Mikal Bridges extension set up to TRADE? 👀 + Evaluating the Spurs’ TRIO 🔥 | The Hoop Collective

Mikal Bridges extension set up to TRADE? 👀 + Evaluating the Spurs’ TRIO 🔥 | The Hoop Collective

Another team that uh doesn’t lack for attention, the New York Knicks with a key piece of offseason business. Um Male Bridges uh a couple of days ago signing a uh contract extension, four years and 150 million. So he already had one year on his contract uh this year coming up, the last year of his deal that he signed when he was in in u uh in Phoenix. He’ll make about 25 million this year. The new extension starts in 26 27 and bumps him to 33 million. Um it was slightly less than the maximum amount of money he could have signed for. He could have signed for about 156. I think I really do think that we need to start really doing this more on our pod and I’m going to try to do it more on our coverage. Bobby Marx has been there for a while, but um we need to start really talking in percentages of the cap. Um this year coming up, and granted this is the first year of Jaylen Brun, actually, is it the first year of Jaylen Brunson’s extension? I think it is. It’s the first year of Jaylen Brunson’s new contract. Yeah. So this year, Jaylen’s new contract comes on the books. And this year, Jaylen Brunson and Male Bridges combined um account for about 39% of the Knicks salary cap. Uh next year, when Bridg’s new contract comes on the books and Jaylen’s quote unquote discount, I don’t say quote unquote, his contract remains on the books, they’re going to account for about 42% of the salary cap, those two players. So this money, it’s a large piece of money, but it isn’t dramatically different when it comes to percentage of the cap. And that’s not because of bridges. That’s because of Brunson. And Brunson only being um you know 22 or so. This is what of now some of these caps are projected because we don’t know where the caps are going to go. But over the next four years, Jaylen Brunson’s percentage of the cap is 23 22 22 22. So he is making um and by the way the max contract as you know is can be as much as 35% of the cap or for players in his grouping it’s 30% on this deal. He he should be making by by if you’re just going by merit 30% of the cap. So, he’s giving them a very So, what Luca just signed for was 35% of the cap. 30 30% of the cap, right? 30% of the cap. Um, Jaylen Brunson’s making would have been 35 in Dallas. That’s right. Jaylen Brunson is making 22%. And that 8% makes a world of difference in the apron era. It just does. CL just so people have a sense of it. So, Anthony Edwards is just under 30% this year. He’s at 295. He’s making $45.5 million. Jaylen Brunson is making $34.9 million. So, you’re talking about a $10 million difference. And in a moment when every dollar counts, your best player being $10 million cheaper than he could be is a significant advantage. Well, and when did Jaylen Brunson sign his extension, which was the max he could get at the time, but still a massive discount that he didn’t wait a year. He signed it after the bridges trade was done. So, I’m pretty sure that Jaylen signed that with the idea of, hey, this is going to allow us to keep my guy that we just brought across town. Yeah. So, you know, there’s going to there’s there is I understand that well, first off, this contract for the Knicks getting Bridges under contract because he was limited in how much he could extend for this year. it was not a guarantee that this was going to get done. So to get him done and to get him for a little bit less than he could have gotten. Um it’s a good piece of business for the organization. Now Bridges will walk around New York with the millstone around his neck of the five first round picks. Yeah. And you know he will you know he didn’t ask for that but that is the reality. But the reason I bring up these percentages of him and Brunson together, what percentage they are, it is still for a guy who is your a a quality two-way wing player and your f face of your franchise, it is decent business. Let me ask you this, Tim Bontemps. You know how we look at contracts on this podcast. You sign a player. Can the player be traded? if you have to trade him or you want to trade him for value. So I said that Bridges is owed about 25 million this year. So for the next five years he’s at about a five years and 175 million is what he is owed. Is that a tradable contract? Yeah. Our our pal Danny Laru from the Don Pod dubbed this the NA test many years ago and NA signed that extension with Denver and then got traded. Um, I it is an interesting question. If Mikuel Bridges plays like he did last year, I’m not sure how tradable the contract is. Um, I think you could wonder. I mean, there are going to be teams with cap space next summer. So, it is an open question, but I’m not convinced he was getting four for $150 million next summer based off how he played this past season. Um, part of Mike Brown coming in is to try to get everybody to, you know, be more involved and to sort of lift, you know, lift the bench, lift the supporting cast, etc. around Jaylen Brunson and Carl Town. So, we will see. As a very durable two-way wing player, it’s probably a movable deal. Just not sure how positive it is. I mean, historically durable. Well, yeah. Right. Exactly. never never missed a game to be clear. Um, so yeah, I like I think it is. I just think it it’s a question of how much value it would be in the deal. But to McMahon’s point, this was probably baked in last summer when the trade happened and the bronze dension happened. And for all we’ve talked about the discounts that these guys have taken to some degree, though male hasn’t taken I don’t think