If the Knicks can’t get their preferred choices at point guard, the Timberwolves‘ D’Angelo Russell could become an option this summer, writes Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report.
New York has a strong connection to Russell in Gersson Rosas, who was recently named senior basketball advisor after spending time with the organization as a consultant. Fischer notes that when Rosas was president of basketball operations in Minnesota, he traded Andrew Wiggins and a lottery pick to the Warriors for Russell in 2020 after missing out on him in free agency.
Russell, who has a $31.4MM expiring contract next season, took some heat after a disappointing performance in the Wolves’ brief playoff run. The emergence of other backcourt options in Minnesota might make him expendable as the team looks to the future.
Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell remains the Knicks’ dream choice, but getting him appears unlikely even if Utah decides to shake up its roster, Fischer writes. He cites “healthy skepticism” around the league that New York can make the best offer for Mitchell, noting that Miami could potentially put together a deal centered around Tyler Herro and multiple first-round picks.
The Knicks have also been linked to Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson, who is headed toward free agency, but Fischer hears there’s a “growing sense” around the league that Brunson will remain in Dallas. Fischer expects Brunson’s new contract to top $20MM per season and says John Collins‘ five-year, $125MM extension could be a good comparison.
New York can only offer four years to Brunson and would need to clear out significant cap space first. Sources tell Fischer that the Knicks unsuccessfully tried to move Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel ahead of the trade deadline to begin opening cap room. Fischer cites league executives who believe New York would have to include either the No. 11 pick in this year’s draft or Immanuel Quickley in any deal to unload salary.
Fischer adds that one factor working in the Knicks’ favor in their pursuit of Brunson is that they can offer him the chance to be the undisputed leader of the offense, which he won’t have in Dallas playing alongside Luka Doncic. Fischer notes that if Brunson signs with the Pistons, who are also reported to be interested, he would be in the same situation with Cade Cunningham.
Sources also tell Fischer that New York won’t be among the teams pursuing Cavaliers free agent guard Collin Sexton. Cleveland is interested in keeping him, but it could be difficult considering the team’s salary commitment to other players. Fischer hears that the Pacers, Pistons and Wizards will all be in the market for Sexton.
Julius randle is for sure more a albatross then trade asset right now that’s for sure ! Last year was a outlier a fluke ( and still had a low ceiling for a team ) ! This year is more like what happens to a team that has randle as a key player! He needs to find his niche as a role player but he’s way to overpaid for that now
I would swap Tobias for him
I don’t think Randle is a better player/fit in Philly than Tobias. I can’t really think about a team getting Randle, IMO is one of the worst contracts in the league right now..
I order to move him NY will need him to rise his value this season.
Lol 1 of the worst contracts in the league? Wow. Yall are something else.
Lol remember back all the way in 2021 when yall LOVED Julius Randle? Please recognize that you guys are extremely willing & extremely capable of turning on any of these guys just as quickly. If Ja Morant ever gets hurt or hasn’t won a title in 4,5yrs yall are gonna call him all sorts of disrespectful names
Prolly will not have to test tge ‘hasn’t won a title’ portion. But the way he plays he could be DRose 2.0
DRose, Ralph Sampson, Otis Birdsong or whoever. If/when Ja gets hurt yall are gonna turn on him. If he doesn’t win a title soon yall will turn on him. Any other popular player that everyone is in love with rn, JTatum for example. If his #s dip just a lil bit yall will turn on him & act like you never liked him in the 1st place. There’s hundreds of examples of this in the NBA
I was a HUGE fan of D. Rose, i mean, HUGE. but i don’t get why its “turning on him”, acknowledging his decline because of injuries. That was a fact. And I think too that Ja looks like he is gonna break his legs anytime. But again, Randle was and never will have a peak on Rose/Ja lvl.
