Zwerling: J.R. Smith will decline his player option

It isn't official yet and doesn't have to be until June 30, but the word from Jared Zwerling is that J.R. Smith will decline his $2.9 million player option for 2013-2014 and become an unrestricted free agent. Smith was widely expected to opt out, since even if he chooses to stay in New York-- which seems fairly likely-- he stands to make up to $5ish million over the next several years on a new deal. We've learned not to assume anything with the Knicks and incumbent free agents, but the few rumors so far have suggested a return for our friend Earl, and this decision (whenever it happens for real) does nothing to change that.

Meeeeeanwhile, I've been asking around about this tantalizingly vague tweet about "the knife". J.R.'s headed back to New York from Las Vegas, and that tweet could be taken to suggest he's due for surgery at some point. It would make sense for J.R. to need a knee clean-out after the recurring issues he had all season, but now I'm just guessing. I'll update if I see anything about that. "The Knife" could mean anything, really: a new club J.R. wants to visit, a recording session with the Swedish electronic group, or just a careless autocorrect of the word "Knicks". Whatever the case, it seems the tweeter/patient in question will, as expected, be a free agent in the near future.

In the meantime all we have is workouts, but we still haven't heard anything resembling a formal workout announcement We do have two more names to add to the pile, though: South Dakota State's Nate Wolters and D-Leaguer Toure Murry (not this bro, and for Summer League, not a workout). Let's just get these workouts started, eh?