There was a video of Brunson joking about there being “$113 million” in something (can’t remember the exact context of the event he was at) they were about to reveal a few days after he signed the contract. Brunson knew exactly what he was doing.

regardless of whether it was actually a paycut or not, the point is that the FO asked him to do it this way for 2nd apron purposes

Thanks, great info. If you actually compare year by year, including 2024 (when he got a 10-15 mill raise), and take into account he’s 100% renegotiating in 2028, he gave up about $15-30 mill (depending on how you calculate inflation and time value of money, which I’m too lazy for).

$15-30 mill over 5 years, combined with the huge added benefit of definitely securing the bag before possibly getting injured (and also the fact the Knicks are smarter about under the table pay, cough Rick Brunson), it doesn’t really seem like he took much of a pay cut at all. I mean, the dude specifically has the player option for that reason (I assume).

the 100 million number only works if you ignore 2024 and 2028 and assume he would have stayed healthy, gotten offered a bigger contract, and ignoring the giant extension he’s gonna sign in 2028.

edit: woops, Leon Rose said almost the same thing in the article

The deal, which begins in 2025-26 and will cost Brunson \(37.1 million over the next three years, comes with a fourth-year player option, Rose said, and that would set up Brunson to recoup the \)113 million on a four-year, \(323 million maximum extension in 2028 or a new five-year, \)418 million deal in 2029.

This is also the rare occasion when the GM might actually have the player’s best interests at heart- dude is literally his godfather and held him at birth.

That Woj article is entirely accurate.

I mean sure but they were well built and were an automatic playoff team and it would’ve surprised no one if they had made a run in 2023, for example.

Meanwhile, the Steph signing for 4/44m happened when the dubs hadn’t even sniffed the playoffs in 6 or 7 years or something

My point is just Steph’s first contract wasn’t really a pay cut either, he was injury prone and unproven in 2012. JB was that guy in 2022.

yeah…dallas situation is that they always kept offering below what he wanted.

• When he wanted \(36 million, they offered \)27 million.

• When he wanted \(45m, they offered \)36m.

• Final year, they insisted on getting him a contract in the offseason cause they still wanted to use him as a valuable piece (and they thought he was more valuable as a trade piece with a rookie contract) in a POSSIBLE trade. They didn’t go through with a trade but by that point, Brunson had decided to leave.

• In the offseason, Knicks were offering 4yr/\(104m. Dallas was "starting negotiations" at around 4yr/\)80-85m.

• Once Knicks signed him, Cuban and the dallas Organization was all “damn, so much money. They didn’t give us a shot to negotiate. We started around 80-85 but would have stepped up to around \(93-95. Wow, \)104 is a lot!”.

 

At every single point, Brunson kept asking for a contract earlier and at every point Dallas did not want to do it early. Then in FA, they wanted to negotiate starting low while the Knicks were already rolling the Brinks trucks and hiring his dad and having his Godfather be the president.

 

Brunson has always wanted the contract earlier instead of waiting for the “best” deals that had to wait a year longer.

 

As for the last extension that is being talked about here (the $157 million deal), This max extension allowed him to become a free agent at age 31. NBA players are usually at their “best” from ages 25 to 32. After 32, they get worse naturally (usually. Some outliers obviously like Lebron/Durant/etc) and teams are more afraid of giving a big contract.

 

He could have waited ONE more year for that 5yr/\(263 extension instead of the 4yr/\)157 deal. But that would have put him as a Free Agent again at age 33. Would have been harder to get a new long term deal at age 33, even though he got more money.

 

• He now got the lower max ($157m) a year early AND can become a free agent 2 years earlier at age 31 and more securely get a super duper mega max.

• The \(157m + the new \)300m deal = $457 million overall.

• The \(263m + whatever he could get after age 33 = less than \)350m or $400m

If we’re being technical, the Mavs never made him an offer period. He signed with NY without giving them a meeting.

They did not offer that immediately. They first offer 5 year/180 before ⁵⁄₁₉₀ and then ⁵⁄₂₀₀. The initial offer led to him looking for better offers. He then found one which shifted his market value to a higher amount.

Closest someone could argue is Brunson’s turnover at the end of Game 6 versus Miami. However Duren is not the reason Detroit lost versus Cleveland. They lost versus Cleveland for the same reason they lost versus NY in 2025. They only have one perimeter player that is both a playmaker and scorer. Detroit’s ceiling is capped until they address that.

No, last year they low balled him and this year their initial offer was significantly below his market value. Detroit has slowly increased the offer but their low balled offers, refusal to trade him to a team that was willing to pay market value, slow increases after each contract rejection and their public blaming of him for their elimination has burned a bridge.

They did offer him contract. First one was lowballing him. When they offered him second one that was matching the one from Knicks he already decided to leave.

Dallas offered a contract after the 2022 trade deadline. Brunson declined it to test free agency for two reasons. First, Dallas waited until after the trade deadline because they tried to trade him first. (Ironically the one team that wanted him was Indiana and Rick Carlisle but they didn’t want to trade him to Carlisle.) Second, he felt his value was higher than it was at the beginning of the season.

Facts the Pistons aren’t negotiating in good faith. The person in their front office that pushed for them to include the weight clause, used to work in New Orleans and had a weight clause added to Zion’s contract. The absurdity of trying to negotiate that into the contract given Duren’s work ethic is absurd and Duren is right to interpret it as a slap in the face.

