Explaining what happens with Joakim Noah and the Knicks after center doesn't get bought out

The New York Knicks and exiled center Joakim Noah didn't agree to a buyout before Thursday night, which was the deadline for waived players to be eligible to play in the playoffs.

So where do things go from here?

Prior to Thursday's deadline, the general feeling between the Knicks and Noah was that they would address Noah's future in the offseason if they couldn't agree to a buyout.

As of earlier this week, the Knicks had no plans to ask Noah to return to the team if both sides couldn't agree to a buyout.

So unless the player and team change course and resolve their issues, New York's next options are to try to trade Noah over the summer (unlikely), or use the stretch provision on his contract next season.

Using the stretch provision in 2018-19 would reduce Noah's cap hit to $6.5 million but would keep it on the books for the following two summers. This would potentially create an extra $13 million in cap space in the summer of 2019 but would also take away $6.5 million in space in the summer of 2020 and 2021.

Knicks president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry would have to decide if creating the cap space in 2019 would be worth the cap space sacrificed in the following two summers.

The other potential solution here? If the Knicks decided to let head coach Jeff Hornacek go after the season and hired a new coach, maybe Noah and the organization could reconcile. But that seems unlikely.

For the moment, Noah and the Knicks have mutually agreed that the veteran center should be away from the team indefinitely following a heated argument between Noah and Hornacek at practice in late January.

Noah and Hornacek had to be separated during the argument, league sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Noah had become vociferous toward Hornacek in the aftermath of a brief appearance in a Jan. 23 game and engaged the coach verbally in practice the next day before the two were separated.

The National Basketball Players Association has said that it is "closely monitoring" the situation between Noah and the Knicks to ensure the player "is treated fairly under the rules of our collective bargaining agreement."