FIRST TAKE | “He’s KING of NY” – Stephen A. says Knicks, Brunson building ‘special’ team after deal

FIRST TAKE | “He’s KING of NY” – Stephen A. says Knicks, Brunson building ‘special’ team after deal

variety because over the weekend Jaylen Brunson signed a 4-year $565 million extension however Brunson left $113 million guaranteed perhaps on the table that would have made him eligible to receive next off season and so art what do you make of this he he got a lot of coin he also left a lot behind I mean listen he’s quickly becoming like one of the favorite Knicks of all time like he talk about sacrifice listen he’s playing chess not Checkers right you talk about him taking you know that contract what that allowed him to do is stay out of the second apron deluxury tax with the new Collective bargain agreement this allows the Knicks to go out and be able to sign some guys maybe to that mid uh that mid um level um exemption to be able to fill this roster out listen you know it’s a four-year deal but he’ll be able to go back to the table again and get all that money this allows you to go in and get Bridges and get all his friends and you know eventually they they’ll make a signing for Tom Tibido but this is um great this gives him an opportunity to close the gap on the Boston Celtics and they’re just getting started I think they got a couple more moves left okay this is great if they win this is great if they resign all those dues everyone stay Health stays healthy and they win that’s a lot of money to leave behind to just think you’re going to be guaranteed it later on and also b i I love you but Jaylen Brunson Jaylen Brunson a better man than you may I did I did the same thing right Cleveland offered me a contract and if I would have been in that contract I never would have been able to be signed by this man who gave me the back and and and that’s my exact question that I’ve been waiting 15 years to ask Shay how come when we signed you in 2009 you didn’t give us the jayen Brunson discount oh man come on now y’all came back and got that money for n0 and we didn’t get them y’all didn’t give it back this is 15 years ago Mike te’s been waiting 15 years to tell Bart’s got that uh all right let’s move on to football though it is here true but it was still I’m not downplaying it as a I’m not downplaying the importance I’m just saying it wasn’t shocking only because we’ve talked about it for right I mean that was my lead the other day is it it isn’t shocking because of the fact that we’ve been talking about this but it probably should be well I should probably say what it is before we continue yes Jaylen Brunson signed a 4-year $157 million contract extension with the Knicks just about on the first day he was eligible to sign it maybe a couple days later and that was $37 million less than he could have made over the same stretch and had he um if he’d waited and and what what is the overall number if he had waited the key the key the key way to explain it is if he had signed a the full extension he could have signed a year from now full deal he could have signed a year from now he could have made uh $270 million over a 5-year deal and therefore sacrificed $113 million to sence extension now at below the Max by a lot what he could do year dollars wise and below the max what he could do years wise which is obviously geared towards keeping this team together and I think is certainly a secondary part of the transaction that was made a couple of weeks ago to trade for Mel Bridges the fourth member of the Nova Knicks and I still maintain the fifth member of the Nova Knicks who’s been there before Ryan Archer diako will wind up back with the Knicks at some point and know these guys have all clearly desired to play together and by signing this extension under the new collective bargaining agreement like we’ve talked about a bunch this gives the Knicks the ability to have potentially a fiveyear window where they are an elite Championship level team with this group together which is going to be really really hard to do under this new CBA which is why this is a big deal and why I saw a bunch of Nick people yesterday and every one of them including a certain father had a very big smile on their face about the way things have gone for the Knicks over the last few weeks you know he does have an opt out in the last year of that contract he can opt out and sign for more so that all the numbers are a little fuzzy but the point is he’s really leaving a lot on the table and there’s no guarantee there’s no guarantee that in in four years that he will be able to get that kind of money there’s no guarantee now um Pelton we have talked repeatedly over the years about how there’s an intrinsic value to being a star on the Knicks that if you are a star on the Knicks you reap the rewards for the rest of your lifetime partially because there hasn’t been a lot of bonafide stars on the Knicks and partially because of the nature of the market and the nature of the fan base and that nobody remembers how much Carmelo Anthony made but he is regarded as a as an alltime Nick and he continues to live off of that um but we’re now pressing the limits of that because this earning this back like psychically he he he can um it’s one you know he can say winning is worth whatever and you know i’ I learned years ago never to count players money um but I it it I’ll bet Jaylen will be hearing from a lot of people in his life and people who come up alongside him because one of the things about the NBA one of the Lessons Learned is you know when the sun shines you’ve got to take the money and no matter how much it is it could be more and this is your could be your one opportunity so Jaylen is doing this because he trusts the Knicks and because he wants to