It’s a stretch

Little-used provision could offer cap relief if Jackson waives Melo

It’s a last resort, but if Knicks president Phil Jackson can’t find a trade partner suitable for Carmelo Anthony’s approval, the Zen Master always can go stretch. Stretch, as in stretch provision. The new collective bargaining agreement, which kicks in July 1, still contains the stretch provision clause, which few teams ever use. The clause involves waiving a player and spreading his cap hit out beyond the seasons in which he is under contract.

The 33-year-old Anthony has two years and $54.1 million left on his five-year pact. If Jackson were to cut Anthony between July 1 and Aug. 31, under the provision, the $54.1 million would be spread evenly onto the cap across five years. Hence, Anthony’s cap hit for 2017 would be $10.8 million — as opposed to $26.2 million if he remains on the roster as starting small forward. That would be an extra $15.4 million of cap space this summer for Jackson to add a defensive stalwart.

However, there are multiple drawbacks to exercising the stretch provision. The major one is Anthony would remain stuck to the Knicks’ cap, albeit in a reduced way, until 2021. That is three, and possibly four, more years than if Jackson simply lets Anthony’s contract play out. There is a good chance Anthony would opt out of his 2017-18 terms with the Knicks (worth $27.9 million) to sign a long-term pact elsewhere.

Also, there would be the embarrassment of not receiving a legitimate pawn back for An- thony — no draft picks or young players. Jackson presumably only would entertain the notion of utilizing the stretch provision if he believes Anthony’s departure would be addition by subtraction because of Melo’s distaste for all things triangle.

Jackson’s ideal goal is to trade Anthony, not take back any torturous, long-term contracts and receive a solid rotation player (the Clippers’ Austin Rivers?) and a future first-round draft pick. Most league executives believe Jackson will find it difficult mathematically to engineer a deal with Anthony’s $26.2 million salary for the 2017-18 season ballooning to $30 million because of the 15 percent trade kicker.

The Clippers and Cavaliers are well over the salary cap and must shed close to $30 million in wages to make the trade qualify under CBA guidelines. Unless Kevin Love is in the trade (and considering Jackson’s aversion to J.R. Smith), it would be impossible to make a deal work with Cleveland unless, say, another one or two teams are involved, according to NBA executives.

Teams are reluctant to use the stretch provision on big marquee contracts because of the negative long-term cap effect. The only team to successfully deploy the stretch was Detroit in 2014 when it cut Josh Smith in-season. The decrepit Pistons responded with a playoff berth. The Knicks considered using the provision on Jose Calderon last summer, but lucked into adding him into the blockbuster trade for Derrick Rose.

If Anthony is stretched, the Cavaliers would be out front looking to sign him to either the mini-mid-level exception ($5.5 million) or veteran’s minimum. LeBron James said unmistakably the Cavaliers need more “firepower’’ to combat the Warriors after their 4-1 Finals runaway — never mentioning more defense. It sounded like a siren call for his longtime AAU buddy, just six months his elder.

“Teams and franchises are going to try to figure out ways they can put personnel together, the right group of guys to be able to hopefully compete against this team,’’ James said Monday after the Finals ended. “[The Warriors] are assembled as good as you can assemble, and I played against some really, really good teams that were assembled perfectly, and they’re right up there.’’

Without giving up a pawn for Anthony, the Cavaliers may not be better than the Warriors, but they would have a better chance of staging an upset.