Was Knicks' refusal to extend Immanuel Quickley too big of a risk?

This past Sunday, apart from marking the first week of the 2023-24 NBA season, served as the deadline on fourth-year player contract extensions. For the Knicks, that meant negotiating with Immanuel Quickley, whom they drafted 25th overall in 2020, on a long-term deal.

Unfortunately, the two parties weren’t able to come to terms, setting Quickley up to hit restricted free agency next summer and starting off the season on a bit of a sour note. 

Reports suggested Quickley was looking for north of $25 million a year to secure a $100 million contract, and New York just couldn’t get there.

Upon the news, many Knicks fans rushed to judgment, calling the non-move a mistake. Just three days later, Quickley was the team’s best player on opening night, scoring 24 points, grabbing six rebounds, and dishing four assists on 7-for-11 shooting in 28 minutes.

It was an immediate reminder of Quickley’s total winning impact on this roster, and if repeated over the course of the season could earn him much more than anticipated in a new deal. So did the Knicks blow it by not offering him a bigger extension?

For reference, if it was $25 million-plus Quickley wanted, it wasn’t an outlandish ask. He averaged 14.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists last year on 52.1 percent shooting from two and 37 percent from three in almost 30 minutes a night.

He was the runner-up for Sixth Man of the Year and the winner, 30-year-old Malcolm Brogdon, earned $22.5 million last season. Other players in that salary range include Mike Conley, RJ Barrett, Kyle Kuzma, and John Collins, all in the range of IQ’s production.

He’s also just 24 years old, has improved every season, and should get better from here.

There are arguments in New York’s favor, with one being that guys of Quickley’s stature don’t often make this much, and that they’d be paying him starter money to continue backing up Jalen Brunson. But at this rate, Quickley may earn himself a starter spot next to Brunson.

He’s also yet to have a strong playoff series, but was playing through an injury during last year’s run. We haven’t had enough of a sample to write off his potential impact there.

The Knicks may also just plan on matching the market offer for Quickley this summer, not fearing a poison pill deal being thrown his way. That, or they plan on dealing him in a trade for a big star before then.

Either way, the simpler move would’ve just been to extend him at close to the price he wanted, which would have fully quelled any doubts Quickley had about his future here. The Knicks have gotten this far behind young talent they signed or drafted and developed, so why risk losing a material piece of that?

Opening night was a perfect microcosm of Quickley’s impact. This Knicks offense loves to fall into ruts like it did on Wednesday, and IQ helped pull them out of it with his electric scoring ability.

Quickley went 5-for-7 from three, with many of those shots being tough pull-ups, generating offense out of thin air. His defense looked elite once again, this time shutting down the newly-extended Payton Pritchard and closing the game on All-Star Jrue Holiday.

That’s two-way production the Knicks have come to expect from Quickley, yet refused to reward him for. For a team that’s stuck to adding and maintaining as much solid NBA talent as it could over the last three seasons, not locking down this one is a bit confounding.

The Knicks are sticklers with their cap flexibility, so this could be a long play to saving a couple million or maneuvering some signings around a future extension. Fans should try to be optimistic because the downside is horrific.

If New York lets Quickley walk for nothing, they will lose a brilliant young talent one year after dumping their former lottery pick to start for a rival team, with no first-round draft picks the past two years to make up the dearth. This would undoubtedly be the most short-sighted fumble of the Leon Rose era.

We’ll have to see how it all develops, but in the meantime Quickley will work to prove he’s worth every penny. He’s already started to.