BRUNSON BURNER: to NYK for 4yrs/$104M (no SnT) | NYK docked 2025 2nd for tampering

[cow]

The big deal is that they should've traded him at the deadline if they didn't want to pay what it would take to keep him.

Should have extended him.  Should have traded him for assets.  The mistake now would be to compound those errors with another.  

I'll admit my bias, I've never been the biggest JB fan.  He did open my eyes this season and I think he has some elite qualities.  I think those qualities are fairly priced around the $20M range.  $25M is an overpay I might swallow but beyond that is just crazy.

I view the Luka/JB tandem as something similar to Dame/CJ, and in my mind, that doesn't get you a championship.  Sure you'd probably rather have Luka than Dame, but I think I'd rather have CJ than JB even if I understand arguments for the counter.  

And I totally get the mindset of lose him for nothing, but at some point his contract number is too large to be a positive asset.  Further, he controls his destiny so he might shun the Mavericks even if they offer him the same contract (lack of state income tax) or a little better.

How the MBT handled JB is probably an F, but if he gets north of $125M, I wouldn't grade the MBT too harshly for having a number they want to stick to and letting him be a Knick.