Wait until his contract extension in 2 years lol. The cap is going up but it will be interesting to see if they can keep all of these high paid players...
I understand the hesitation, but objectively we have not seen a team that could contend with us when OG played - let alone when we were healthy last season.
And we got better.
That game against Boston wasn’t “Celtic malaise.” They were up for our matchup and got exposed.
And we got better.
Expectation should be conference finals with Boston. We'll see how free agency goes but as of the day before free agency oficially stars Knicks are the 2nd best team in the east.
we can't.
if Brunson takes a "low" 37-38 million deal, we still have Randle to worry about, OG's is on the books, and Mikal is coming up...but at least we have a bit of time.
Brunson, if he goes for the low level, will get his extension this summer. If he wants a 50+ extension, then he'll sign it next offseason. Randle is aiming for 50 million this offseason but we still have him a bit more before he absolutely have to. Mikal in 2 years is great
We have two seasons with what we got. After that I think they have to make some tough decisions and it’s hard to see Randle staying unless the squad dominates and wins a chip.
If he waits 6 months he can sign for that I believe. If he signs in around November, it’s a different deal. I think it’s a 2 year deal.
Edit:
https://x.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1805790564450697343
He is eligible to sign a 2 year extension on October 1.
He can extend for an additional 3 years/$113M in 6 months.
If we win in the next two seasons we will resign everyone to maxes and without complaint. Second apron for the following 5-7 seasons is worth at least 1 championship
Depending on where we are with the second apron it may make sense to extend him no matter what. He may be our only chance to add salary we can move that isn’t a negative-value contract.
But I still hope he stays and we win with him.
Depends on when the extension kicks in. If it after the 2025-26 season, give him whatever he wants now. We’ll still be under the 2nd Apron whether we do or don’t - God forbid - resign Hartenstein.
Same with Brunson. We are ergonomically designed to disrupt any team in the league. We are the T-1000 of offense and defense. Only an ungodly display of megastardom could take us out (or severe injuries, which is an unfortunate possibility).
$45 million per year extension. Not going to happen with Brunson and Bridges coming up after OG just got $42 million. He will be moved next summer. This year they make a run.
He was going to sign with the Knicks when his contract was up. That’s what he told the nets and any other team that traded for him. Brunson is taking less and so will he.
if the celtics can have derrick white, jrue holiday, kristaps porzingis, jaylen brown, and jayson tatum all paid at the same time i dont see why we couldnt?
I can see the knicks trading Randle that year. He'll be an UFA that year
Obviously thrilled he's getting more help rifht now and love the guy but I can't see his play style aging well and he'll demand biiiiiig money
We could've went for someone like Booker (if he was even available) but his salary would've required us to probably send us out Randle to match salaries. Mikal's cheap contract allowed us to keep Randle.
So the real question is would you trade 5 firsts for Booker or trade 5 firsts for Mikal + Randle?
I dont think any of the superstars are actually available. Booker, Embiid, Giannis were supposed to already be on new teams but they arent. Teams just dont trade talent like that outside of the usual suspects (PG, Harden, Westbrook, Kyrie, KD).
But it wouldn’t even just be Randle, it would be him + a key role player + Bojan + 5 firsts and swaps every other year. That’s too much for a guard that probably wouldn’t even fit that well alongside Brunson
Our FRPs were only going lower in value if we get a healthy team next season so it made sense to turn them into a far superior asset before we join the 40/20 club next season.
He was expensive largely because zero young players of value were included in the deal.
Houston offered 2 picks that are of potentially more value that all of ours combined plus Jalen green.
I wish BK absolutely no ill-will. I hate the C's, Pacers, Heat, Bulls but I can't hate fellow New Yorkers.
But the Nets and Sean Marks are utter fools. With Mikal Bridges they had a squad with the potential to make a 2nd round. Now it will take them *years* just to get back to place where they can make the 2nd round. And that's only if both the lottery odds fall in their favor (harder than ever) AND if they choose correctly.
Tanking for years on end just doesn't work for the vast majority of teams.
Look at the Pistons. Is anyone pumped about their future?
Some tanking-defenders point to the T-Wolves. They spent more than *15 years* in the wilderness though. It took *9 years* after drafting KAT first overall to just win a single playoff round. Yes, they ended up with a fun franchise player in ANT, but again *9 years* from KAT and more than 15 years to taste playoff success.