I promise you weren’t a huge fan of DRose. If that was true then you’d still be a huge fan of his. Anyone who was paying attention back then remembers how savagely many,many ‘fans’ criticized Rose for not coming back soon enough & not playing as soon as Chicago’s doctors cleared him. It was sick, especially considering he got hurt again after returning. I mean look you are the way you are & you’re not gonna change. Same for all the others that are roasting Randle & Westbrook & Harden & so many other great players that fans love to shxt on. There’s a deep seeded resentment there that goes way deeper than basketball & it’s obv not going anywhere… you obv missing my point if you’re talking about Randle not being as great as Rose or Ja. It doesn’t matter how great the guy is at basketball. LeBron James gets shot on as bad or worse than anyone & he’s arguably the best to ever play this game. James Harden & Russ Westbrook are 1st ballot HOFers. Don’t matter how great Randle is, yall would turn on him at some point no matter what. Ask Dwight, ask KD, ask Melo, I mean it’s just what yall do. Now it’s Randles turn
Sank just takes everything personal. Acts like he used to or still does play in the NBA. Post your stats dawg, I’d love to see them. You know everything about every player and say stuff like “dude playing in the NBA& playing well is very hard”. Lmao. Everyone who was a huge D.Rose fan is just simply not allowed to be his fan anymore if they were sad about his downfall and moved on. Sank is the all-knowing Gate Keeper God of basketball.
We can confirm that 2021 was an absolute fluke in his career. He average more than 0.05% 3FG and FT% than any other season. And that was only the RS (71 games) he has only played one Playoff series in his career, against a kinda mediocre ATL team, and he was really really bad. His attitude is really bad.
He is still an ok player, but he needs to adress that he is not a 1st or 2nd guy on a championship team lvl, but the problem is the amount of money he has in the upcoming years, with a Player option. He is really overpaid and is far too long his contract. That’s why he is one of the worst contracts in the league.
He will never reach Morant’s lvl, and Ja hasn’t peaked yet, so the comparison isn’t accurate.
He’s still an ok player lol. Dude playing basketball in the NBA& playing well is extremely hard. Julius Randle is MUCH better at playing NBA basketball than you are at watching/comprehending NBA basketball. Your job is much, much easier. All you have to do is watch as many games as you can & like halfway understand what you’re watching while trying to curb your inherent biases. You have clearly proven to be terrible at this. Yet here you are savagely criticizing a guy who is easily the best player on his team & 1 of the best at his position in the entire world… look inward & get that straight before you throw stones at a guy who literally put up an efficient 20/10 on a nightly basis as a 4 playing without a pg for the vast majority of the season
hahahah why are you taking this so personal? wtf.
To measure a player’s value you have to consider his lvl of play and his contract. He actually is a borderline all-star, and has one all-NBA season, that’s really nice. But his production, contract and attitude makes him a really hard to move contract and that’s a fact. He struggled mightly in his only playoff series played, and i repeat MIGHTLY he was absolutely awful that series, that’s another fact. So stop talking about Randle like he is one of the top 25# players in the league because he isn’t.
Sank is very sensitive. Just go easy.
Lol you wonder why I care about you being horrible toward these basketball players. Why not ask yourself why you’re like that tho? I’ll tell you why I take it personal (I’ve spelled it out pretty plainly if you’re paying attention), if you tell me why your 1st instinct is to hate on these guys?
Pointing out something is not hating on anyone.
Being a fan of a player doesn’t mean you are blind and will support your favourite player always.
What if your fav player turns out to be a violent person outside the court, or racist, or something bad like that, you will still support him? LoL
Your 1st sentence makes zero sense smh. I mean just read that aloud. If I’m in line at Disney and I get everyone’s attention & say, “look at how fat this kid is!”, I’ve obviously both pointed something out & hated on a kid simultaneously. Hating is often pointing something out. This isn’t even considering how wrong you were about much of what you were talking about.. lol u are a trip fr, if Joe Johnson turned out to be an awful person I wouldn’t be as big a fan, thats true. But what should be extremely obvious (like bruh why do I have to explain this to someone over the age of 8?!?) is the fact that Randle or Russ or Harden haven’t done anything bad like that. I’m sure you’d love a legit excuse to use as a reason for hating so hard on these guys but these are all just normal guys that love hooping. None of em been in any trouble. The entire reason that you & thousands of new yorkers turned on Randle so quick was bc the Knicks had a disappointing yr. This is the same people that were yelling “Jackie” at Tim Anderson in Yankee Stadium. It’s wild to me that yall are still able to convince yourselves that’s normal behavior & that you’re justified in disrespecting these guys like that
If a kid is fat or tall or small, etc. is meaningless. Randle is a professional athlete that has a contract based on his performace. That comes with expectations.