nearly as much of one as Jaylen is those five guys plus Miles McBride and Tyler Kick for next season uh are on the books for $23 million. Uh the five starters I should say, Towns, Anobi, Brunson, Bridges, and Josh Hart. um that is only about $18 million below the second apron and that’s with a lot of open roster spots. So you’re basically looking at those seven guys in minimums to be a uh to be under the second apron. So this is the team that they have have going forward and the question is is that team ever going to be good enough to ultimately get the Knicks where they hope to go? That is that is the question that’s hanging over the Knicks even more than the five first round picks for Mikuel Bridges because for as great as the last couple seasons have been as someone who lives in New York. I know what everybody wants in New York which is to finally break the half ccentury weight to win title and we were just in Oklahoma City that team isn’t going anywhere. The Cavs Cavs corner certainly is not going anywhere. Orlando is going to be awfully interesting the next couple years after trading for Desmond Bane. So, even more than the five first round picks, it’s it’s that question. Now that you have this team locked in, just how good is it? I think that remains an open question. Well, but I think if you’re going to be that expensive, you better be a contender and the Knicks can honestly look in the mirror and say, “Hey, this is a contending team. You know, we are fresh off of a finals appearance.” I do think it’s reasonable to expect Bridges to be better this season having a full season under his belt uh with this team. You can probably say the same thing about Carl Anthony Towns, although he was pretty damn good last year. And obviously the East is wide open. I mean, if you’re the Knicks, it’s certainly a finals or bust type of season. Um and so yeah, if you’re going to be expensive, the finals should be the expectation. That expensive at least. Well, the reason I I bring up the whole can you trade it is because this is the N we talked about the Lakers optionality. This is the Knicks optionality. I think they like this team. I think, you know, they look at the five guys that they had last year who stayed relatively healthy. um they got to the conference finals and they see Boston a team that they were able to beat but they see Boston pulling down and the Cavs are definitely a team to be dealt with but they are in the second apron now and the Knicks are not and and that is a key factor going forward and so the Knicks have the option of of riding this core out or their pathway forward is to make a trade. Um, and you know, you see, uh, bridges get extended this summer. We have not heard anything about Carl Anthony Towns getting extended. And I don’t think it has a I don’t think it has a commentary on Towns or the season he had. I just think that, you know, Towns has three years and about 160 million left on his contract. Actually, I think it’s more than I think it’s 170. Um and there there would be some challenge to trade that um if you you know he he’s under the same Minnesota just did well right um but uh it was arguable was arguable about the value there u when they did it um and you know he can sign the same he’s on the same contractual path as Devin Booker. He and Booker got this supermax extension that they’re on within a couple of days of each other or a couple of hours of each other a few years ago. Booker signed the extension this summer with the Suns. It was two years like 145 or whatever it was. Towns is in the same boat. But I think one of the reasons that you may not see that happen is because if the Knicks put Towns on a contract that’s five years and he’s owed approaching $300 million, I think it makes him I think it it diminishes the Knicks optionality with their roster. And so that’s what I think the Knicks the Knicks want to do. They they like this team. They made a coaching change. They obviously believe that the moving to Mike Brown might be able to get more out of this team and that they can sort of try to find some efficiencies that they weren’t getting under Tom Tibido or they can maneuver. And so I think their moves going forward with Jaylen Brunson being the key, their their ability to stay under the second apron, which staying under the second apron is helps you with trades because it changes what you can do. So, I think the Knicks want to walk that line of having a team that is competitive and having a team that if a superstar becomes available, they can go get him and put him next to Brunson. Yeah. I mean, a couple things on that. One, I think if Carl Towns was to sign an extension, and I don’t think there was any real I don’t I shouldn’t say this for certain. I don’t think there’s been real discussions of that one way or the other this summer. To your point, which I don’t I wouldn’t take as a any sort of a negative thing. Um, I I think it’s much more likely that rather than the Devin Booker route, it’s more like his former teammate Rudy Gobear’s route where he opts out of the player option in the last year and takes less money for longer years to lessen the hit and spread out the money, get more money, and also give his team some more flexibility. And the other thing to point out as far as flexibility at the roster goes is that Mikuel Bridges signing this extension when he did um means that he can be traded before the trade deadline. Uh it’s a he’ll come up a few days before the February trade deadline. And not saying he’s going to get traded in February, but it is worth pointing out when you talk about moves the Knicks could make that that is something that’s they just want to leave the doors