And what makes tanking worse is that they can't even say "oh well, at least we'll get to develop guys like Cam Thomas" Nope, because if Cam ever starts playing at a level that leads to winning games they'll have to shut him down.
The nets are hoping we have injury luck like last playoffs and they get an amazing talent in next years draft. They are still missing a ton of their own 1sts. We were also really good despite all the injuries because Brunson is just crazy. Even if Brunson goes down for a bit the rest of this squad is a tough team to play.
These nova boys want to play together and at a minimum I think we’ll have hart, bridges, and Brunson for the next 5 years. I could see Donte chasing a bag if he can. If randle can be known as the guy who endured our bullshit as he scraped and clawed our way into relevance to win a title I think he’d be a legend.
Where they will likely have luck is when the suns implode. But that will likely be at least 2-3 more years and then they have to wait for the talent to develop. I think the nets are likely boned for some time but they have assets I guess they could trade for more talent to be a middling team. At least right now they have options.
When Leon got here there were not a lot of conventional paths to being a contender and he chose the path less traveled of trying to win from the get go without tanking or mortgaging our future. I thought we’d end up in no man’s land but I guess I’m eating my shoes right now
Like you said, they are three years away, minimum. And even then it might not work out just like it hasn't worked out for tanking teams like Detroit.
They should have stuck with the players they had and tried to add to their roster.
But hey, their stupidity is the Knicks' gain
Bridges and Johnson are good players, Clowney was decent, they needed some more pieces like a good offensive orchestrator point guard, but it was a roster with decent potential
Because he's an elite defender and an electric scorer, if the Nets had a competent point guard last year they would have been a play-in team. Their lack of a point guard (mostly due to Ben Simmons' lack of availability) also lead to Cam Johnson being terrible.
But there was enough there to add pieces to for a 2nd round team
They have pieces but the pieces don’t fit together. Their team is entirely 3 & D wings/forwards with no legit guard play & like 1 genuinely good big man.
Also as somebody who is a bigger Mikal Bridges believer than most, calling him an electric scorer is a stretch. Your team isn’t going anywhere if Mikal is your 1st option.
Also once he got to Brooklyn, his defense stopped being elite. It’s still really good but it’s damn near impossible to be the #1 scoring option & also an elite perimeter defensive player. It just wears players out too much.
Disagree, it would be easier to build around their pre-Bridges trade roster for a 2nd round team than to build a 2nd round team over the next 3-t0-4 years minimum. There are too many examples around the league of teams that had to spend years and years and years in the lottery before becoming slightly above average
it feels like when the knicks had barely any picks, 2000 to 2018, they worth a lot. But seemingly since a few years ago (5 to 8 years ago), the value of 1st rounders has seemingly gone down the drain.
unfortunately for us, cause since then is when we've been committed to not using 1st rounders.
6 1st rounders is indeed a lot, but the Bucks pick we know is super low, and that devalues it. At least 3 of those NY picks are devalued since they'll be in the 15-30 range. The real valueable picks here are the 2029 and 2031 picks, which should have had protections.
Wait until his contract extension in 2 years lol. The cap is going up but it will be interesting to see if they can keep all of these high paid players...
You get a late run next year and maybe a finals or title the year after and it’s all worth it
Late run? The expectation is definitely title this year.
A title is the goal for sure, but expectation is too strong. We should be in the mix but it’s not like we are instantly favorites.
But I do like our chances against Boston now.
I understand the hesitation, but objectively we have not seen a team that could contend with us when OG played - let alone when we were healthy last season. And we got better. That game against Boston wasn’t “Celtic malaise.” They were up for our matchup and got exposed. And we got better.
I hate that I'm going to say this but Boston is still the clear favorite.
Well… we shall see by December where we stand.
I just can't pick a team we haven't seen play over a dominant finals winner...yet Hurts my heart tho
Of course they are, bit when healthy we match up pretty well. And we have Jalen.
I like NY's chances but it's absurd to crown them the favorites.
Goal yes I wouldn’t say expectation
Expectation should be conference finals with Boston. We'll see how free agency goes but as of the day before free agency oficially stars Knicks are the 2nd best team in the east.
2nd best WE DID ITTTT One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!
I truly had tears in my eyes as I wrote that. We're in the place we hoped for years and at points I never expected to witness this again.
Technically third and fourth best lol
Absolutely not. That’s how you set expectations too high and then come bitching in here in March
You come in here bitching whenever the team doesn’t meet your expectations? That’s kinda childish of you.
