Few will be happy if the New York Knicks wind up letting Mitchell Robinson walk this summer to avoid the dreaded second apron. While that is a perfectly reasonable stance to take, we’d be remiss not to mention that more players would be following him out the door if not for Jalen Brunson’s extremely generous discount.
Never mind just Robinson. Jose Alvarado (player option) would be gone. Ditto for Landry Shamet. And in all likelihood, the Knicks would need to dump at least one other salary already on the books, too.
Both Landry Shamet and Jose Alvarado would be goners without Brunson’s pay cut
Brunson would be on the books for $50.1 million in 2026-27 had he waited to sign his current contract. That’s $12.4 million more than the $37.7 million he’s actually slated to make.
This is a monstrous difference when treating the second apron as a No Fly Zone. After re-signing Mohamed Diawara to what we’re assuming is a four-year deal, the Knicks have around $203.2 million committed to nine players. That gives them $18.5 million in room beneath the $221.7 million second apron.
This isn’t enough to re-sign Robinson, Alvarado (player option), Shamet, and then fill out the roster to its required minimum of 14 slots. That’s why Mitch is presumed gone. Even giving him the same $13 million salary he earned last season would leave New York hard-pressed to round out the depth chart with more than rookie minimums.
Now, imagine Brunson is earning an additional $12.4 million. The $18.5 million in room beneath the second apron goes down to $6.1 million…with five roster spots left to fill. The Knicks would not just be bidding farewell to Robison. They’d be showing the door to Alvarado, Shamet, and others as well.
It could have been Diawara, Tyler Kolek, or Pacome Dadiet. It could have been some combination of the three. It could have been Deuce McBride. We don’t know.
Thanks to Brunson, the Knicks never will.
The Knicks owe Jalen Brunson more than we realize
Until now, the reigning Finals MVP’s extension has been talked about purely in dollars and cents. Rightfully so. When you factor in the likelihood of him declining his player option, he saved the Knicks around $37 million across three years by signing his current deal in July 2024 rather than waiting for 2025 free agency.
That’s a lot of money—about one Donte DiVincenzo per season, in fact. Brunson’s discount already helped keep the core together long enough to win the championship. It was initially expected that his pay cut also emboldened the Knicks to defend their title by entering the second apron next season.
So much for that.
It turns out owner James Dolan did not misspeak when he said New York would be “suicidal” to enter the second apron. As SNY’s Ian Begley relayed on a recent episode of The Putback, it doesn’t sound like the Knicks plan to cross that threshold.
Though this can still change, New York is already in cost-cutting mode. The front office traded its way out of the first round in order to save $3.5 million off next season’s cap sheet, a move that seemingly telegraphs the end of Robinson’s time in the Big Apple. As tough as that might be to stomach, the alternative reality would be even worse.
Fortunately, it won’t come to that. Because Brunson didn’t let it.
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