open. They’re not looking to go through the doors. They just want those doors to be open. That’s like listen, when I got in that raft, go white water raft and we’re playing to have a great time, but I damn sure put on a life jacket. Didn’t want to use it. Well, you know, Pat Riley Pat Riley, you know, I I learned I continue to learn so much whenever I spend time around the Heat organization, but you know, one of the heat sayings, Spolstra uses it, but it’s O’Reillyism. I don’t know if they use this with you, McMahon, but um if you fall out of the boat and you’re in trouble when because I think I think the the story goes with this. Um I think I don’t know if it was in one of Riley’s books, but it was told to me verbally when I was in Miami. You have to be an active participant in your own rescue. Oh, I’ve heard that one. So, if you fall out of the boat, you can’t just sit there and wave your hands and hope somebody come and come comes and yanks you out. That’s the way the Heat try to do business. You have to be an active participant in your own rescue. So that’s a white water rafting uh thing. There was some choppy waters for the heat last year. Old Jimmy was rocking that boat pretty good. Yes, he was. Yeah, Jimmy was trying to throw people overboard. He was doing the exact opposite, which is one of the reasons why I think that didn’t end so well with Jimmy and Pat. Uh okay. Uh I’m not sure this is this part’s going to be in the podcast. We’ll see. But um we are expecting I don’t know if it’ll happen today because today is the first day. It could happen actually I think maybe even yesterday was but sometime in the next day or couple of days there is an expectation that De’ar Fox will extend his contract with the San Antonio Spurs. He wasn’t eligible until the last couple of days. Um the Spurs traded three first round picks for him uh at the trade deadline. When they did that, they were pretty much saying they were going to give him a big contract number this year. And they saw him as um Victor Weimbyama’s point guard. Co-star. Not just point guard, co-star. Co-star. Sure. If you’re going to pay the guy over $200 million on a contract. And by the way, his his preferred list of destinations had one team on it, the San Antonio Spurs. Rich Paul is not placing a store client somewhere that he’s not going to get paid, right? And whatever you want to say about Rich Paul, the client said, uh, I want to be traded and I want to be traded to this team and I want to get paid and Rich Paul delivered that. So say whatever you want about him, but you know, his work product is there for all to see. So he’s good at his job. So, um, now let me ask the question, Bontemps, assuming that there’s a contract that we expect him to get, can you trade that contract? I mean, probably, but if you look around the league, you know, there’s not a lot of teams that need point guards and there’s not a ton of um I’m not sure what the interest level would be. I mean, it’s the same thing as if you want to try to start constructing fake LaMelo ball trades or fake Trey Young trades or fake, you know, any of these point guard trades. Dear Darren’s obviously a great player, but there’s just it’s an interesting dynamic in the market and like we’ve talked about a bunch. We’ve talked about the Spurs a lot this summer. I’m I think one of the really interesting questions across the entire league this year and maybe the next couple years is how do the Spurs sort out the combination of Stfan Castle, Dylan Harper, and De’aran Fox? Because on paper, those are three high value, really interesting players that don’t fit together. And you could probably find a way to play two of them together. Seems really hard to find a way to play all three of them together for extended minutes. And I it’s going to be really fascinating for Mitch Johnson, the now full-time head coach of the Spurs, uh, and our guy Sean Sweeney, uh, the now lead assistant in San Antonio, to figure out what the what the best way to maximize those guys is, the best way to bring along those young guys, and to see how they all fit together, cuz that I think more than anything else outside of just Victor’s continued ascendance to stardom, that’s the thing that’s going to determine sort of what the direction of the Spurs is going forward is what is the solve to that question and what does it look like both for who do the Spurs decide to keep, how do they decide to use them, and if they move on from one of them, what is the return in a potential deal for any one of them that they move on from? Well, and when you ask can you trade the contract, it’s not can you trade it right now, it’s down the road. And I think down the road there will be more teams that have need a a point guard. I mean, you know, you look at the Clippers, for example. James Harden is still playing at a high level, but, you know, he’s not the long-term uh solution there. And, you know, there’s I think there’s a handful of teams that that would fit in that category. I think there’s more need more teams that need point guards than than you’re indicating right now. I guess what I mean by that is it’s a combination of need and can you get value in return? Like sure, a lot of teams are just here in Fox, but that’s different than can you trade him for stuff you really want back. That that’s more the question. And then I think I think it’s too early to say how these three guards are going to fit or or whether they can fit. And a lot of this year it this year definitely is a year where the Spurs need to make a leap. The Spurs need to be a playoff team. They, you know, they need to make major strides in year three of Wim and hopefully a full healthy year