The New York Knicks are considered strong favorites to sign Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson in free agency, sources told ESPN.
It’s widely anticipated that Brunson will agree to a four-year deal in excess of $100 million to sign with the Knicks soon after free agency opens on Thursday evening, league sources said.
New York, which traded the No. 11 overall pick and point guard Kemba Walker on draft night, would need to make at least one additional move to create the necessary salary cap space to sign Brunson to such a contract. The Mavs could opt to pursue a sign-and-trade in an attempt to recoup assets with the expected departure of Brunson.
Brunson, 25, is coming off a breakout season in which he averaged 16.3 points and 4.8 assists per game, establishing himself as Dallas’ No. 2 option behind All-NBA guard Luka Doncic, his 2018 draft classmate, after joining the starting lineup on a full-time basis in December.
Brunson helped lead the Mavericks to the Western Conference finals for the first time in 11 years, averaging 21.6 points per game during the playoffs, highlighted by 41- and 31-point performances in first-round victories over the Utah Jazz while Doncic was sidelined by a strained calf.
Mavs governor Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison ranked Brunson as the franchise’s top offseason priority in the wake of the playoff run. Sources said the Mavs are willing to give Brunson a five-year contract — which only Dallas can offer due to owning his Bird rights — that is comparable to the four-year, $85 million deal guard Fred VanVleet signed with the Toronto Raptors in 2020.
Brunson, an unrestricted free agent because the fourth season of his rookie deal was nonguaranteed instead of a team option, declined the Mavs’ offer of a four-year, $55.5 million contract extension after the trade deadline, when Dallas forward Dorian Finney-Smith signed an identical deal. By that point, Brunson was confident that he would make significantly more as a free agent.
Brunson had informed the Mavs in January that he was willing to sign the extension if it was offered then, his father Rick Brunson told ESPN during the playoffs. Dallas made the calculated decision to hold off on discussions until after the trade deadline, in case the Mavs had the opportunity to trade for a star, as an extension would have prevented Brunson from being eligible to be traded before the deadline.
New York had long been expected to emerge as a threat to lure Brunson away from the Mavericks in large part due to the Knicks’ deep ties to the Brunson family. Knicks president Leon Rose, a prominent former agent, has known Brunson his entire life. Rose’s first player client was Rick Brunson, and Rose represented Jalen Brunson at the beginning of his career. The Knicks agreed to hire Rick Brunson as an assistant coach this summer, reuniting him with head coach Tom Thibodeau, who he also served as an assistant for with the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Knicks can also offer Brunson the opportunity to be their primary playmaker, as opposed to deferring to a perennial MVP candidate in Dallas.
“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 in April. “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.”