Noel and Burks played their asses off on bargain deals. What signal does it send if we were to ditch them for Oubre and Drummond and leave them hunting vet minimum contracts? #culture

The concern is if the Knicks re-sign Randle as an unrestricted free agent next summer, they could find themselves without cap space for years to come as Barrett and Robinson potentially get raises off their rookie contracts.

Presumably, New York management would counter that free agency hasn't yielded stars in the past and seems less likely to in the future as more and more players extend rather than testing the market at all. The Knicks' real path to a star, they'd point out, is through the trade market. New York is now flush with the kind of moderate eight-figure contracts often necessary as currency in trades for high-priced stars.

The question then becomes whether the contracts the Knicks agreed to Monday will be seen as positive or even neutral-value in trades or as the kind of overpays that force teams to add extra draft picks to complete a trade -- for example, the New Orleans Pelicans taking back Eric Bledsoe in the Jrue Holiday trade before needing to give up draft compensation to move Bledsoe to the Memphis Grizzlies less than a year later.
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I think the Knicks decided that waiting on a top FA to sign was fools gold. Better to build a team that can consistently get to the playoffs and then use our extra draft picks and reasonable contracts to facilitate a trade for a superstar. Time will tell if this works.

franco12 wrote:

TheGame wrote:Essentially, the Knicks told Thibbs, you wanted these guys (Rose, McBride, and Grimes), well we got them, so go play them and win.

The other aspect of these deals is that Burks’s deal may be tradeable at the deadline to a team needing a third scorer. We might be able to pull another Morris like move and trade Burks for a late first rounder.

with top 18 protection converting to a post card from San Diego in 5 years?

Let's just get this out of the way. Let's say you need to buy a new phone. Your budget is 500$. And you settled on a model. You go to the store. The owner says, good choice, but how about this? I will give you your model of choice for your 500$, but we are having a promotion from the manufacturer that if you buy until the end of the month you enter a raffle and have a chance to win another phone next year, and if you don't win then again next year, and so on until in year 4 if you don't win you get a set a 🎧. The alternative is just buying the same phone for the same $500 buy without the raffle.

TheGame wrote:This is part of an article by Kevin Pelton, which sums up the issue:

The concern is if the Knicks re-sign Randle as an unrestricted free agent next summer, they could find themselves without cap space for years to come as Barrett and Robinson potentially get raises off their rookie contracts.

Presumably, New York management would counter that free agency hasn't yielded stars in the past and seems less likely to in the future as more and more players extend rather than testing the market at all. The Knicks' real path to a star, they'd point out, is through the trade market. New York is now flush with the kind of moderate eight-figure contracts often necessary as currency in trades for high-priced stars.

The question then becomes whether the contracts the Knicks agreed to Monday will be seen as positive or even neutral-value in trades or as the kind of overpays that force teams to add extra draft picks to complete a trade -- for example, the New Orleans Pelicans taking back Eric Bledsoe in the Jrue Holiday trade before needing to give up draft compensation to move Bledsoe to the Memphis Grizzlies less than a year later.
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I think the Knicks decided that waiting on a top FA to sign was fools gold. Better to build a team that can consistently get to the playoffs and then use our extra draft picks and reasonable contracts to facilitate a trade for a superstar. Time will tell if this works.

I can’t argue with that. Time and time again, we’ve seen players go back to their original teams, get the most money they can, and later force their trades to their best pals.

I’m not saying I love this thinking or that given the contracts they have handed, it will be an easy thing to do. I guess Burks has an attractive deal. Fournier had teams wanting him this last trading deadline. But Noel might be overpriced to other teams as I think only the Knicks make his deal valuable the way they play him. His value might come in making Mitch available, which is huge because he is one of our most attractive assets. The Rose deal is an overpay, which makes me think he would be out of any deal. IQ, we love you but you are more likely to be included in a big trade than ever.

In the end, it’s understandable what they decided to do if they are thinking on a trading deadline move for a star that forces his way here. Assets might not seem very attractive because we know most of the players and the grass is always greener elsewhere, but I guess an argument to be made is that they know the players so they could expect to keep their value up while the trade possibility happens.

I see a marginal upgrade here and some surplus with young players for a bigger trade. IQ/Toppin/Robinson probably gets you something doesn't it?