for Wimi. But it’s also still an evaluation year. It is still, I mean, it’s still Wimi early in his career on his rookie contract. And it’s, you know, you’re still in in the rookie, you know, the rookie year for Dylan Harper and the second year for uh Stfan Castle. And so I think it’s a lot of this year is about the evaluation of how that guard group fits together and you know especially the development I think of Castle in particular. Um, you know, Castle’s shooting ability, I think, is going to be a key that can either unlock or lock a lot of things for the Spurs in terms of fit because if if he if he can shoot it, um, and and he’s a a shooter who defenses have to guard, I don’t see why those three can’t play together sometimes. He can I mean, that he’s a big strong dude. He can guard threes. I can promise you that. Well, again, let’s talk about optionality because Dylan Harper about to be a rookie and Stefan Castle are on rookie contracts. So is Victor for that matter. Yeah, the Spurs have optionality. They’re not, you know, whether or not this this this trio works together or not. um the they will have they have maneuverability with it because they’re not they’re not giving all of them uh nine figures at least not right now. So that enables them. Plus when they did it’s interesting you know when they did this deal they certainly knew what they had in Castle but they had no idea they were going to end up with a number two pick and be able to draft the best guard in the draft. It’s a good It’s obviously a good problem to have, but at the same time, it is worth pointing out, and I’m a big Stfan Castle fan. He shot 26.7% from 38 Yukon. He shot 28.7% last year. Dear Fox has had one 36% three-point shooting season. Every other one has been well below that. And he’s a 33% career shooter. Dylan Harper was a 33% shooter from three last year at Ruters. That’s not going to work long term. So, yes, like at least one of those guys, and it’s probably not going to be Darren Fox because he’s now mostly a formed player, is going to have to become a much better shooter, if not two of them, for that to be a viable trio. And that’s why yes, this year I think is all about um I think is all about observation with those guys and what do they try to do and how do they try to fit them together because you still have Deon Vel like there there’s a lot of interesting pieces there in San Antonio and I still think we’re probably a move or two away from the core of whatever the first real contending team looks like around Victor I would think because just on paper it it feels like there’s still a move or two left to be made before this looks like the the fully ready team that he’ll be looking for. Well, and I asked you guys recently, do you think the Spurs would have made the Fox trade if they’d had known, which is impossible, but if if they would have known they were going to get Dylan Harper in the draft? And the answer is probably not. You know, just from a cost perspective, probably not. Um, but like you said, Bon Tims, there are a lot worse problems to have and hey, we’ve got three guards who are pretty damn good. How do they fit together? The other thing, again, as long as we talk about optionality, the Spurs have some big expiring contracts on their roster. Harrison Barnes and Kelly Oolen being the two biggest ones combined. They’re over $32 million. um that they can go shopping and that depending on what they do with those they could also let them just come off their books but um but they go shopping during the season um they also have Jeremy Sohan who is um extension eligible so whether or not they decide to pay him or not if they don’t extend them does that’s somebody they look to move so Spurs are going to be doing some interesting things but because they’ve got so many of their core pieces on rookie contracts it enables them I think to make a a big investment in a player like Fox because they believe that he has um such value. They did I think even though they gave up three firsts, I think they felt good about the value that they got in that trade. Well, and it was four first with a wink wink because one of them was never going to convey as a first. Um and they they they went into it with a surplus of picks. They still have plenty of picks. like if there’s a trade to be made, they’ve got plenty of ammo, including Draft Capital moving forward. And listen, Wendy, you’ve been telling us about the Breakfast Tacos, that Riverwalk, the proximity to Austin, and the fact that I haven’t talked about the Riverwalk. I I will vouch for the fact that San Antonio has got more going for it than people want to give it credit for. I think it’s very much a growing city. per capita. There’s as many facial and head tattoos in San Antonio as anywhere in America. Um, but in seriousness, since they got Wimi, you’ve been talking about, hey, San Antonio is going to be a destination for players and they didn’t engage in the KD bidding, but they were on Kevin Durant’s list. That was on D Fox’s list. And again, we talked about this a little bit with the Knicks. the next superstar player that becomes available. I don’t know if that player will say the Spurs are on his list, but there’s no doubt that they will consider the Spurs. [Music] me with the heat. I’m on fire on me.

Brian Windhorst is joined by Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective to react to Mikal Bridges’ extension with the New York Knicks and De’Aaron Fox extending with the San Antonio Spurs.

0:00 Windy details
5:12 Trade potential
11:12 Money talk
13:49 Fox extension
19:27 Spurs trio expectations
22:50 The case for San Antonio

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