Report: Jalen Brunson to meet with Mavericks, Knicks and Heat when free agency opens

Point guard Jalen Brunson is scheduled to meet with the New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat when free agency opens on Thursday, sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

According to Haynes, the meetings will be held in New York, with the Knicks considered the strong frontrunners to land the unrestricted free agent on a four-year deal in the neighborhood of $110M.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, GM Nico Harrison and head coach Jason Kidd will attend the meeting, per Haynes, as will VP of basketball operations Michael Finley and “maybe one or two” players, sources tell veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein. Stein reports that the Mavericks are very pessimistic that they can convince Brunson to re-sign, but the 25-year-old’s camp sought out meetings with the three teams before coming to a decision.

A league source tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News that the Mavericks have been unwilling to offer more than $106M to this point, with Brunson reportedly seeking $125M. Haynes confirms Bondy’s report, stating that Dallas has pitched a five-year, $106M deal to Brunson, so it sounds like he might be open take a slight per-year discount if the Mavericks are willing to go that high using his Bird rights.

As Haynes observes, Miami’s only pathway to acquiring Brunson would be via sign-and-trade, because the team won’t have the necessary cap space to sign him outright. Such an agreement would be difficult to pull off due to sign-and-trades triggering a hard cap at the tax apron, which would limit Miami’s financial flexibility for the rest of 2022-23. That’s one reason why Haynes refers to the Heat as a “dark horse.”