Knicks prepared to offer Jalen Brunson a four-year, $100 million contract during free agency, per report

If you’ve been keeping tabs on what the New York Knicks have been doing over the past few months, then you’ll notice that they haven’t exactly been shy in their chase of acquiring Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson during free agency this summer. 

It started when several members of the Knicks’ brass — including William Wesley and Julius Randle — attended Dallas’ first-round playoff series against the Utah Jazz to no doubt scout Brunson. It continued with the Knicks signing Brunson’s father, Rick Brunson, as an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff. Then during the 2022 NBA Draft Thursday night, New York orchestrated several moves that resulted in freeing up $18 million in cap space this summer. All of these moves have been made with the thought that the Knicks would try to make a serious run at Brunson, something that suddenly has real momentum after Thursday night’s transactions, according to Mark Stein. 

Per Stein:

“Sources say that New York’s ability during Thursday night’s NBA Draft to offload Kemba Walker’s $9.2 million salary for next season, coupled with a growing belief that it can shed further salary to expand its offer when the marketplace officially opens next Thursday, has established the Knicks as a very credible threat to bring Brunson to Gotham.

One source close to the process described that threat as “very, very, very real.”

Prior to Thursday’s draft, the Mavericks were considered the favorites to re-sign Brunson, as they can offer him the most money with an extra fifth year on a deal. However, Stein reports that Brunson is “enticed” by the idea of being the primary ballhandler for the Knicks, as well as the family ties that connect him to the organization. In addition to Brunson’s father being on the coaching staff, Knicks president Leon Rose was the former Villanova product’s agent prior to jumping to a front office role, and is regarded as family to Brunson, per Stein.

As worrisome as that may sound to the Mavericks’ chances of re-signing Brunson, Dallas general manager Nico Harrison said after Thursday’s draft that the team doesn’t have a high level of concern when it comes to trying to re-sign their star guard. 

“I mean, we’re aware of [the Knicks clearing cap space] but we knew they would do that,” Harrison said. “We weren’t shocked that they did that. They tried to do it at the trade deadline. [We] don’t really have a concern level. It was…