Insider: Precious Achiuwa and Isaiah Hartenstein contract projections

Will they budge, or will they not? Will they budget, or will they not?

Those two questions are related to two different parties that will have to enter negotiations in less than four months.

The first one is related to the New York Knicks’ big men Precious Achiuwa and Isaiah Hartenstein. The second one is related to the Knicks franchise and its top-to-bottom brass.

Achiuwa and I-Hart will enter July as free agents. The former is restricted but the latter will be free to sign a deal wherever he wants without the Knicks having a chance to match. The Knicks, mind you, might not want to match any deal nor offer a contract to any of those two players.

With a month left in the regular season, New York has a three-man rotation in the paint boasting true centers Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein as well as big-forward tweener Precious Achiuwa.

Robinson signed a four-year, $60 million deal back in July 2022. Hartenstein signed a two-year, $19 million contract at the same time Mitch did. Achiuwa arrived in New York via trade last December and is still playing under his rookie-scale contract, earning $4.3 million this season.

Stefan Bondy of the New York Post shared an interesting projection made by ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks for the next contracts Achiuwa and Hartenstein might sign come July.

Marks projected Achiwua’s free agency value at “$8 million-$10 million in annual salary,” and the former Brooklyn Nets Assistant GM also estimated “a $13 million-$14 million annual salary” for Hartenstein’s next deal.

Again, Robinson’s deal runs through June 2026 on a decreasing basis with the big boy scheduled to earn $14.3 million next season and then a bit below $13 million in his final year before hitting the open market.

The Knicks, whether they want it or not, will need to make a decision come July. Staying idle would mean both Achiuwa and Hartenstein will be playing basketball elsewhere next season. Re-signing one (or the two) of them would mean filling the cap.

According to Marks, there will be something interesting brewing in the upcoming big-man free-agent market simply because of the lack of interesting, available players.

“Centers don’t get big money anymore, but Achuiwa and Hartenstein benefit from a weak free-agency class at that position,” Marks told Bondy. Brooklyn’s Nic Claxton and New Orleans’ Jonas Valanciunas are mentioned as the best players expected to be available next summer.

As Bondy noted, and assuming the Knicks bring back OG Anunoby, “re-signing both Achiuwa and Hartenstein will send them into the luxury tax.”

What will the Knicks do next? Have Achiuwa and Hartenstein already done enough to guarantee them an extension to stay put in New York next season and beyond? Will the Knicks do a 180-degree turn and bring those two backs while trying to find a team to trade Robinson to? Will everything depend on what happens in the playoffs when New York (hopefully) will have all of their players available and a healthy rotation?

Many questions, only 15 regular-season games and an undetermined postseason run to solve all of them.