EDITOR’S NOTE: According to Adrian Wojnarowksi and Jalen Brunson’s agents at CAA, the Villanova product has agreed to sign the Knicks’ four-year offer on Thursday. The deal reportedly includes a player option on the final season.
Free agent guard Jalen Brunson has agreed to a four-year, $104 million deal with the New York Knicks, his agents Aaron Mintz and Sam Rose of @CAA_Basketball tell ESPN. The deal includes a player option on the final season.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2022
Jalen Brunson reportedly intends on signing a four-year deal with the Knicks once free agency starts on Thursday, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Free agent Jalen Brunson intends to sign a four-year, near $110M deal with the New York Knicks in free agency, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The Mavericks never received chance to make offer, sources said.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2022
The Knicks have long been infatuated with bringing Brunson as the lead guard of the franchise. GM Leon Rose made multiple trades to free up $30 million in cap space to sign the Villanova product to a “near-max deal.” Those aspirations are likely to come true after Brunson canceled a meeting with Dallas and reportedly decided to sign with New York. NBA reporter Marc Stein was the first to break that the meeting was canceled.
Brunson averaged 16.3 points and 4.8 assists per game during a breakout season that saw Brunson establish himself as the clear-cut No. 2 option behind Luka Doncic. He helped lead the Mavericks to their first Western Conference Finals appearance since their 2011 title run against the Miami Heat. During that run, Brunson averaged 21.6 points per game, exploding for 41 points and 31 points during the first round against the Utah Jazz.
“It’s a great fit [in Dallas], but at the end of the day, my son is no different than the next man,” Rick Brunson told ESPN during that first-round series. “You try to raise them the right way in terms of understanding the game, but everyone wants what Luka has. I don’t care who you are. Everyone wants that feeling of, ‘Hey, I can do this too.’ I don’t always think the grass is greener on the other side, but we’ll sit down this summer and go through all the pros and cons of staying here or going somewhere else.”
Brunson became an unrestricted free agent after declining to sign a four-year extension after the trade deadline. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and GM Nico Harrison were willing to offer Brunson a five-year contract this summer. Brunson informed the Mavs that he was ready to sign an extension in January if they offered but the Mavs decided to hold on to those negotiations instead and offered Brunson the aforemnetion deal at the trade deadline.
