RJ Barrett Extension Created 'Incredible Amount Of Animus' Between Knicks, Jazz

[BostonCouchGM]

Knicks played themselves

[niha17]

Jazz still going to have a better record then the knicks this year i bet

[bockingknickers]

So knicks sign him in 2 years when he’s a FA without giving up the farm. Will still be in prime assuming no injuries. I’m ok with extending rj, seeing how we develop guys and draft wisely hopefully for once. Kind of tired of seeing the same thing of trading away a decade of potential talent for 1 or 2 players which never works out.

[Rashidi]

A lot of people on this forum who don't seem to understand that the Knicks had no business trading multiple unprotected picks when a Mitchell trade wouldn't even guarantee them a playoff berth.

The Knicks could have met Utah's price. They chose not to. Now wasn't the time to push all their chips in.

[dice]

It was a bitch move by Leon who was more concerned with showing Ainge how tough he was as opposed to keeping his eyes on the prize.

is "the prize" mortgaging the future to make the playoffs again? 'cause that trade wouldn't have made the knicks a contender at all

[HighRyzer83]

Disagree. It was a horrible fit with Brunson. Most Knick fans are happy this did not come off. If Mitchell was so elite then why did the Jazz fail in the playoffs? Looks like it made more sense for the Cavs with dual rim protectors to protect a small back court.

First the Knicks have to get to the playoffs before they can fail there

MItchell has made the playoffs every season he's been in the league and scored more than 28 ppg in those games (not a small sample size).

He immediately replaced Gordon Hayward's production as a rookie (Jazz had only been in the playoffs twice in 7 seasons with Hayward; and only once in 4 seasons with both Hayward and Gobert). The Jazz won 260 games in Mitchell's 5 seasons vs. the Knicks had almost that many losses (243) and won just 1 playoff game in 5 years.

We'll see who the Knicks get instead of Mitchell-- could still workout better for them.

But "not a good fit with Brunson" seems like the wrong way to look at it. Are Knicks fans happy paying $104M to a guy who has just 18 playoff starts and during those games has a worse 3PT%, worse FT%, fewer pts/reb/ast than Mitchell, while only being a #2 option in shot volume and 4th on the team in minutes. Mitchell didn't have a top-5 player next to him where the defense was focused like Brunson did. And they are exactly the same age.

Signing Brunson might end up a bigger mistake than trading for Mitchell would've been.

I wouldn't be surprised if SGA demands out and ends up in NYC. If so, that's a much better fit and less selfish player.

I agree that SGA would be a great fit because Mitchell is an absolutely horrible fit, but SGA is a PG and the Knicks went through high water to get Brunson. Then they got Quickly and Rose and then there's rokas who's lighting it up in Europe. I just think they should steer away from PG for the time being.

[Rashidi]

The extension was a really dumb move by the Knicks. It's objectively kind of a bad contract -- no reason to do it now, could have waited till next year for RJ to prove himself as a 30 mil a year player. And the Cavs wound up getting Mitchell for the kind of package that, as a Knicks fan, I would have generally supported. So now my Knicks are stuck with, as I saw it put brilliantly on social media, a "mid-3," where they're paying three average-ish players in Randle, Barrett, and Brunson a large amount of money (not to mention 60 million for Mitch and 20+ a year for Fournier) but aren't good enough to be relevant, but aren't bad enough to tank. Unless they can convert some of their picks and prospects into an actual high-level player like Mitchell, this is a treadmill team. I think Leon Rose has been a failure for the most part.

Yeah, they could have waited until RJ proves himself to be a 30 mil a year player. The other choice was not giving him 30 million a year, and they went with that instead. What a dumb move. What an objectively bad contract.

It's actually about $25/year. Which is meh. With the salary cap about to get raised again, it's not that bad. RJ's a hard worker, hopefully he takes it to the next level this season.

It's more so about the poison pill. Trading Barrett becomes much harder post-extension because for cap purposes he becomes the average $ of his contract, rather than the 10M it previously was. The Jazz would have had to send 26M back in salary.

[Rashidi]

I agree that SGA would be a great fit because Mitchell is an absolutely horrible fit, but SGA is a PG and the Knicks went through high water to get Brunson.

SGA has played SG the vast majority of his career.

2019: Pat Beverley
2020: Chris Paul
2021: Played PG (after George Hill's injury).
2022: Josh Giddey

[HighRyzer83]

Jazz still going to have a better record then the knicks this year i bet

I'd take that bet. Sig?

