As salary dump, Jazz trade Ed Davis to Knicks

The Jazz have reached an agreement to trade veteran big man Ed Davis to the Knicks, league sources tell Tony Jones of The Athletic. New York will also receive a pair of 2023 second-round pick in the deal, per Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

Davis, who signed a two-year, $9.8M deal with the Jazz a year ago, didn’t end up being relied upon as a regular part of the club’s rotation. He appeared in just 28 contests, logging 10.8 minutes and establishing new career lows in points (1.8) and rebounds (3.8).

Davis is owed a guaranteed $5M salary for the 2020-21 season, so this is essentially a salary dump for the Jazz, who are hoping to re-sign Jordan Clarkson and maintain enough cap flexibility to utilize their full $9.3M mid-level exception. The Knicks will have upward of $40M in cap room in free agency, so they’ll have no problem taking on Davis’ contract.

After acquiring the Pistons’ 2023 second-round in Wednesday night’s draft, the Knicks will pick up two more second-rounders for that draft in this swap. It seems the team’s focus on ’23 is no accident — Marc Berman of the New York Post suggested that the Knicks “really love” the 2023 draft, which they believe will be the first without the one-and-done rule in place, allowing high-schoolers to enter.