be in New York and all those things but um it is still a huge outlier in the history of contracts and the Nicks really now have a responsibility to Jaylen um not that you know know they didn’t already but now they have responsibility to Jaylen to really keep the gas down and make that sacrifice financially worth worth it yeah I mean notably Caramelo Anthony and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it certainly but he did take every penny when he got to New York and and did so via trade took a little bit he took a when he came to New York but then he later signed contract or the second contract yeah he later signed a contract where he took a little bit of a haircut just look the story the story of Carmelo’s career in general was at every point he made sure he maximized the money he could make as opposed to maximizing the winning situation he could put himself in which is not it’s not a criticism but again he took the other guys all the the other guys from the banana boat all were free agents in 2010 and he was a free agent in 2011 because he made sure he got the extra money it’s not a negative thing it’s just the story of how his career played out all of that is accurate but believe to be fair his last contract with the Knicks he took a slight reduction to try to help them yeah cap space but um none of that’s a criticism either I get all the money you can get I’m not saying that but it’s just that’s that’s just the story of how carelo Stuff played out yes and so that that move is obviously you know I think I think you’ve got it right bont temps I think that move really is a conjunction and a um an extension of the Mel Bridges trade um there is sort of in tandem making all of that deal sort of wraps up into one and then the thing about it is is Bridges is eligible for an extension he can sign a two-year for Bobby marks two-year $60 million extension in October or he could sign a four-year extension for I think somewhere around 120 million I don’t remember the exact number next summer off of his current deal which is seen as a below Market deal and I will be very surprised if at some point in the next calendar year Mel Bridges is not extended off of that current deal because again that’s the precedent that’s being set here by one of his best friends and these guys all clearly want to play together and this is helping them do that and I I think it’s important to point out that the contracts that are entered into this year no matter what they are these are going to end up being good contracts and the reason is because the TV money is coming after this season and and the and they’re going to phase that money in and the the cap is going to go up at least 30% in in the next three years you know it might even go up a little bit more and it might even go up 40% over the next four years so guys who sign this summer and lock themselves into contracts by the time they get to the end of these deals they’re going to probably be 30 perish discounts even if they’re still at the mar even if they signed a market value deal in 2024 they’re still they’re going to be 30% discounts in three years so then you have Brunson who took a below Market deal a significant below Market deal um and so in three years when he’s getting towards the end of that contract God knows what percentage he’ll be below what his value is so it’s you know and that’s why it’s such a home run is that the Knick’s flexibility with building their team will remain open because the cap is going to grow and continue to give them flexibility and with if Bridges takes this same type of deal as well and doesn’t become a unrestricted free agent like he can in a couple of years the way uh Jaylen made that decision um it just really amplifies the the discount so I know it’s kind of you know talking about money talking about other players money is is um is complicated but P it’s um it really puts the Knicks in position and they’ve got all these draft picks still um and and they still can can improve this roster which I think is a key Point yeah they got a handful of of other teams draft picks I mean the the value of those is debatable because you know two of the picks that they have are maybe the only two outside picks they have are from Detroit and from Washington and are protected in such a way that the Knicks may never get them I think that Pistons pick in particular because the the protections you know decline a little bit over time and I do think at some point even with a new leaded executive in traent langon they’re going to feel the pressure to to start winning and maybe give up a pick that’s in the teenss to New York uh so they have some some things to work out with the cupboard isn’t bare draft pickwise even as much as they gave up for Mel Bridges but yeah I mean the big thing this allows them to do is next off season they can figure out Julius randle’s situation assuming you know he’s not quite a 30% Max at this stage of his career they can also go for an extension right now just for just to say they could do something with them now too yep they could do that right now and and lock that in and potentially use the taxpayer mid-level exception next summer and still stay under that second apron see the second apron is going to be a clock on teams because of the way that the draft picks get Frozen and eventually move to the end of the round our expectation is it’s probably going to be two years you’re going to spend in that second apron and then you’re going to be trying to get out to your draft pick for for for for speech spee foreign foreign spee fore for again yeah foreign foree for spee yeah for foreign speech [Music] speech for

FIRST TAKE | “He’s KING of NY” – Stephen A. says Knicks, Jalen Brunson building ‘special’ team after deal