Here’s an article from Tim McMahon (who has covered the Mavs for 30 years) discussing how Dallas fumbled the ball. Brunson wanted to sign an extension before his last season in Dallas. An extension for the same amount as Finney-Smith’s extension. However the Mavs waited to offer it until after the trade deadline because they tried to shop Brunson. Brunson rejected their post trade deadline offer because he felt his market value had increased, which it did. While shopping him, it became know that NY (ties with Rose, Thibs and his dad), Indiana (ties with Carlisle) and other teams were interested.

“But the Mavs opted not to act on inquiries about Brunson – including from New York – leading up to the February 10 trade deadline. Dallas discussed dumping injured shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr.’s fresh four-year, \(75 million contract, which would have required attaching future draft compensation, a move that would have created enough cap space to offer Brunson a larger extension. Brunson's agents passed on word that a five-year, \)87 million offer would be accepted. However, Dallas didn’t deal Hardaway. Instead, they meekly offered Brunson the four-year, $55.5 million extension. Finney-Smith excitedly signed his identical extension offer at the time, but Brunson turned it down, rightly believing that he had “outgrown” that number.”

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44320045/the-wonder-boy-jalen-brunson-tim-macmahon

Look at Isiah Thomas

Yep. Leon promised to go on their podcast if they won the championship and they cleared it up. Rick was playing overseas at the time so he wasn’t home when Jalen was born.

And the actual clip in the podcast

Yep. Rick Brunson was playing in AU when Jalen was born

Yes this is true his dad was on the road as a player

Idk I remember it being a hot topic and everyone saying ppl were gonna do what Brunson did to win a chip

Thanks for the insight, so basically he signed for 30% instead of 35% the next year?

you’re correct on the whole thing about Mitchell. Waiting 1yr would have given him a similar 5yr deal

That said, I feel he took it early cause there’s a risk to waiting 1 more year. Cavs have underwhelmed and maybe he’s labeled a “secondary star” in one year. Plus, 2nd apron is fucking everyone up.

Except it’s not a paycut, that’s the wrong term. It’s not pedantic because “paycut” implies that he intentionally tried to make less money, which is not true. He did what was best for him, and good on him.

I think people legit think he just took less money.

You could say this about literally anyone making any semi-controversial point on this website

Someone. On the internet. Is WRONG!

Correct, and that is not a pay cut.

A pay cut is taking less than you’re offered during the same negotiation period.

He did not take any pay cut. It’s like saying a guy who retired with zero offers took a pay cut.

Thank you for adding in that last sentence. I think we probably will never know for sure what Brunson’s motivations were. There are both personal and team reasons why he would’ve signed the max a year early, but in my opinion it’s silly to be on either side of this with much confidence.

Even comparing it to Steph’s first extension (as others are doing in this thread) seems a bit disingenuous as Curry was way more injury prone at the time and had a lot more reason to worry he wouldn’t get a max deal a year later. Plus he hadn’t had nearly as good of a statistical season as Brunson had at the time either

But context tells a more robust a more honest story.

I think the point was always that: in an era where owners and players are richer than ever, we’ve seen players milking the absolute shit outta salaries. The sacrifice wasn’t hard dollars. The sacrifice was: in an era were ballers are divas for the bag, it’s rare to see a guy primed to be next in line to do that instead say forget all of that, trim the fat and avoid the soap opera, put his head down and grind and trust in his own gamble.

To do it as a knick is even more symbolic when basically erasing Carmelo completely as a winless error who first broke the mold on these types of super contracts.

And they got a ring. Getting a ring in the NBA is the universal equivalent of “doesn’t matter, had sex”.

The why he did it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day he took less money but it was guaranteed money.

He’s still getting the max. He was 27 years old and just had a legendary postseason run that included 4 straight 40 point playoff games. At the time, everyone knew this guy was a max player so it was shocking when he signed the deal a year early.

Even if he had an acl or other major injury, he was going to get the max like other players have before him. This was not even debatable at the time his deal was signed by those of us who were paying attention.

He took the conservative route.

Arguably it did not pay off financially. Had he not signed that contract he would be signing a bigger one now.

Brunson is sitting open at the 3 point line. Bridges chooses to pass to a slashing KAT, who gets the bucket. According to your logic, the Knicks lost points.

You’re not adequately including risk in your decision making.

So, if he got hurt catastrophically the last season of his deal, he still would’ve gotten the max?

He definitely did know and that definitely influenced his decision. He was still “overpaid” and the Knicks were laughed at.

Nah, that ESPN list means nothing, most teams would rather have Curry over Mitchell rn.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1tog2dr/comment/oo0vcbg/?context=3

You’re the fucking liar, lmao. Show receipts or STFU

That’s the reporter reporting on it.

Truth is, nobody really knows why he did it. Sure, he took the max at the time he could, but also may have done it to help the cap and be able to bring in someone like a Mikal Bridges who he’s close to, etc.

Agreed. Pretty much the gist of the thread.

SGA in 2025. Jamal Murray in 2024. Donovan Mitchell in 2024.

Donovan Mitchell did it this summer.

He chose the 4 year max extension this summer when he could have waited until 2027 for the 10 year vet ultimate super max 5 year extension, which is more.

It just won’t be reported though since it’s not the Knicks and Mitchell’s 4 year max is so much it’s ridiculous to think his 5 year super max would have been even more.

Pella Larson

Ausar Thompson

Amen Thompson

Keyonte George

Wembanyama

Anthony Davis ( 2023)

DeAaron Fox

Donovan Mitchell

Giannis (2023)

Kawhi (2024)

Is that enough??

This is correct