The New York Knicks are reportedly prepared to make a lucrative offer to a particular free agent this offseason.
The New York Knicks left many baffled on the night of the NBA Draft. They made multiple trades in the first-round, and ended up with zero players. Instead, they have future first-round selections and dumped the contract of Kemba Walker to the Detroit Pistons. This is all reportedly part of a plan to sign a free agent this offseason.
According to NBA correspondent Marc Stein (subscription required), the Knicks are prepared to offer guard Jalen Brunson a four-year, $100 million contract to try and pry him away from the Dallas Mavericks this offseason.
Knicks prepared to offer Jalen Brunson four-year, $100 million contract
There are a variety of links between Brunson and the Knicks. The team’s president, Leon Rose, is Brunson’s former agent. His current agent is Rose’s son, Sam. Not only that, but Brunson’s father, Rick, was recently hired to be an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff.
Brunson is coming off of a strong campaign with a Mavericks team that made it to the Western Conference Finals. In the regular-season, Brunson averaged 16.3 points, 4.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds while recording a field goal percentage of 50.2 through 79 games. In the playoffs, Brunson put up an average of 21.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3. 7 assists while shooting 46.6-percent from the field through 18 games.
The Knicks made their trades to free up in cap space to make a run at Brunson. They did so by moving on from Walker’s deal, which carried an $9.2 million cap hit for next season, and for not keeping their 11th-overall pick, which would have accounted for $4.5 million.
There is an inherent risk, because there is always the possibility that Brunson decides he does not want to sign with the Knicks. But, they are obviously banking on him taking a look at a lucrative contract offer to entice him to sign.