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2024 Free Agents - Shake Milton

Summary
Milton isn't much of a playmaker for others, but he does have the quickness and ball-handling ability to create his own shot. He's a career 36% three-point shooter, which is solid, and he's especially accurate from the corners, although he struggled from there in '22-'23 at just 30%, but made up for that by hitting 43% on non-corner threes. He struggled even more in '23-'24, hitting a career low 45% from two and just 29% from three, and did not get real minutes for any of the three teams he played for.

Milton is also a decent midrange shooter but could serve to substitute some of the attempts for threes or shots at the rim. On defense, Milton is skinny for a wing and is better-served to defend guards rather than forwards.

Milton's minutes declined in the playoffs in 2021, playing under 9 minutes per game as Tyrese Maxey started to surpass him in the rotation. That number picked up slightly to 12.5 minutes per game in the 2022 playoffs, but Milton still wasn't trusted with legitimate minutes when the games mattered most, and he barely played in the 2023 playoffs. With his struggles in '23-'24, his career has not been on a good trajectory recently.
 
Cap Considerations
Milton will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.1 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Knicks could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $2.9 million. This should be enough to retain Milton, since he settled for the minimum to come to New York. Alternatively, the Knicks could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception (if available) to re-sign Milton if he demands more than $2.9 million. 

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Milton as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also possible that Milton only gets minimum offers.

Potential Teams: Raptors, Knicks, Jazz, Warriors, Bucks

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.6 million ($2.1 million cap hit) with the Raptors

Actual Contract: 3-year, $9 million (2nd and 3rd years non-guaranteed) with the Nets

Milton did a sign-and-trade to help facilitate the Mikal Bridges trade (specifically by allowing the Knicks to add enough salary to not be hard-capped at the first apron), and got slightly above his minimum in exchange for that.

Last updated: 7/14/2024

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