As the NBA continues its investigation into the timing of the Knicks‘ free agent acquisition of point guard Jalen Brunson, Fred Katz of The Athletic parses through the extant evidence. Rumors ahead of 2022 free agency suggested Brunson would leave the Mavericks for the Knicks to the tune of a fresh four-year, $104MM deal. When that chatter proved to be true, the league opted to look into just what transpired, and when.
Katz notes that it’s difficult to discern just what kind of pre-free agency conversations the NBA will frown upon, in part given the fact that Jalen’s father, former New York point guard Rick Brunson, was hired as an assistant coach under Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau in June. Knicks team president Leon Rose, once an NBA agent representing Rick, has known both Brunsons for decades.
Last year, the league opted to penalize the Bulls and Heat for what it perceived to be tampering violations in their 2021 sign-and-trade moves for Lonzo Ball and Kyle Lowry, respectively. Each team was forced to surrender an upcoming second-round pick. This year, in addition to the Knicks, the NBA is also investigating the Sixers for possible tampering violations.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- When Nets point guard Kyrie Irving returned to his native New Jersey for his pro-am “More Than A Run” All-Star Game at Kean University, Brooklyn made a point to showcase the moment on the team’s official social media platforms. In an effort to read the tea leaves, Adam Zagoria of NJ.com suggests that it appears to be increasingly possible Irving returns to Brooklyn this fall, rather than being offloaded in a trade ahead of the season. Kyrie’s teammates Kessler Edwards, David Duke Jr., and Royce O’Neale were all in attendance at the New Jersey event.
- Heat point guard Kyle Lowry, at some point during his successful run with the Raptors, attempted to lure Vince Carter back to Toronto, Lowry revealed on Carter’s podcast The Vince Carter Show (Twitter video link via Uninterrupted Canada). “I tried to get Vince back with us at one point,” Lowry said. “We had conversations,” Carter confirmed. “We tried to get it done, it didn’t work out,” Lowry continued. “I was one of the biggest advocates that tried to get him back in Toronto and Vince was all-in.” It is unclear exactly when this recruitment transpired, but presumably this came fairly late in Carter’s illustrious career. The Raptors originally drafted Carter with the fifth pick out of North Carolina. The 6’6″ wing was named to his first five All-Star teams while with Toronto, before eventually being traded to the Nets in the midst of what was to be his sixth consecutive All-Star season in 2004/05. An eight-time All-Star overall, Carter would go on to play for an NBA-record 22 seasons. He finally retired at age 43 in 2020, following a two-year stint as a bench role player with the Hawks.
- In case you missed it, 6’11” Serbian power forward/center Filip Petrusev, who was drafted with the No. 50 pick by the Sixers in 2021, expressed confidence in Philadelphia’s developmental plan for him. Petrusev, a native Serbian, will suit up for Serbian club Crvena Zvezda during the 2022/23 season.
brunsons an idiot. he’s should be using his prime to contribute to a contender and potentially win a ring instead of wasting it with a team that’s likely not to even make the PLAY IN TOURNAMENT. he should spend it with us (the mavs) and sign to the knicks at age 30 or something so that he can still play for them without wasting his prime. side note, hurts as a mavs fan that he said he’d be coming back and he blew off the meeting with us. maybe i’m just salty but the knicks tampered, brunson made a mistake that he’s gonna regret for the rest of his career and the mavs should receive a 2nd for the tampering.
Calm down
i’m just mad man, but u should see other people on this site/app lol compared to them i’m fangirling over jalen
Lol yes calm down
There’s some guys that don’t want to be second fiddle even if it means riding coattails for a ring. Brunson wants to be the man that turns things around in New York and if he does it he’ll be hailed a hero. He’s probably not the guy to make it happen but he could say he was the free agent that signed first and got the ball rolling. I mean seriously, who wants to stand in the corner while Luka doncic dribbles between his legs for 15 seconds? I have to hand it to Brunson for wanting to be the man, the leader.
