NBA Free Agency Grades: New York Knicks
Signings: Jalen Brunson (4 years, $104 million); Mitchell Robinson (4 years, $60 million); Isaiah Hartenstein (2 years, $18.1 million); Jericho Sims (3 years, $5.69 million)
Trades: Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel, two second-round picks, cash to Detroit Pistons for Nikola Radicevic, and a second-round pick
The New York Knicks are the front-runners to land Donovan Mitchell and have amassed a significant collection of draft picks to use in such a deal, but that move hasn’t happened yet so for now we need to evaluate their moves with such a trade as a hope and not an inevitability.
And there were certainly a lot of moves to evaluate. The Knicks were active in moving off of salary in order to free up the space to sign former Dallas Mavericks point guard Jalen Brunson. The cost they paid to move Kemba Walker (a draft-day trade technically not in our purview here) and later Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel was very reasonable on its own.
Combined with the added cost of then handing Jalen Brunson a massive new contract it becomes a bit more strained, but Brunson is a good player and the cap is going up, so it’s not the worst offseason strategy. Brunson was the best player to change teams in free agency, and the Knicks got that player.
They also put together their center rotation. Mitchell Robinson returns on a surprisingly long deal at fair value, but they also handed a contract to Isaiah Hartenstein. One of last year’s breakout players, Hartenstein is a great value at $9 million a year. The Knicks also converted second-year big Jericho Sims to a full contract and signed him for three years.
Why all the money to centers when Julius Randle and Obi Toppin could also earn minutes at the 5? None of the deals look bad individually, but collectively it’s a strange use of resources. The Knicks played the transaction game well with each individual move, from dumping salary to signing contracts, but the overall vision seems a bit off.
Grade: B