Looking at the bells n whistles and crawling through the fine print of the new CBA that was the lovechild conceived by the league, owners, union, and agents last holiday season (the gift that keeps on giving..), best case scenario is NY still hits the dreaded tax apron. What this means for this offseason is no full MLE, no BAEand only 125% trade matching.

Best case scenario for NY is; JR opts in, and NY gets its baby bird rights for Lin & Novak.

The fine print on MLE & BAE is if either is used and you hit the et. $74m apron, it then becomes a hard cap for the year. Avoid those 2 exceptions and you can exceed the apron.

For tangible help NY may need to load up on vet FA with 2yr-team option deals and try to roll those into tradeable pieces for teams looking to cut costs after Dec. 15.

2012 Best Case (give or take a $)

#1. Amare - $19.95m

#2. Melo - $19.50m

#3. Tyson - $13.61m

#4. JR - $2.5m

#5. Toney - 2.068

#6. Shump - $1.68m

#7. Jordan - $0.76m

#8. Harrellson - $0.76m

N/A Balkman - $1.675m

#9. Fields - $5m (or less)

10. Lin - $5m (or less)

#11. Novak - $3m (or less)

#12. Tax Mini-Mid - $3m

#13. 2nd Rd Pick - $0.475

#14. Vet FA #1 - $1.4m (or less)

#15. Vet FA #2 - $1.4m (or less)

Total Cap Cost - If most or all stars aligned themselves in NY's favor - $83.18m

Not a lot of actual value improvement; but at least gives disposable assets and some trade flexibility come Dec 15 - Trade Deadline.

The current NY cap committment is $62m for 8 players, $61m and change if they don't opt Jordan.

If the union loses its Bird ruling then NY would have a total of $11.49m available re-signing Lin, Fields, Novak, its 2nd rd pick and at a minimum of 1 free agent. And if NY has to use the full $5m MLE to re-sign Lin then they cannot exceed the $11.49m for the entire year, including all mid season trades and signings.