[gavran]

The extension was a really dumb move by the Knicks. It's objectively kind of a bad contract -- no reason to do it now, could have waited till next year for RJ to prove himself as a 30 mil a year player. And the Cavs wound up getting Mitchell for the kind of package that, as a Knicks fan, I would have generally supported. So now my Knicks are stuck with, as I saw it put brilliantly on social media, a "mid-3," where they're paying three average-ish players in Randle, Barrett, and Brunson a large amount of money (not to mention 60 million for Mitch and 20+ a year for Fournier) but aren't good enough to be relevant, but aren't bad enough to tank. Unless they can convert some of their picks and prospects into an actual high-level player like Mitchell, this is a treadmill team. I think Leon Rose has been a failure for the most part.

Yeah, they could have waited until RJ proves himself to be a 30 mil a year player. The other choice was not giving him 30 million a year, and they went with that instead. What a dumb move. What an objectively bad contract.

Yes, I was mocking the guy.

It's actually about $25/year. Which is meh. With the salary cap about to get raised again, it's not that bad. RJ's a hard worker, hopefully he takes it to the next level this season.

[HarthorneWingo]

Yeah, they could have waited until RJ proves himself to be a 30 mil a year player. The other choice was not giving him 30 million a year, and they went with that instead. What a dumb move. What an objectively bad contract.

It's actually about $25/year. Which is meh. With the salary cap about to get raised again, it's not that bad. RJ's a hard worker, hopefully he takes it to the next level this season.

It's more so about the poison pill. Trading Barrett becomes much harder post-extension because for cap purposes he becomes the average $ of his contract, rather than the 10M it previously was. The Jazz would have had to send 26M back in salary.

Yeah, well, Leon's a dumb ass.

[HarthorneWingo]

Yeah, they could have waited until RJ proves himself to be a 30 mil a year player. The other choice was not giving him 30 million a year, and they went with that instead. What a dumb move. What an objectively bad contract.

It's actually about $25/year. Which is meh. With the salary cap about to get raised again, it's not that bad. RJ's a hard worker, hopefully he takes it to the next level this season.

Yes, I was mocking the guy.

You're Hungarian sense of humor is difficult to pick up on an internet post.

[HarthorneWingo]

It was a bitch move by Leon who was more concerned with showing Ainge how tough he was as opposed to keeping his eyes on the prize.

is "the prize" mortgaging the future to make the playoffs again? 'cause that trade wouldn't have made the knicks a contender at all

Then why engage in trade talks at all? That's something you decide before getting down to negotiations and contemplate giving up your former no. 3 pick, a bunch of first round picks, etc. My point is, having identified DM as their primary target, they executed a poor game plan, IMO.

[knicks94]

I don’t know how some who have watched the Knicks since 1947 are upset at the fact that the team didn’t mortgage the future so that they could get swept in the first round by Miami or Milwaukee.

And this notion that superstar free agents would have been lining up to sign with the Knicks had Mitchell been playing for them is a logical fallacy created by ESPN and different media outlets who have no clue about anything and are only interested in getting millions of clicks.

The truth is that most superstars spurn the Knicks in free agency because 1.They do not have the mental capacity to handle the pressure of playing under the bright lights of MSG and having to be the ones that end a 50 year championship drought 2.They do not want to play for a franchise owned by Dolan. Lebron, Wade, Bosh, KD and Kyrie all had opportunities to join the Knicks and pair up with other elite players and they didn't because of these reasons.

[dice]

I don’t know how some who have watched the Knicks since 1947 are upset at the fact that the team didn’t mortgage the future so that they could get swept in the first round by Miami or Milwaukee.

And this notion that superstar free agents would have been lining up to sign with the Knicks had Mitchell been playing for them is a logical fallacy created by ESPN and different media outlets who have no clue about anything and are only interested in getting millions of clicks.

The truth is that most superstars spurn the Knicks in free agency because 1.They do not have the mental capacity to handle the pressure of playing under the bright lights of MSG and having to be the ones that end a 50 year championship drought 2.They do not want to play for a franchise owned by Dolan. Lebron, Wade, Bosh, KD and Kyrie all had opportunities to join the Knicks and pair up with other elite players and they didn't because of these reasons.

i'm not buying the MSG pressure argument, but i agree with everything else

[Pickled Prunes]

I don’t know how some who have watched the Knicks since 1947 are upset at the fact that the team didn’t mortgage the future so that they could get swept in the first round by Miami or Milwaukee.