Pointing out that X player is and inefficent scorer, high usage and a below average defender, is a fact and it comes with being a professional athlete. Grow up kid.
And by the way, im not a Knicks fan, i love bball.
Please please please don’t say you love basketball smh. I love basketball and it’s extremely obvious that we feel very differently about this game. I’m also not a Knicks fan & I’m not even a Randle fan. Never been a big fan of his game & while Knicks fans were rejoicing over giving him an extension last yr I was literally the sole person in here saying Randle wasn’t gonna lead them where they wanted to go… that being said it’s very clear that he’s a very very good forward. To blame him for the Knicks struggles is just childish and shallow fr. Any scoring forward in the history of the game (possible exception of Bron) is gonna be way more effective when playing with a competent pg. Same fans who didn’t realize (& somehow still dont) how big a loss EPayton was gonna be are the same ones that are befuddled as to why Randle (& the team defense) wasn’t as dominant. Give him a pg & watch how the sheep line up to get back onbhis bandwagon next yr… also Randle isn’t an inefficient scorer, his PER was above league average yet again. Ofc he’s high usage, he’s their best player. And he’s not a below average defender just bc he’s better offensively than defensively. He’s about average defensively
Sank you’re hardly the only one saying the Knicks would dip… That was pretty much the convential wisdom, as was that the Knicks were overpaying all their players up for contract. Randle’s $24m is actually a good deal… But they did trade Payton & a couple others so he was not going to be happy or feel supported.
Sanakra is just a KD burner.
Elmajesty you have confirmed nothing.
That arguement is absolutely unmoving. Your margins are small and you use simple, cherrypicked statistis like a simpleton.
PER aggregates a number of stats besides FT% to give a more complete picture of performance and the average leaguewide is 15.
Randle has exceeded his 21/22 PER twice previously… his game was already at 21/22 levels. The dips in 20/21 when the HC did not support him, and 22/23 when his allies were moved and he moped, were the outliers. Beyond those circumstances, he improved steadily and is def a 20 PER player rn.
His on-off and Rating also dipped from positive to negative. These are the combo stats I look at, taking overall efficiency; some use WS, VORP or BPM.
The issue with Randle is leadership, a negative, not talent or performance if motivated. Tired of this outlier talk; it just leads to using bad stats to justify whatever it the user wanted to say anyway.
BTW Randle is far from maxed; a comparison to players that are is apples to oranges.
No the fact is last year was a fluke for randle his three point shooting and off the dribble long twos where as big a outlier as ad the jump shooter In the bubble !
Last year was more indicative of a team with Julius randle as a key player ! He can put up counting stats but it doesn’t mean anything his team will get destroyed frequently !
Again he needs to find his niche as a role player but right now he’s paid like a star which of course he is not and that’s means he’s trade value is nill
I’m sure he’s a great swell guy personally though doesn’t make him worth being a franchise pillar though
Julius randle will get multiple shots to prove Knicks fans defending him as correct bc nobody is gonna trade a star for a package or junk led by him nobody! Nobody is gonna trade young players salary fillers and picks for a non star like randle nobody! He’s so Knick for life or at least until that under water contract expires
I’m not going to jump into the Randle on court value discussion (it’s personal) but I hope I can clear up that Randles salary at mid 20’s is nowhere near MAX
It’s a hair higher than guys like Buddy Heild and Brogdon
Those guys have neutral at best trade value maybe even negative ! But I think randle is closer to their level then he is second star on a good team (not contended but good team ) status !
He needs like a Lamar Odom on the lakers title team role! He’ was better then a role player but not a stair eithe! I don’t thunk randle has close to the talent Odom had but a role like that would maybe fit him! Or you can give him 20 shots a game and his team will go nowhere !
