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Summary
Bacon has good size at the wing and can defend multiple positions, but offensively just hasn't developed enough to be above-replacement level. Bacon is already 26 years old, and just hasn't quite shown enough to prove he can stick around in the NBA.

In order to stick in the league, Bacon needs to improve offensively to really make an impact. His shooting from outside is poor, and he takes too many pullup midrange jumpers. Outside of the '18-'19 season in which he shot 43% from three and 68% at the rim, Bacon has consistently finished in the bottom 10th of the league in eFG%, per Cleaning the Glass.

I think Bacon can make sense as an 11th or 12th man that can play some regular season minutes here and there when guys are injured, but if I were a team I would probably rather give that roster spot to a younger prospect.
 
Cap Considerations
Bacon will be an unrestricted free agent with a $1.8 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Knicks could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $2.5 million. This should be enough to retain Bacon, since he settled for the minimum of $1.8 million to come to New York. Alternatively, the Knicks could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception to re-sign Bacon if he demands more than $2.5 million.

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Bacon as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE,  Room MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. Since he signed a minimum contract in 2021, teams will hope to get him at the minimum in 2022 too.

Potential Teams: Timberwolves, Cavaliers, Nuggets, Trailblazers, Jazz

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.1 million (non-guaranteed) with the Timberwolves

Last updated: 9/8/2021

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