Knicks waive five players, including Thanasis Antetokounmpo

Cut Day is always one of the saddest times of the year. It's hard to watch people's dreams crushed, and bench celebrations are always more fun in preseason when there are way more players involved.

The Knicks pulled off a surprisingly thorough series of roster cuts Friday afternoon, purging five players from the roster:

NYK announced today that the team has waived Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Darion Atkins and DaJuan Summers, Travis Trice II and Wesley Saunders.

— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) October 23, 2015

All five of these players were hurt somewhat by the Knicks' truncated preseason schedule -- six games, instead of the usual eight -- which severely cut into their playing time. The big name on that list is Thanasis, who failed to inspire in limited minutes. Going strictly by performance, the top player on this list was probably Trice, the point guard out of Michigan State.

What's next for this crew? The Knicks can sign four of them to their D-League club. The Knicks burned Thanasis' draft rights by signing him to a partially guaranteed deal, and his agent has previously indicated his client would refuse a D-League assignment, so he is likely gone.

As for the remainder of New York's roster, they are down to 14 players, one shy of the limit. Will they bring in an unsigned vet to play the wing given the uncertain condition of Arron Afflalo's hamstring? Will they bring in another center, just because they like centers? The game is afoot, my friends.