Jalen Brunson According to league insiders, the Knicks' pursuit of Mavericks free agent guard Jalen Brunson is "gaining considerable
speed." According to Stein, the Knicks started offsetting their 2022–23 payroll on draught night when they decided to
trade Kemba Walker ($9.2MM) to Detroit and moved off their first-round pick, releasing a projected $4.5MM cap hold for
the upcoming season. Although they don't currently have enough budget space to offer Brunson a competitive contract, Stein
writes that there is growing optimism that they will be able to do so. Stein has learned from sources that the Knicks are reportedly
contemplating a four-year, $100MM offer for Brunson. The Mavericks' head of basketball operations Nico Harrison reiterated
that sentiment on draught night when he told reporters that the Knicks' efforts to free up cap space didn't come as a surprise.
The Mavericks have long expressed confidence in their ability to re-sign Brunson. Harrison stated, "Until he tells us he
doesn't want to be here, we're optimistic. However, according to Stein, the Mavs thought that a four-year offer in the area of
$85-88MM would probably be sufficient to keep Brunson after the season. That is starting to seem less and less probable to be the case.