New York Knicks owner James Dolan was a recent guest on The Carton Show on WFAN on SNY. Dolan talked about his team winning the 2026 NBA Finals. The Knicks owner was also asked about running it back and keeping the team together for another Finals run.

"If we could bring back the whole team, exactly as it is, why wouldn’t you? But I don’t know if we’re going to be able to," Dolan said. "We’re willing to stretch, but there’s certain things in the NBA that you’d have to be suicidal to do and we’re not going to do those. One of them is the second apron. Cannot go into the second apron. But that's up to (president of basketball operations) Leon (Rose). I tell him how big of a check that I'll write. I’ll write as big of a check as possible, but I can’t write a check that goes into the second apron."

The Knicks starting five is under contract for next season, but key backups Mitchell Robinson and Landry Shamet are unrestricted free agents. Robinson is expected to garner interest from teams around the league at the $15 million Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception amount. Shamet is expected to get offers that surpass the veteran minimum contract he played under last season.

At the start of the offseason, New York projects to be roughly $10 million under the second apron. Re-signing Robinson and Shamet, as well as bringing back players like Jordan Clarkson, Jeremy Sochan, Mohamed Diawara and Ariel Hukporti, would push the Knicks well over the second apron.