The Knicks’ postseason run is changing the math around Jordan Clarkson. New York signed the former NBA Sixth Man of the Year to a minimum contract last offseason, but after Thursday’s win over the Cavaliers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the team is two wins away from its first NBA Finals appearance in 27 years.
Clarkson’s role in the regular season was modest. He averaged a career-low 8.6 points in 17.8 minutes per game, while shooting.451 from the field,.327 from 3-point range and.830 from the free throw line. For a player known as a scorer off the bench, that was a step down from the standard he had set before arriving in New York.
That matters now because the Knicks are winning at exactly the moment their roster picture is getting tighter. They have 10 expiring contracts to various degrees, are projected to rank 26th in available cap space and have just $3.5 million remaining before the first apron, according to Spotrac. When a team gets this deep into the playoffs with limited flexibility, even minimum deals stop feeling routine.
Thursday’s victory also extended the Knicks’ momentum to nine straight wins, and the stretch was historic enough to end up in the record book. During those nine games, New York set the NBA mark for best point differential in a nine-game span at plus-212. That kind of run does more than lift a playoff bracket; it changes how front offices assess what a rotation player is worth when the offseason arrives.
The tension for New York is obvious. Clarkson came in as a low-cost scoring bet, and the Knicks now have to decide whether a lower-scoring regular season should matter less than the stability he represented on a club that surged when it counted most. With cap space scarce and several contracts expiring, the price of keeping useful depth can rise fast when a team looks this dangerous.
The next move belongs to the front office, but the signal has already been sent. If the Knicks keep pushing toward the Finals, every player who helped get them there will be weighed not just by numbers from the regular season, but by what the team is suddenly trying to protect.
