The New York Knicks are far from alone in their refusal to surpass the second apron of the NBA salary cap. They are, however, alone as reigning NBA Champions — no other team has had a chance to claim that mantle, yet. Especially after losing Mitchell Robinson to the Boston Celtics, a painful combination for Knick faithful, the hope from the fanbase has been that New York will find a way to keep all three of the extension-eligible members of their championship-winning rotation.
The trio includes two starters, in Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart, and key reserve Miles McBride, now the longest-tenured player on the team after Robinson's departure. Their significance to the organization, and the end of its championship drought, implies New York will eventually pay what it takes to keep those players. Seeing Robinson in green, however, has understandably made it difficult for some fans to keep that faith.
Asked on Wednesday about McBride's contract situation, the coach began with his signature line about adversity being necessary to shape a championship-level group. Brown ended his answer, though, by saying it's easy for the Knicks to keep worries to on-court matters because "things get taken care of the right way" within, and by, the organization.
Brown needs to share his wisdom with Knicks' extension-eligible starters
In Brown's short tenure with the Knicks, thus far, he's been far more open with media than local reporters came to expect in recent years. It doesn't change anything about Tom Thibodeau's ability as a basketball coach to acknowledge that he would have answered the question about McBride's expiring contract by saying he leaves those matters to Leon — referring, of course, to Rose.
But on Wednesday, Brown opened up at the team's practice facility in Tarrytown. He told reporters about his confidence in his organization to get something figured out.
"At the end of the day, he wants to be here, we want him to be here, and that's something that I have faith in Leon, and even Deuce's representatives, to figure that out. I said this before, it literally is, the cap's above my head. I don't know how it works," Brown said, according to a video of his availability shared by SNY.
Luckily for the Knicks' head coach, his front office certainly does know how the cap works. They rode that knowledge to an NBA Championship, from a certain point of view. Brown also knows this is an era of the NBA where players like Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama are passing up on tens of millions of dollars, in order to help their teams sustainably contend over the next several seasons.
Fans can only hope the coach is able to get some of his optimism to rub off on Towns and Hart, who both recently pulled the curtain back on some of the downsides of ongoing negotiations.
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