Knicks Star's Pay Cut Opens Up Creative Offseason Possibilities

Jalen Brunson saw something in the Knicks last summer. He'd rapidly ascended into one of the best players in the NBA after just his second season in New York, and took his depleted team to a seventh game against the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the 2024 playoffs.

He'd found enough personal and team-wide fulfillment to trust his franchise in a way that few players do, providing them with a degree of freedom that few stars open their teams up for. He inked a contract extension a year early, saving the Knicks about $113 million by agreeing on a four-year, $156 million deal last July.

That move looked premature to some, and the players' union wasn't exactly thrilled at the concept of a player's diminishing his own value, but that sacrifice will pay dividends during a Knicks offseason full of questions that need answering.

They don't have many free agents to worry about with only Landry Shamet and Precious Achiuwa up for new deals, but they need to tinker somewhere.

As Stefan Bondy of the New York Post points out, this is the summer in which they can really get creative. They're ducking the second tax apron by saving the money Brunson spared them from spending, enabling them to use a taxpayer mid-level exception to play around with. Such a contract isn't open for luxury tax victims, providing further flexibility for the Knicks to improve on their rotation through free agency by offering a trade-friendly deal.

If they decide against offering Mikal Bridges the hefty contract extension he could be looking to sign sooner rather than later, the options are wide open for how they choose to consolidate their championship aspirations. Their bench sure didn't look too impressive compared to their contemporaries in Indiana, but that could all change with the savvy opportunities opened up to them by Brunson's leniency.