will miss significant time because he is having surgery<\/a> for a sports hernia Friday, per league sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cJOSEEEEEEE,\u201d Josh Hart posted on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alvarado, 27, has built a reputation as a relentless and dogged on-ball defender, often picking up opponents full court and finding ways to get under their skin. <\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/new-orleans-pelicans-guard-jose-120147125.jpg\")
Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado (15) reacts to his three pointer against the Philadelphia 76ers. Bill Streicher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
On the other end of the floor, he is averaging 7.9 points and 3.1 assists per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He makes a little over $1 million less than Yabusele and has a $4.5 million player option for next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was thought that the Knicks would have to give up draft compensation for a team to take on Yabusele and his contract, since he had a player option for $5,775,000 for next year. <\/p>\n
But Yabusele worked with the Knicks, amended his contract and waived that player option, per league sources, making him a more attractive trade piece for the Bulls.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And since they didn\u2019t have to attach trade compensation to the Yabusele deal, the Knicks were able to use it, along with Terry, to land Alvarado. <\/p>\n
Moving Yabusele was paramount to getting the Alvarado deal done.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also helped the Knicks financially \u2014 previously, with Yabusele, the Knicks were just $140K under the second apron and would have had to wait until April 2 to sign a 15th player. <\/p>\n
![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-118404095.jpg\")
Jose Alvarado #15 of the New Orleans Pelicans dives after loose ball during the game against the Los Angeles Lakers on January 6, 2026. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Now they are $1.1 million under the second apron and can sign someone immediately, according to ESPN cap guru Bobby Marks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 34 games with the Bulls, Terry averaged 3.5 points per game.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Backup point guard has been a question mark all season, with Malcolm Brogdon surprisingly retiring just before the start of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McBride is more of a combo guard and Tyler Kolek has had mixed results in that role, with defenders pressuring him aggressively and often not respecting his ability to beat them off the dribble.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not having a quality backup at the point has limited how much Jalen Brunson has been able to play off the ball and let others orchestrate the offense, something coach Mike Brown has wanted him to do more of.<\/p>\n
Alvarado should help in that regard, as well as serving as a point-of-attack defender, especially with McBride out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Yabusele was the Knicks\u2019 biggest free agency signing in two years \u2014 since Donte DiVincenzo \u2014 this past offseason. <\/p>\n
But he looked out of place in coach Mike Brown\u2019s system, and his role had diminished dramatically.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 41 games with the Knicks, he averaged just 2.7 points on rough a 39.3 percent shooting from the field, and 29.4 percent shooting from 3-point range.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagined our journey differently, but in an athlete\u2019s life, things don\u2019t always go as planned,\u201d Yabusele posted on X. \u201cStill, I\u2019m grateful for every moment wearing this legendary jersey.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019ll be Alvarado wearing that \u201clegendary jersey,\u201d the one that represents his hometown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2014 Additional reporting from Stefan Bondy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jose Alvarado has gotten a few glimpses.\u00a0 \u201cIf you would\u2019ve told me this happened five years, ago, I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,11053,6,2828,478,470,191,4073,4072,675,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-585918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jose-alvarado","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-trade-deadline","12":"tag-new-orleans","13":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-neworleans","16":"tag-neworleanspelicans","17":"tag-pelicans","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116022951533680826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}