@c&c Agree but worth noting it’s ascending in value. Jules will get paid about $28 in the final year of the deal, which is about 4-5m more than Brog and Buddy deals
@everyone-else IMO Randle’s value is relative to the team’s composition. He makes sense as a nominal “third star” for a team w/ championship aspirations (Lakers, Clippers), like maybe what people think Simmons could be in BK
As a foundational piece though, while he’s probably not overpaid by today’s standards, it’s probably a misallocation of resources.
Yea but markets market ya know –
Id take Randle at 25 AAV over the freshly minted Rozier at 22 AAV and I like Rozier. He just offers soo much more if both are running optimally
I get the off court issues w Randle that’s why I say “personal” and don’t go deeper there
Your word of misallocation tho is very keen and cuts a few layers deeper than the conversation was heading above. I probably agree with where your heading there I’d assume but that’s a different conversation
@Noel @Sank
Regardless of the fact he regressed this year and his on court issues Randle’s contract is far, far, far from an albatross.
20/10/5 …. that’s Randle, Jokic and Giannis ONLY with KAT, Embid, Sabonis and Doncic coming very close. His shooting %’s aren’t great at 41/30/76 but his FG% is far off from his career average and might just be an outlier. A change of scenery, especially to a team with a good PG (Doncic, CP, Lillard), can change that, easily. In a day when guys like Westbrook, Wall, Simmons, Harden and Porter Jr are getting $35-$48 mil, Randle’s roughly 4/$107 mil world out to about $27 mil. That’s not bad considering his production, durability and age. If his attitude improves with a change of scenery he could be an allstar again for another team outside the bright lights of NY. He’s from Dallas and they could use a scorer in the post.
RJ has little value.
Knicks can trade him and sign him in 2023.
Let’s say RJ signs 4-year contract at $100 million
OG has 3-year contract at $50 million
What is your trade proposal?
he was a bona fide all star for some experts in here back then
hahaha
Rj barrett still might yet develop to a star but even if he doesn’t he’s still the Knicks most valuable player and or trade chip for s star!
Brunson’s new contract says John Collins‘ five-year, $125MM extension could be a good comparison.
Under-sized Brunson true value is 4-year $70 million, imo. Market value is 4-year $100 million plus.
True value?
I will be exciting if Knicks can find a way to acquire Russell, Brunson and Collins.
Knicks starters
Russell
Brunson
Randle
Collins
Mitch
Playoffs team
Trade away the big trade value of RJ and Obi.
playout team if thee ever was a playout in nba
whos gonna defend apart from robinson?whos playing SF, collins?
I don’t understand why burks would be hard to move, it’s one year at 10 mil for a guy who’s shot 40 percent from 3 on 5 attempts last 3 years.
Noel getting hurt, Again obviously scares teams off but he is dpoy candidate if healthy and playing starter minutes, just a black hole on offense.
Burks has little trade value. Raptors won’t trade OG for him and filler.
The Blazers could create over $30 million in cap space or use their $20.8 million trade exception to acquire OG.
Jazz have made an offer to acquire OG.
What could the Wolves possibly want from the Knicks tho, maybe they’d be cool taking on Randle and that contract? Can’t see Knicks trading RJ.
Make them take Kemba too and that’s a deal. D’Lo and IQ bring similar things to the table, and they’re on opposite trajectories, but opening PT for Obi, giving the pouting Randle a fresh start, and clearing long-term salary makes it worthwhile.
I see Randle thriving in a smaller market, with an easier to please fan base, and an alpha (a genial one at that) already established.
I think the Knicks would still want a bit more value back for Randle. Minnesota has a bunch of 2nd rounders this year that could come in handy.
Obi? The deal would need to involve more, but the Wolves could just some more firepower off the bench at the PF spot. Don’t see it happening but you never know.
Only reason I’d consider Russell is if he nets Towns down the road, who is from Jersey. Otherwise the Knicks are taking on a stats pusher who won’t mesh well with Thibs philosophy. Expiring contract is nice, but at what cost?
Would you do RJ and Fournier for D-Lo?
$31 million for $31 million
im not high on RJ but that’s a HARD no for the Knicks
Are you nuts?
This is a rhetorical question, right?
No. Never.
Knicks fans always overrate RJ trade value.
