Knicks prepared to offer Jalen Brunson a four-year, $100 million contract during free agency, per report

June 28, 2022 World Sports

If you’ve been keeping tabs on what the New York Knicks have been doing over the past few months, then you’ll notice that they haven’t exactly been shy in their chase of acquiring Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson during free agency this summer.

It started when several members of the Knicks’ brass — including William Wesley and Julius Randle — attended Dallas’ first-round playoff series against the Utah Jazz to no doubt scout Brunson. It continued with the Knicks signing Brunson’s father, Rick Brunson, as an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff. Then during the 2022 NBA Draft Thursday night, New York orchestrated several moves that resulted in freeing up $18 million in cap space this summer. All of these moves have been made with the thought that the Knicks would try to make a serious run at Brunson, something that suddenly has real momentum after Thursday night’s transactions, according to Mark Stein.

Per Stein:

“Sources say that New York’s ability during Thursday night’s NBA Draft to offload Kemba Walker’s $9.2 million salary for next season, coupled with a growing belief that it can shed further salary to expand its offer when the marketplace officially opens next Thursday, has established the Knicks as a very credible threat to bring Brunson to Gotham.

One source close to the process described that threat as “very, very, very real.”