Lance Thomas rejoins the Knicks on a four-year deal

Make new friends, but keep the old!

Forward Lance Thomas has reached a multi-year agreement to re-sign with Knicks, league source tells @clevelanddotcom.

— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 4, 2016

Lance will get a multi-year deal for the early bird exception, starting at $6.1 million source said.

— Al Iannazzone (@Al_Iannazzone) July 5, 2016

Lance Thomas' contract is a 4-year deal with standard raises of 7.5 percent, sources say. Starts at around $6.1 million.

— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) July 5, 2016

So that's like $27 million over 4 years.

I'm glad Lance Thomas is back. You know the story -- they got him as a trade throw-in two seasons ago, he filled a defensive role nicely the rest of that year, he re-signed, and then he had kind of a ... great season. Still a wobbly sight to behold, but suddenly a man who never shot threes was hitting 40% of a couple attempts a game while defending some of the league's best:

A pre-game knee tweak that never quite untweaked hampered Thomas, and then ended his season 20 games early. He hasn't had surgery, nor is there any indication so far that he intends to, so one hopes his knees are back in shape.

Delighted to have Lance back. It's still strange and impressive to be saying this, but if this year's like last one, he'll add outside shooting and perimeter defense to every lineup he joins.

I'll add term updates when I see them. Thomas's contract will not count in the sub-cap salary total, as it will eventually exceed the cap via an early Bird exception. Matt's gonna find you more on alllll that stuff in the near future.