New York taking second place in the East and then advancing to the second round of the East playoffs, despite a series of injuries, doesn’t change the plan.
The Knicks want to add another star. They may be a little more demanding now and need to be aware of how this player fits with their team culture (they’re not going to go after Trae Young, for example), but Leon Rose and the New York front office realize they’re still a player away.
New York wants to be additive, it wants to keep the core it has, and that means keeping Julius Randle, reports Fred Katz in The Athletic. However, trading for a star means giving up quality, which could be Randle, depending on the situation.
The Knicks aren’t trying to trade Randle, but they recognize their search for a star might require doing so. If a suitable target doesn’t emerge this summer, then they could look ahead to the 2025 trade deadline, hoping to land one then.
Speculation that the Knicks would buy him grew online after New York made the late season and playoffs this season without Randle, who was sidelined following shoulder surgery. That never made sense. Ultimately, there’s only one Knick safe from being traded in the right deal (Jalen Brunson), but again, the goal is to be additive, not make changes for the sake of change. Randle was an All-NBA player just a year ago and was averaging 24 points and 9.2 rebounds per game this season before his injury in late January; You can’t abandon a player like that without improvement.
As Katz notes, on August 3 Randle will be eligible for a contract extension, worth up to four years and $181.5 million. That gives New York a little more than a month of free agency (and more for trades, which could happen around the NBA Draft) to see if that extra star is available to them. If that player isn’t available or the Knicks can’t come to a deal, then in August New York and Randle can talk about an extension.
The New York Knicks have a lot of roster issues to resolve before August and deal with Randle:
• Jalen Brunson is also eligible for an extension this summer, but may not sign it. New York will offer him the biggest extension they can (four years, $156 million), but if Brunson declines it and then declines his player option for 2025-26, he will become a free agent in the summer of 2025 and can re-sign. with the Knicks for five years, around $270 million. There have been some reports that Brunson will accept the guarantee of an extension this summer, but that would mean he would leave more than $110 million on the table. He wouldn’t bet on it, even if he’s an undersized point guard (who is traditionally more injury-prone).
• OG Anunoby has a $19.9 million player option that he will decline, knowing he will get a big raise with a new contract. The conventional wisdom is that he likes the Knicks and being in New York, but ultimately it comes down to money: Anunoby’s new starting salary will be north of $30 million a season, maybe closer to $35. millions of dollars. New York will likely pay that much to keep him (it was obvious in the playoffs how much Anunoby matters to this team), but other suitors will be lurking and it’s not impossible for another team with cap space to come out on top.
• Isaiah Hartenstein will be a free agent. New York has its Early Bird Rights, which limits what they can offer you to four years and $72.5 million. Another team looking for a center on the free agent market could come in with an offer equal to or greater than $20 million a year (four years, more than $80 million) and the Knicks couldn’t match it. This scenario caused Denver to lose Bruce Brown last summer and could affect New York this year.
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