You easily take a title under 99.9999% of circumstances
If we win a title i’d be ok re-hiring steve mills and phil jackson and having james dolan control all basketball operations for life
Exactly. 1 chip does the job. More than 1. Not even sure what to say or think about that
we can't. if Brunson takes a "low" 37-38 million deal, we still have Randle to worry about, OG's is on the books, and Mikal is coming up...but at least we have a bit of time. Brunson, if he goes for the low level, will get his extension this summer. If he wants a 50+ extension, then he'll sign it next offseason. Randle is aiming for 50 million this offseason but we still have him a bit more before he absolutely have to. Mikal in 2 years is great
We have two seasons with what we got. After that I think they have to make some tough decisions and it’s hard to see Randle staying unless the squad dominates and wins a chip.
I think I read somewhere that he can sign a 3yr/110m extension If he’s willing to do that to stick with his friends he’ll still be underpaid
If he waits 6 months he can sign for that I believe. If he signs in around November, it’s a different deal. I think it’s a 2 year deal. Edit: https://x.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1805790564450697343 He is eligible to sign a 2 year extension on October 1. He can extend for an additional 3 years/$113M in 6 months.
I think having this many nova guys is such a perk , pretty sure they won’t be screwing each other contact timr
If we win in the next two seasons we will resign everyone to maxes and without complaint. Second apron for the following 5-7 seasons is worth at least 1 championship
I don’t think Randle gets extended.
Depending on where we are with the second apron it may make sense to extend him no matter what. He may be our only chance to add salary we can move that isn’t a negative-value contract. But I still hope he stays and we win with him.
I hope we win with him as well. He was the first to persevere here on a shitty team.
I agree you extend him no matter what as it is just good asset management .
Depends on when the extension kicks in. If it after the 2025-26 season, give him whatever he wants now. We’ll still be under the 2nd Apron whether we do or don’t - God forbid - resign Hartenstein.
Same with Brunson. We are ergonomically designed to disrupt any team in the league. We are the T-1000 of offense and defense. Only an ungodly display of megastardom could take us out (or severe injuries, which is an unfortunate possibility).
I can see them moving on from him if they need to honestly. I would hate to see him go though..
$45 million per year extension. Not going to happen with Brunson and Bridges coming up after OG just got $42 million. He will be moved next summer. This year they make a run.
I think he's gone when Brunson gets paid.
The idea is to win a ring before that happens. If we can do it, anything after that you just play it by ear.
Very true!! They are ready to make a title push in My opinion for the next 2-3 years at least...
It's New York, one of the few cities that can laugh at the idea of a luxury tax if we have a shot to win
Lol, true. They have the money 💰💰😁🤟
You just bite the bullet and go into the apron for two years and then pull out Ideally you contend deep for four years
Very true 🤟
He was going to sign with the Knicks when his contract was up. That’s what he told the nets and any other team that traded for him. Brunson is taking less and so will he.
True 🤟
I don't really understand why this should have given him that much leverage--he still has two full years left on his contract.
IMO it was just a rumor.
This shit just made me smile, Mikal a real one
if the celtics can have derrick white, jrue holiday, kristaps porzingis, jaylen brown, and jayson tatum all paid at the same time i dont see why we couldnt?
I can see the knicks trading Randle that year. He'll be an UFA that year Obviously thrilled he's getting more help rifht now and love the guy but I can't see his play style aging well and he'll demand biiiiiig money
He already was prepared to tell trans that he will only resign with Knicks so that’s the plan so far
We be done with randles contract to pay for it
We could've went for someone like Booker (if he was even available) but his salary would've required us to probably send us out Randle to match salaries. Mikal's cheap contract allowed us to keep Randle. So the real question is would you trade 5 firsts for Booker or trade 5 firsts for Mikal + Randle?
This is the correct analysis
I dont think any of the superstars are actually available. Booker, Embiid, Giannis were supposed to already be on new teams but they arent. Teams just dont trade talent like that outside of the usual suspects (PG, Harden, Westbrook, Kyrie, KD).
But it wouldn’t even just be Randle, it would be him + a key role player + Bojan + 5 firsts and swaps every other year. That’s too much for a guard that probably wouldn’t even fit that well alongside Brunson
Our FRPs were only going lower in value if we get a healthy team next season so it made sense to turn them into a far superior asset before we join the 40/20 club next season.
