Did the Knicks do the right thing not to give in to the Jazz’s demands for the transfer of Donovan Mitchell? The future will tell, of course, and we will probably have to wait two or three years for the answer. In the short term, the Cavaliers appear to be the big winners, and New York may have missed out. Short term.
The leaders finally preferred to bet on RJ Barrett, with a four-year, $120 million deal. A contract that the Knicks were not really willing to offer him this summer.
” They didn’t want to pay RJ now, they like him, but he’s not one of their players“, explains a source close to the Knicks, at the New York Post, recalling that it was the former management who had chosen the Canadian in the Draft. ” The preference was to include him in an exchange with Donovan. If they got Donovan back without including Barrett, they weren’t going to pay RJ now.“.
But now, the Knicks did not want to give in, and to mark the occasion, they decided to act by extending their player. A way to send a message to their audience, which appreciates the player, but also Jazz. All without necessarily closing the door to Donovan Mitchell since in three years, he will be a free agent, and the Knicks will always be able to position themselves on him.
Neither Brunson nor Barrett have max contracts, and there’s hope of amassing the tens of millions of dollars to lure Mitchell.
| RJ Barrett | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2019-20 | NYK | 56 | 30 | 40.2 | 32.0 | 61.4 | 0.9 | 4.1 | 5.0 | 2.6 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 0.3 | 14.3 |
| 2020-21 | NYK | 72 | 35 | 44.1 | 40.1 | 74.6 | 0.9 | 4.8 | 5.8 | 3.0 | 2.6 | 0.7 | 1.9 | 0.3 | 17.6 |
| 2021-22 | NYK | 70 | 35 | 40.8 | 34.2 | 71.4 | 0.9 | 4.9 | 5.8 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 20.0 |
| Total | 198 | 34 | 41.8 | 35.7 | 69.7 | 0.9 | 4.6 | 5.6 | 2.9 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 17.5 | |
