Donovan Mitchell’s four-year, $273 million extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers is a fantastic opportunity for the New York Knicks to do two things: appreciate just how much money and flexibility Jalen Brunson has saved them, and prepare themselves for what will be a $300-plus million bill he might (rightfully) stick them with at some point over the next year or two.
It’s easy now to applaud and bask in the reigning Finals MVP’s generosity. What he did by signing his current four-year, $156.5 million deal saved New York, at minimum, a total of $37 million across three seasons.
While this discount is often celebrated for what it allowed the Knicks to do, it must also be saluted for delaying and diminishing collateral damage. Losing Mitchell Robinson to the rival Boston Celtics is tough. But the cap-sheet casualties would be starker if not for the captain barely taking home a top-50 salary.
Still, Mitchell’s extension, like many others before it and plenty of others to come, is a poignant reminder that Brunson’s previous gesture was anomalous. Never mind waiting for another star to do the same. Expecting him to leave stacks of cash on the table again is unrealistic. New York needs to brace for what that means.
Jalen Brunson’s next contract could be worth over $400 million
No, the $400 million you’re reading above isn’t a typo. It is a distinct possibility. It all depends on when Brunson signs his next deal.
Three options are on the table for New York’s superstar. First, he could agree to an extension next summer. That would allow him to decline his 2028-29 player option, worth $43.3 million, and sign a four-year max deal that projects to be worth $286.5 million.
Brunson could also wait until the summer of 2028, decline his player option, and agree to a five-year extension before free agency officially begins. That deal would run an estimated $370.9 million.
Finally, Brunson could decide to pick up his 2028-29 player option in order to give the Knicks extra breathing room that season. (His current $43.3 million is more than $20 million less than his max.) In this scenario, he would hit free agency in 2029, at which time he’d be eligible to sign a five-year pact worth a projected $412.8 million.
One way or another, the Knicks are going to give Brunson a mega deal
Whichever path Brunson chooses, the Knicks are obligated to travel down it with him. Whether he’s worth 35 percent or more the salary cap through his mid-30s and into his late-30s is irrelevant. He created New York’s championship window by accepting his current deal, likely with the understanding he’d be taken care of later.
You can choose to believe Brunson is wired differently, and inclined to take another discount. And hey, maybe you’re right.
More likely, though, the below-market party can’t go on forever.
As Mitchell’s full-freight max reminds us, what Brunson did back in 2024 was against the grain, fairly shocking, and most of all, unlikely to ever happen again.
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