This is a team sport. Brunson knows this FO since he was a child literally. I doubt he wants any of those things. This Knick FO and coach. May not get it done. When it’s all said and done. But they are collecting core guys who are TEAM players. Players who understand you win playing both ways as a Team. There are no MJs or Brons on this team. RJ is closest to that at 22 yrs old.
Knicks are building a team thru talent and character. They are nowhere near a finished product.
We are done with year TWO of a rebuild. I know non fans could care less. Or know what’s at stake here. Real fans we understand this is a building process. And getting a starting PG who is 24 yrs old. And not giving up anything to get him. Is a Huge step in that process. We are just enjoying the process. Considering it’s never been done here before. Year THREE isn’t even here yet.
If the league decides that the Knicks tampered (which they probably won’t), the Mavs will receive nothing. That Knicks second round pick would just disappear.
We have three 2nd rd picks next yr. Including our own. Brunson was always coming to NY. I doubt they get penalized too. But it really wouldn’t matter.
What’s better… keeping Kyrie and he leaves in FA or getting Brick and a couple 1sts?
it’s kind of a lose lose situation. nets need to go in rebuild mode after this season, lose kyrie in FA or trade him for picks and trade KD for salary and picks. too late for wembanyana but there’s a world where they go for bronny
Exactly— if LAL doesn’t offer the (2) 1sts I think they have rocks in their heads
I understand attempting to split the picks so you can get Kyrie *and* someone else (Gordon, Hield, etc), but push come to shove Kyrie is such a talent upgrade I think they’ll have to part with both
For BK, I think clearly it hinges on KD. If you can convince him to suit up this year for you … IDK, Brooklyn could ostensibly be a contender, if we assume Ben Simmons still has any interest in playing basketball?
As a Knicks fan, if we could roll out an equivalent lineup of KD, Irving, Harris, Simmons, and Curry I’d tattoo Leon Rose’s name on my a**
Are you so sure wembanyama is so good? Last year in euroleague we saw nothing.
It still boggles my mind Cuban would let the second best player on a team that made the Conference Finals last year, that has the youngest top 5 (top 10 at worst) player in the league, just walk for nothing?
I was a big fan of the Wood gamble, and had they just ponied up the money for Brunson I’d probably view Dallas as a real contender going into this season.
Now? IDK, man. Maybe Dinwiddie has a career year next to Luka? Maybe Hardaway comes back better than ever?
But it just seems like this team is destined to take a step back in a year that they should really be taking one forward.
Brunson was gonna leave even if we offered him the same amount of money. as a mavs fan i really can’t blame our front office. i’m mad at brunson tho but we couldn’t do anything about it, he just wanted to be a knick
Maybe so – although it doesn’t seem like Cubes even matched NY’s offer?
Also, at least get *something* back – take Fournier, whose contract I hate but is at least a functional player they can throw in the rotation
I doubt Cuban got involved until it was too late. DAL screwed the pooch on this before it would have become an owner issue. The critical point was last off season when DAL exercised Brunson’s minimum wage like option, and still elected not to offer him the capped extension he was eligible for before the season (it was only 55 mm/4 years). Offering the extension mid-year after he was into a breakout year was fine, but meaningless, since he had outplayed it by a large degree.
It’s very rare for a FO not to offer a guy they value a “capped” extension, and thereby elect to have the situation to go the UFA market the following year. DAL put Brunson in play. Brunson isn’t the only player who might prefer to be somewhere other than his current team, once he has a chance to think about against the landscape of a real market where other teams can offer him too. Smart teams don’t let players they want get to that point. Unless they can’t help it.
I think Brunson wanted to leave. Dallas disrespected him by not getting a contract done ahead of FA. They let him become a FA. Kind of called his bluff in a way. I just don’t think he wanted the money or to play there. He can make up the money by winning in NY. Mavs blew this one
Has DM been traded yet ????