Bringing him means having short-term cap flexibility with or without Hartenstein. The planets are aligning, it seems…
He was expensive largely because zero young players of value were included in the deal. Houston offered 2 picks that are of potentially more value that all of ours combined plus Jalen green.
Mikal is d missing piece on Knicks Championship aspiration
2 of the 1st rd pick value was basically this. Maybe more.
I wish BK absolutely no ill-will. I hate the C's, Pacers, Heat, Bulls but I can't hate fellow New Yorkers. But the Nets and Sean Marks are utter fools. With Mikal Bridges they had a squad with the potential to make a 2nd round. Now it will take them *years* just to get back to place where they can make the 2nd round. And that's only if both the lottery odds fall in their favor (harder than ever) AND if they choose correctly. Tanking for years on end just doesn't work for the vast majority of teams. Look at the Pistons. Is anyone pumped about their future? Some tanking-defenders point to the T-Wolves. They spent more than *15 years* in the wilderness though. It took *9 years* after drafting KAT first overall to just win a single playoff round. Yes, they ended up with a fun franchise player in ANT, but again *9 years* from KAT and more than 15 years to taste playoff success. And what makes tanking worse is that they can't even say "oh well, at least we'll get to develop guys like Cam Thomas" Nope, because if Cam ever starts playing at a level that leads to winning games they'll have to shut him down.
The nets are hoping we have injury luck like last playoffs and they get an amazing talent in next years draft. They are still missing a ton of their own 1sts. We were also really good despite all the injuries because Brunson is just crazy. Even if Brunson goes down for a bit the rest of this squad is a tough team to play. These nova boys want to play together and at a minimum I think we’ll have hart, bridges, and Brunson for the next 5 years. I could see Donte chasing a bag if he can. If randle can be known as the guy who endured our bullshit as he scraped and clawed our way into relevance to win a title I think he’d be a legend. Where they will likely have luck is when the suns implode. But that will likely be at least 2-3 more years and then they have to wait for the talent to develop. I think the nets are likely boned for some time but they have assets I guess they could trade for more talent to be a middling team. At least right now they have options. When Leon got here there were not a lot of conventional paths to being a contender and he chose the path less traveled of trying to win from the get go without tanking or mortgaging our future. I thought we’d end up in no man’s land but I guess I’m eating my shoes right now
Like you said, they are three years away, minimum. And even then it might not work out just like it hasn't worked out for tanking teams like Detroit. They should have stuck with the players they had and tried to add to their roster. But hey, their stupidity is the Knicks' gain
I don’t think Brooklyn had a squad with the potential to make the second round unless you mean second round of the play-in
Bridges and Johnson are good players, Clowney was decent, they needed some more pieces like a good offensive orchestrator point guard, but it was a roster with decent potential
What makes you think Mikal could’ve led that Nets team to the 2nd round?
Because he's an elite defender and an electric scorer, if the Nets had a competent point guard last year they would have been a play-in team. Their lack of a point guard (mostly due to Ben Simmons' lack of availability) also lead to Cam Johnson being terrible. But there was enough there to add pieces to for a 2nd round team
They have pieces but the pieces don’t fit together. Their team is entirely 3 & D wings/forwards with no legit guard play & like 1 genuinely good big man. Also as somebody who is a bigger Mikal Bridges believer than most, calling him an electric scorer is a stretch. Your team isn’t going anywhere if Mikal is your 1st option. Also once he got to Brooklyn, his defense stopped being elite. It’s still really good but it’s damn near impossible to be the #1 scoring option & also an elite perimeter defensive player. It just wears players out too much.
Disagree, it would be easier to build around their pre-Bridges trade roster for a 2nd round team than to build a 2nd round team over the next 3-t0-4 years minimum. There are too many examples around the league of teams that had to spend years and years and years in the lottery before becoming slightly above average
5 1st round picks is not a steal.
it feels like when the knicks had barely any picks, 2000 to 2018, they worth a lot. But seemingly since a few years ago (5 to 8 years ago), the value of 1st rounders has seemingly gone down the drain. unfortunately for us, cause since then is when we've been committed to not using 1st rounders. 6 1st rounders is indeed a lot, but the Bucks pick we know is super low, and that devalues it. At least 3 of those NY picks are devalued since they'll be in the 15-30 range. The real valueable picks here are the 2029 and 2031 picks, which should have had protections.