except in the case of rookie scale contracts), and the option year can't be for a lower than the previous season.

It appears to be an additional year of the same contract if Ron wants it.

[Dave Stalwart]

2 totally separate things. Yes, the market has technically set his "worth" at 8.9 mil. However, you and I both know what people mean when they say someone overpaid for something and it wasn't worth it. That's what KWCH was talking about, and that's a fair question.

Now, should KWCH be asking that question in that scenario? Maybe not. Seems kinda cheesy where a local station would be better served just focusing on the "hooray, good for him" aspect of a local boy's success. But I'm not hearing you critiquing KWCH that way. KWCH's cheesyness aside, the question is a legitimate one to ask.

You are just mad because I said Conner Frankamp is better than Graham. :)

But yeah, where I was coming from was that it seems lame for the local news to suggest he wasn't worth it literally in the headline when they break the story. I don't watch KWCH, but based on what I've heard here from many SN people, it is par for the course from KWCH when it comes to WSU.

[Aargh]

A Player Option-gives the player the right to invoke the option year. There can be only one option year, and the option year can't be for lower salary than the previous season.

A Team Option-Gives the team the right to invoke the option year. There can only be one option year (except in the case of rookie scale contracts), and the option year can't be for a lower than the previous season.

It appears to be an additional year of the same contract if Ron wants it.

Thanks.

So, Ron's contract is effectively a 3-year deal in the range of $15 million, which was the early unconfirmed report. The Knicks just had to restructure it for salary cap reasons after they signed Hardaway. Is that getting close?

Too many lawyers involved in setting up how the NBA signs players.