RJ do have an expiring contract. Fournier is overpaid.
I guarantee they’ll be calling RJ a bum & trying to get him traded or run out the league in 2yrs or less
Knicks can trade RJ, and then sign him back in 2023
Field Goal
RJ: 41%
Poole is a better player than RJ
2019 draft pick
RJ is 3rd pick
Poole is 28th pick
Irrelevant because there’s simply no way the Knicks not only don’t sign RJ long term but instead move him for a rental just to get Fournier off the books. It’s just not happening in this or any other universe.
And I too am not very high on RJ. But that doesn’t change things.
Yeah reading the words “Knicks” “interested” and “D’Angelo Russell” in the same sentence is pretty much the last thing I’d like to see as Knicks fan on this website
I didn’t think it was possible for someone to write more cluelessly on the Knicks than Berman. I was wrong. Berman is lazy and, at times, is merely serving up fodder for the feeble minded, and maybe that’s true here as well.
Funniest thing is Rosas being the Knick “connection” to DR? I’d think that Rosas wouldn’t want to mention DR’s name outside of a confessional; let alone sell his new employer on the guy. The only way that DR is on the Knicks next year is as an expiring contract in a swap for Randle, and that assumes that the Knicks are ready to move on from Randle, which doesn’t appear to be the case.
By July 1st, the Knicks will have made their pick at #11 (or trade up or down from it), and Brunson will re-up with DAL. So, two idiotic narratives disappear. If Brunson has a change of heart and wants to come here, and he and the Knicks agree on a deal, then, like in every other instance, the parties will do a S&T or a third party salary dump for the same consideration. If a 1st is involved at all, it will be DAL 2023. Not #11, and certainly won’t involve Quickley.
Lmao he is 100% available in trades. That’s about it for why he is a potential fit.
How about this?
76ers get D-Lo, Beasley and a lottery protected First
Wolves get Harden and Thybulle
Harden is declining at the fast pace?
Just Russell and Beasley for Harden works.
Wolves would be fools to do it though. Harden is fading fast.
Why would the T-Wolves do any of this?
The only believable info here is “Pacers, Pistons and Wizards will all be in the market for Sexton” -and- “Knicks unsuccessfully tried to move Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel ahead of the trade deadline”.
Dallas could benefit by losing Brunson if they use him to get a center and stop calling Dinwiddie a wing.
After this postseason is Brunson’s value high enough to net back Gobert?
Utah would have to move off Conley for it to make roster sense, but a Brunson-Mitchell pairing ……. is probably not great but it “something different” w/o blowing it up completely
Didn’t Conley re-up with the Jazz not too long ago? Hole in the middle and double large PG contracts would be “different.”
Man, really hope that D’Lo thing is smoke. Much rather go after Brogdon or even give Quickley some real PG time
I can only hope this is a slow news day RE Russell… but leaving that aside, this is why I was low on these signings from last summer. Even if they’re shorter contracts it’s still hampering NY’s ability to at least make a competitive offer for a guy like Brunson.
While I’m not his biggest fan on this board, he would almost certainly be NYs best player if they could sign him – and I think he’d be a solid fit next to RJ.
Instead we’re talking about using our lottery pick and bait to get off Noel and Fournier, smh
I love Brunson personally think he’d be great on the Knicks. Maybe it was a fleeting well time’d year but the way the PG market stands right now I’m taking that risk tho I doubt Cuban let’s him slip away now
I’ve warmed to Al’s boy Dins for NYK as well recently but still feel the best move is probably no move for this club…..(at least till next trade deadline )
With all those 1+1’s Id think your phone should be ringing more than calling out this offseason…… may be able to high ground an overpay outta someone if desperation levels heat up
Yeah I have to agree w/ Al in retrospect that Dins ended up being worth his contract (altho if you asked me in December…)
I agree – my preference for NY has been to stand pat since end of last year, unless there’s a move to bring a true All NBA talent to MSG
This roster needs to basically see what it has in the young dudes and definitely *not* mortgage lotto picks to dump salaries
There’s nothing on the books will prevent NYK’s ability to make any offer they want to Brunson, or prevent him from coming here if he wants to. I’m not sure who’s discussing trading a lottery pick to get off any contract we have, but its not the Knicks, and it couldn’t involve a Brunson deal in any event.
