Money printer go BRRRRunson

The Knicks appear poised to add Jalen Brunson for at a salary level known colloquially as "a Pretty Penny."

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Beware of Luxury, Jan Steen, 1663

Reports indicate that the Knicks are going to get Jalen Brunson in free agency. New York made a move that telegraphs this reality on Tuesday, trading Nerlens Noel and Alec Burks into some of Detroit’s cap space along with two second-round picks, according to Woj. Combined with last week’s series of trades that involved Kemba Walker also going to the Pistons, New York has now opened up $30 million in cap space for free agency, which officially begins Thursday.

And while free agency doesn’t begin until Thursday, Yahoo!’s Chris Haynes reports that the Knicks are preparing a 4-year, $110 million offer for Brunson. That is what we call “a Pretty Penny.” Brunson to the Knicks has been picking up steam in recent days. Friend-of-GMIB Marc Stein reported last week that the Knicks were making a push, and reported Tuesday before the latest Detroit deal that the Mavericks were feeling resigned to losing Brunson and might be pivoting to a sign-and-trade. ($) The specificity and timing of Haynes’ report has led the hall monitors of NBA Twitter to speculate about tampering; folks, go look at the stars in the night sky, they are beautiful.

I don’t know if $110 million over four years — a $27.5 million average annual salary — is the right value for Brunson. But this isn’t monopoly or investment banking. It’s basketball. Who cares if it’s a little high? You don’t win games with perfect cap management; the cap sheet matters a lot in roster-building, but in the end you need good players. Brunson is a good player. He’s really proven over two years what type and level of player he is; this is not a reward for coming on in the second half of the 2021-22 season, as some are implying. That’s just when the minutes and fame came. Brunson has essentially been a very similar quality of player since after the bubble, at least on a per-minute basis: a third-tier scorer not completely reliant on shooting lots of threes with strong overall efficiency and a knack for success in the in-between areas of the court on offense.