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

[KillerLeft]

OK, imagine for a second you are a NY fan.  Hey KillerKnicksFan.  How about you give me your most recent lottery pick AND a future first for a UFA PG that you have no ability to keep if he wants to walk and who you might get for free in 4 1/2 months anyway.  Deal?

The fans aren't the ones you're negotiating with, though. THEY don't want Brunson NOW. 

The front office does, and they DID. And clearly, they value him a ton, right? 

You're the one assuming they're about to get their '23 pick back. They'll have to use it to clear space to sign him anyway, right? 

So, for Topin and that '23, my guess is they'd have foreseen that they could've A) avoided spending the other picks they've already had to this summer to get to this point and B) could've offered him that 5th year. 

It's not "trading for a prospective UFA" in the same, risky way if there's interest on both sides to re-sign (like with Porzingis coming here). Clearly, there was interest between Brunson and NY, for all of the same reasons the mutual interest exists now. 

Sorry, I don't agree. 

I think the only valid argument against trading him at the last deadline, knowing what we know now, is that it probably would've deprived us of this past playoff success. That's not nothing...it's worth something for the entire franchise and the rest of the roster to have gone through that, for sure.

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I wonder if Cuban could swallow his pride enough to take Noel back. He actually might be useful on this roster, I'd be aiming to get our pick back too but I'm not sure if we have enough leverage

Sure he could. They signed DAJ the second time, right? 

The questions are:

1) do they think Noel is needed here? Maybe, maybe not. 

2) If they do think he fills a need, do they want to pay his salary and the tax that will come with it? I strongly suspect "no." But, I don't think it will be about pride.