Joakim Noah has served the 20-game suspension levied by the NBA for using Androgen to help his recovery. He is officially back with the New York Knicks.
But he’s not actually back with them.
Though the Knicks waived Mindaugas Kuzminskas to make room for their $72.6 million man, he has yet to dress for a contest. And Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek doesn’t see that changing anytime soon, per the New York Post‘s Marc Berman:
“We want him to be involved,’’ Hornacek said. “[He wants] to be involved. We don’t know when the time will come when he’s active.”
The issue is the Knicks already have a center glut with Enes Kanter as the starter, Kyle O’Quinn as the primary backup and Willy Hernangomez, a building block, fighting for minutes. Hornacek said he’s not sure he will dress four centers anytime soon.
“I don’t know,’’ Hornacek said. “It’s possible, depending on what other positions look like. We have guys at multiple positions. I’m not looking to do that right away.’’
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise. The Knicks have an excess of centers. Enes Kanter and Kyle O’Quinn are already ensuring that Willy Hernangomez doesn’t see the light of day, and Kristaps Porzingis, a should-be center, spends all of his time at power forward. They have no room for Noah in the rotation unless they want to cut everyone else’s minutes while also forcing Noah and/or Kanter to spend some run at the 4.
Dealing Noah is out of the question. He has three years, including this one, and $55.5 million left on his deal. No one is absorbing that without some top-notch sweeteners the Knicks shouldn’t be willing to give up. Some minutes will open if the Knicks turn into sellers at the trade deadline and deal O’Quinn, but a smart organization would then get Hernangomez extra burn.
Noah will, of course, play at some point. Maybe. Actually, we really cannot be sure. His contract is so bad the Knicks needn’t try auditioning him for a trade. The league is over-saturated with centers, and Noah won’t become an asset, if he becomes one at all, until the final year of his pact—assuming New York doesn’t stretch him before then.