Better to have cap space than expiring deals, because a FA signing via S&T requires a toll. But it’s hard to have cap space every year. Players don’t want 1 year deals, and thus they require a premium to sign them.
Paragraphs 5+6 above state:
– NY would need to offload salary to make an offer for JB
– They could look to attach IQ or #11 to do so – now that’s league executive speculation, true, but this entire site in based on such speculation, no?
Quick trip on the Google also seems to suggest NY will be over the cap this summer as well. Don’t believe NY can go over the cap to sign another teams FA but I could be wrong on that
Agree that it’s hard to have cap every year – and the exp returns of cap sp are asp diminishing – *yet* NY has signed multiple players (Fournier, Noel, Kemba, arguably Rose, also arguably Randle) who are taking up chunks of cap space and also are, to put it kindly, less than highly valued around the league. Which seems less than ideal for the 22 offseason
Personally, I’d have not signed any of those that were signed last year, including Randle – make him prove it. I suspect Thibs had something to do with the signings – he’d rather play the vets than the rookies. While Thibs achieved good results in his first year, I question his hire.
The FO needs to be patient. See the build through and draft based on talent. Play the kids and develop them, and stop burning money on vets that have zero record of success, such as Walker and Fournier. With that said, I don’t believe Brunson is the answer and hope they don’t pursue him. And hopefully they learned how to draft after passing on Halliburton. That pick was too easy and yet they managed to screw it up.
@padam –
Coming off a surprise 41-31 season, would you want to do anything to build on it, or just demo the thing same as if we won 20 games? How does Randle fit in with that (you say you wouldn’t have extended Randle, but apparently you weren’t going to trade him either)? I ask because you’ll apparently be surrounding him with a new group (since you didn’t like the guys who went 41-31), and reduced emphasis on winning (if any). If that’s the case, then why not just trade him off a career year?
Did you like Fizdale as a HC here? He was epitome of a HC that played the kids for development regardless of merit or W/L impact. Do you think we were (below the radar obviously) making progress under him? I mean progress on the court (not in accumulating high picks through poor records). If not Fizdale, what HC with that approach (play the kids regardless) do you like?
The issue is the front office. All the miscues they’ve made in the past 20 years, going from one direction to another, changing gears, bad signings, poor draft picks, questionable coaches (Hornacek, Thibs with a young rebuild), etc.
I liked Fiz, but the expectations handed down put him in a bad situation – an environment that wouldn’t help him be successful (or anyone else for that matter). The Knicks need to stick to a strategy. Because they surprise everyone and have a decent year doesn’t mean we bring back the band and sign more players with zero success because cap is available. The reality is they weren’t going to win with that roster. And if they (FO) did believe they could, another change needs to happen up above. They have a handful of players worth keeping – mostly backups with the exception of RJ. IQ, Topin, Grimes and McBride are all interesting, but more solid draft picks are needed for the foundation and only then (when the cap is available again) will they hopefully be able to attract the ‘right’ free agent(s) to the team. Well, that’s my take.
Any team can make an offer (CHI made an offer to DDR, and MIA to Lowry, last year without cap space), they just can’t sign the FA until they either open up cap space or do a S&T. They don’t need to, and wouldn’t, open up cap space in advance on draft day to make an offer in the coming FA period.
If you mean that actually getting Brunson could cost us a future 1st, whereas if we had cap space for his salary we could have gotten him without giving up that future 1st, then YES, I agree.
But it won’t be a lottery pick or Quickley just because Fischer was able to find (or make-up) an “executive” willing to make a generic statement about what we might need to do to open up cap space. There’s a market for these things (both S&T tolls and emergency salary dumps), and it’s pretty consistent. If its a real executive, then I’d bet it’s the same executive who ripped the Knicks FO in a Fischer column after the trade deadline, for the crime of rejecting his proposed deal because we wanted something beyond an expiring contract for Burks and Noel. If we had traded both in his deal, I wonder if he would still think that it would take a lottery pick to dump them.