{"id":810916,"date":"2026-08-13T18:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/810916\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T18:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:42:23","slug":"eastern-notes-mcbride-giannis-niang-mast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/810916\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Notes: McBride, Giannis, Niang, Mast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Observing that August 11 came and went without a contract extension for\u00a0Miles McBride<\/a>, Jared Schwartz of The New York Post<\/a> (subscription required) makes the case that Tuesday represented a \u201csoft deadline\u201d for a new deal for the Knicks guard.<\/p>\n

In Schwartz\u2019s view, McBride is now unlikely to receive an extension before the February 11 trade deadline<\/a>, since signing a new contract that meets certain criteria would make him ineligible to be dealt for six months. McBride will be one of the Knicks\u2019 best in-season trade assets, according to Schwartz, who argues that the team can\u2019t afford to compromise its flexibility by making him ineligible to be moved on or before Feb. 11.<\/p>\n

However, Schwartz\u2019s argument is based on the premise that McBride would lose his trade eligibility if he receives more than a 20% raise on his current $3.96MM salary. In actuality, the guard could sign for any amount up to about $18.92MM (120% of the NBA\u2019s estimated average salary) and still be trade-eligible as long as his new deal doesn\u2019t cover more than three seasons or include subsequent annual raises exceeding 5%.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Veteran Contract Extension<\/a>]<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean an extension with McBride is coming \u2014 the Knicks are already facing a cap crunch and will be prioritizing a new deal for Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>. But if they want to extend McBride, the Knicks would likely be able to fit a new contract within those aforementioned parameters and ensure he remains trade-eligible, so I don\u2019t consider the Aug. 11 \u201csoft deadline\u201d to be especially meaningful.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from around the Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n

Contrary to prior reporting<\/a>, Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>\u2018s absence from Greece\u2019s national team roster for the upcoming World Cup qualifying games isn\u2019t due to an edict from the Heat, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/a> (subscription required). As Winderman explains, a joint decision was made for Antetokounmpo to skip the August qualifiers, since he\u2019s coming off an injury-shortened 2025\/26 season and wants to get a head-start on acclimating to his new NBA team. Giannis\u2019 brothers Kostas Antetokounmpo and Thanasis Antetokounmpo<\/a> are both on Greece\u2019s preliminary roster for qualifying contests vs. the Ukraine (Aug. 28) and Spain (Aug. 31).
\nIn an episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast<\/a>, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com discusses Saliou Niang<\/a>\u2018s plans to suit up for LSU in 2026\/27, noting that the Cavaliers remain high on the Senegalese forward, who was the 58th overall pick in 2025. Adding Niang to their roster for the coming season was likely never under serious consideration for the Cavs, but Fedor believes the 22-year-old remains in play for \u201927\/28.
\nFormer Nebraska forward Rienk Mast<\/a>, who is expected to be in camp<\/a> with the Pacers on an Exhibit 10 contract after a strong Summer League showing (15.2 PPG, 9.0 RPG), is on the Netherlands\u2019 roster for this month\u2019s World Cup qualifiers, the Cornhuskers announced in a press release<\/a>. The Dutch national team will face Germany on Aug. 27 and Croatia on Aug. 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observing that August 11 came and went without a contract extension for\u00a0Miles McBride, Jared Schwartz of The New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,123,113,126,3866,29212,2715,6,114,8967,21720,12289],"class_list":["post-810916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-basketball","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-kostas-antetokounmpo","tag-miles-mcbride","tag-nba","tag-pacers","tag-rienk-mast","tag-saliou-niang","tag-thanasis-antetokounmpo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117089674419946289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810916","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=810916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}