Jordan Clarkson re-signs with Knicks after championship run as roster takes shape

Another important contributor to the Knicks’ championship run is back. 

Jordan Clarkson is re-signing with the team, noti.group’s Stefan Bondy reported Thursday.

The deal is worth the $3.9 million, according to ESPN, which represents a slight bump from his $3.63 million salary last season.

It means just one main rotation player – Mitchell Robinson – from last year’s team is gone. Ariel Hukporti also departed, though he hardly played. 

The Knicks entered Thursday $5.7 million under the second apron, according to Spotrac.

They now have 13 players on the roster, one short of the mandated 14 standard contracts. Teams can temporarily dip down to 13, though it is complicated. 

Clarkson joined the Knicks last year and, after an up-and-down regular season, emerged as a valuable bench piece by the postseason – he averaged 10.8 minutes per game in the playoffs.

A shot-happy scorer and offensive-minded player most of his career, he reinvented himself last year with the Knicks after falling out of the rotation midseason. He became a strong on-ball defender and rebounder, qualities that helped him make an impact off the bench and regain a place in coach Mike Brown’s rotation. 

And at 24 years old and having played 12 years in the league, he was an important leader and voice in the locker room. 

“You can have leadership in a lot of different ways,” Brown said at the end of the year. “As of late, the reality of it is, a guy like Jordan Clarkson is starting to separate himself and showing that he’s one of the leaders of the team. Just because you start, just because you score a ton or shoot a ton, or you’re one of the best defenders, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a leader. Because one of the things is, leaders aren’t afraid to tell the truth. They do what they say. Being a leader means you gotta be on point all the time. You can’t be worried about whether your teammate likes you at the time because you’re saying something that’s truthful or you’re holding people accountable or not. 

“So when you look at a guy like Jordan, who’s been through a lot, who’s still stayed ready, even when he was out, for him and listening to him speak up in front of the group now, that’s starting to show real leadership.”