With Josh Hart under contract well into the future, the Knicks could turn to extending another core member of their rotation, SNY’s Ian Begley writes. An Immanuel Quickley extension is the logical next step for the Knicks to take before he becomes a restricted free agent next summer. Begley writes that if Quickley and the Knicks are able to come to an agreement on an extension, it would give the Knicks seven players under contract through at least 2024/25, all of which are rotation pieces.
The deadline for the two sides to reach an agreement on an extension is on the eve of the ’23/24 season.
Begley notes that signing Quickley would dip the Knicks into the luxury tax, but that owner James Dolan has never shied away from spending luxury tax money in the past.
The Knicks are hard-capped at the first tax apron this season, meaning they can’t spend more than a total of roughly $172MM in team salary. The Knicks are roughly $6.6MM shy of that apron at the moment, according to Begley, which they could use to augment the roster further. If Quickley signs an extension, it would be difficult to trade him until his extension kicks in. Hart is ineligible to be traded until the 2024 offseason.
Begley notes that while Hart’s $81MM of total salary appears large, it won’t account for more than 14% of the team’s salary cap in any year of his deal, which Begley argues is fair value for a starting-level rotation piece.
We have more from the state of New York:
- Peter Botte of the New York Post also writes that the Knicks should sign Quickley to a new deal before he becomes a restricted free agent. Quickley, a Sixth Man of the Year finalist, is in the final year of his rookie contract, which is worth approximately $4.17MM. The 6’3″ guard averaged 14.9 points and 3.4 assists per game last season while knocking down 37% of his 5.6 attempts from downtown per game.
- Hart’s new four-year, $81MM extension includes a team option on the fourth and final year, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link). That means just $58MM of Hart’s new contract is guaranteed, with the option being worth $22.3MM in 2027-28. Hart’s extension kicks in during the 2024/25 season.
- In a recent article, CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn ranked every traded future NBA first round draft pick. In total, Quinn ranks 56 picks that have shifted hands via various trades. The 2029 Suns first round pick grades out as the most valuable in Quinn’s eyes and that pick belongs to the Nets by virtue of the Kevin Durant trade at last season’s deadline. Quinn argues that it’s hard for teams to win championships and that Phoenix doesn’t have much room to improve beyond the next couple of years since the franchise traded virtually every pick it owned in exchange for Durant and Bradley Beal. In total, Quinn ranked two incoming Nets picks in the top three and the Nets own four of the top six picks Quinn ranks. The 2029 Mavericks first round pick that now belongs to the Nets via the Kyrie Irving trade ranks No. 3, while the Suns also owe Brooklyn their unprotected 2027 first round pick and a 2028 first round pick swap, which rank No. 5 and No. 6 in Quinn’s rankings.