And this notion that superstar free agents would have been lining up to sign with the Knicks had Mitchell been playing for them is a logical fallacy created by ESPN and different media outlets who have no clue about anything and are only interested in getting millions of clicks.

The truth is that most superstars spurn the Knicks in free agency because 1.They do not have the mental capacity to handle the pressure of playing under the bright lights of MSG and having to be the ones that end a 50 year championship drought 2.They do not want to play for a franchise owned by Dolan. Lebron, Wade, Bosh, KD and Kyrie all had opportunities to join the Knicks and pair up with other elite players and they didn't because of these reasons.

i'm not buying the MSG pressure argument, but i agree with everything else

Agreed, the MSG lights are not any brighter than anywhere else. Once the ball goes up location becomes irrelevant.

[dice]

I don’t know how some who have watched the Knicks since 1947 are upset at the fact that the team didn’t mortgage the future so that they could get swept in the first round by Miami or Milwaukee.

And this notion that superstar free agents would have been lining up to sign with the Knicks had Mitchell been playing for them is a logical fallacy created by ESPN and different media outlets who have no clue about anything and are only interested in getting millions of clicks.

The truth is that most superstars spurn the Knicks in free agency because 1.They do not have the mental capacity to handle the pressure of playing under the bright lights of MSG and having to be the ones that end a 50 year championship drought 2.They do not want to play for a franchise owned by Dolan. Lebron, Wade, Bosh, KD and Kyrie all had opportunities to join the Knicks and pair up with other elite players and they didn't because of these reasons.

i'm not buying the MSG pressure argument, but i agree with everything else

Agreed, the MSG lights are not any brighter than anywhere else. Once the ball goes up location becomes irrelevant.

i wouldn't go THAT far. surely there's more pressure in gotham than in charlotte, for example. but i don't think that nba stars, most of whom have been in the spotlight since their mid-teens if not earlier, are antsy about playing anywhere. plus, you wouldn't really know the pressure of NYC until you've actually experienced it

[Pickled Prunes]

i'm not buying the MSG pressure argument, but i agree with everything else

Agreed, the MSG lights are not any brighter than anywhere else. Once the ball goes up location becomes irrelevant.

i wouldn't go THAT far. surely there's more pressure in gotham than in charlotte, for example. but i don't think that nba stars, most of whom have been in the spotlight since their mid-teens if not earlier, are antsy about playing anywhere. plus, you wouldn't really know the pressure of NYC until you've actually experienced it

Well, that was my point. These are professionals. Some have a hard time listening to the NY fans talk trash... but that has nothing to do with what's happening on the court.

[alienpick]

*Animosity

Not sure animosity is accurate as it refers to violent hatred leading to opposition, which is not the case here. Animus is the creation of ill will.

As for Mitchell, elite offensive talent but one of the worst defenders in the league by any metric used. Adding him to the Cavs is a great addition for them, as stated above, they have 2 excellent rim protectors to counter his defensive ineptitude

Yeah it was a pretty good trade and top level maneuvering by the Cavs to get in there and snatch him up from under the Knicks noses.

[jstudabaka]

I

The extension was a really dumb move by the Knicks. It's objectively kind of a bad contract -- no reason to do it now, could have waited till next year for RJ to prove himself as a 30 mil a year player. And the Cavs wound up getting Mitchell for the kind of package that, as a Knicks fan, I would have generally supported. So now my Knicks are stuck with, as I saw it put brilliantly on social media, a "mid-3," where they're paying three average-ish players in Randle, Barrett, and Brunson a large amount of money (not to mention 60 million for Mitch and 20+ a year for Fournier) but aren't good enough to be relevant, but aren't bad enough to tank. Unless they can convert some of their picks and prospects into an actual high-level player like Mitchell, this is a treadmill team. I think Leon Rose has been a failure for the most part.

Yeah, they could have waited until RJ proves himself to be a 30 mil a year player. The other choice was not giving him 30 million a year, and they went with that instead. What a dumb move. What an objectively bad contract.

Yeah, your dopey, splitting-hairs “well ackshually” argument notwithstanding, media reports seem to indicate the Knicks didn’t necessarily think he was that guy either