Knicks expected to aggressively pursue free agent Isaiah Hartenstein, with Andre Drummond also on radar

The Knicks are prepared to make an offer to Jalen Brunson of at least $100 million over four years. Let’s say they land at $110 over four years, as Yahoo! has reported (opposing executives believe this is close to where the offer will come in at).

That contract for Brunson would start at $26 million in 2022-23. The club would be left with roughly $5 million in cap room if they don’t waive Taj Gibson and renounce the rights to Ryan Arcidiacono. They could have roughly $9 million in cap room if they waive Gibson and renounce the rights to Arcidiacono. 

I’d expect the Knicks to waive Gibson and then give strong consideration to signing him to a new contract later in the offseason; though, as SNY reported, the club has several backup centers on its radar. 

Among them: Isaiah Hartenstein and Andre Drummond, per sources. Bleacher Report first noted Hartenstein on the Knicks’ radar. The Knicks will be aggressive in their pursuit of Hartenstein, per SNY sources. The Orlando Magic, as Marc Stein reported, is also a suitor for Hartenstein. Teams with interest in Drummond say the Knicks have a degree of interest in the center.

The Knicks’ cap space can increase to $14 million if they trade Cam Reddish without taking back salary or $26 million if they trade Evan Fournier without taking back salary. In conversations with teams before and after last Thursday’s draft, both Reddish and Fournier’s names had come up. In some of those conversations where Reddish’s name was discussed, the Knicks sought a first-round pick as part of the compensation for moving the fourth-year player, per SNY sources.

No matter how they use their remaining cap space after presumably signing Brunson, the Knicks will be able to exceed the cap to re-sign Mitchell Robinson. The club seemed to be confident that Robinson would ultimately be back as recently as Wednesday afternoon.

If they re-sign Robinson, sign Brunson, and sign Barrett to an extension this offseason (some members of the organization are optimistic that there will be common ground on an extension with Barrett, per sources), the club would not have cap space in the 2023 offseason. But even if they give Barrett an extension that starts at $30 million, they would still be below the projected tax line. So the club would have the ability to sign players in the offseason without incurring a tax penalty. Obviously, their projected cap situation would change if they traded a player making significant money in 2023-2024.

No matter how you look at it, the Knicks would be making a significant financial commitment to Brunson if his deal comes in at four years, $110 million. It’s significant because it would limit the club’s flexibility moving forward.

But Brunson would be between the 10^th and 14^th highest paid players at his position at that number, per The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov. So, relative to the market, the contract is sensible.

That said, if the Knicks underperform in 2022-23, I wouldn’t expect long-suffering fans of the team to have more patience because Brunson’s salary is sensible for his position.

AROUND THE NBA

The Memphis Grizzlies are among the teams with interest in free agent Joe Ingles, per sources.

There is mutual interest between Washington and free agent guard Delon Wright.

The Sacramento Kings are among the teams interested in free agent Victor Oladipo. As Bleacher Report noted, the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons also have had interest in Oladipo.

Los Angeles Lakers free agent Malik Monk will have offers that surpass what the Lakers are able to make (the $6.4 midlevel tax payer exception), sources say. Teams monitoring Monk’s situation as recently as Wednesday night saw it as unlikely that he ends up back with Los Angeles.