The Joakim Noah era in New York has come to an end. After months of speculation about what the future holds for the veteran center in the Big Apple, a report by Adrian Wojnarowski and Ian Begley of ESPN indicated that Noah would finally get waived due to his reluctance to agree to a buyout with the Knicks.
Sources with @ianbegley: Knicks center Joakim Noah has no traction on an open roster spot elsewhere in NBA, so he’s remained unwilling to agree to a buyout. New York simply waiving and stretching the $38M owed him likely comes soon.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 13, 2018
The pair of ESPN reporters also indicated that Noah would get waived sometime on Saturday, and soon after that report hit Twitter, Diamond Leung of The Athletic reported that Noah had, indeed, been waived.
Update: Sources with @IanBegley: Knicks will waive Joakim Noah today. https://t.co/5989RN1GUW
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 13, 2018
Knicks have waived Joakim Noah
— Diamond Leung (@diamond83) October 13, 2018
The Knicks eventually confirmed the news via their PR team’s Twitter account.
The Knicks announced today that the team has waived three players: guard Kadeem Allen, forward Jeff Coby and center Joakim Noah
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) October 13, 2018
Noah was among the players who got paid during the now-infamous summer of 2016, agreeing to terms on a four-year deal worth a hair above $72 million with the Knicks. However, injuries and an acrimonious relationship with former head coach Jeff Hornacek led to him appearing in 53 games over two seasons, averaging 4.6 points and 7.9 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per game.
While the Knicks did bring in a new regime after firing Hornacek and parting ways with president Phil Jackson, the franchise decided that it wanted to look towards a future that did not include the veteran big man. As for what’s next, Wojnarowski reports that he’s going to get paid handsomely over the next few years and that he’ll hit free agency next week.
Noah will become an unrestricted free agent and available to prospective teams after clearing waivers early next week. https://t.co/6Gkj9ujvTV
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 13, 2018
Noah’s game is a bit of a weird fit in the modern NBA, especially as he’s gotten older and his body has started to fail him. But all it takes is one team to have a need and fall in love, and if someone thinks the 33-year-old center can still anchor a defense like he did during his prime with the Chicago Bulls, he’ll have a job somewhere.
