NBA rumors: How Knicks' Mikal Bridges trade impacts OG Anunoby, Isaiah Hartenstein

06/26/2024 01:31 AM

The New York Knicks were ripe for a monster move given how many draft assets and tradeable contracts they had, and on Tuesday night, they finally made their much-anticipated major maneuver as they traded five first-round picks, an unprotected pick swap, and a second-round pick, along with Bojan Bogdanovic’s contract, to the Brooklyn Nets for Mikal Bridges.

Nonetheless, while acquiring Bridges makes the Knicks a much better team, the trade they pulled off will make it difficult for them to keep other core members. By acquiring more salary than they gave up, the Knicks hard-capped themselves at the first luxury tax apron, which is set to be at around $178.7 million. OG Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein, two crucial members of the team, are free agents, and the Knicks will now find it difficult to keep either of them, let alone both.

Given how much the Knicks gave up for Anunoby, however, it makes sense that they will pull out all the stops to keep him in town. And it looks like this is what the Knicks will be doing, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that they are “still determined” to keep the 26-year old forward in the Big Apple. However, doing so may come at the cost of Hartenstein.

It’s unclear just how big of a contract OG Anunoby will be commanding in free agency, but he is an unrestricted free agent, so he is free to choose which team to sign for, as long as they reach his contract demands. The Knicks, following the Mikal Bridges trade, still have around $41.56 million in space before they reach the first luxury tax apron. That, one would think, should be enough to keep Anunoby.

Keeping Isaiah Hartenstein is a bit tricker, however, as Wojnarowski reported. With Hartenstein set to command around $13-$14 million annually, the Knicks may want to get to around $50 million in first apron space if they were to keep both Hartenstein and Anunoby. To do so, the Knicks will have to trade Mitchell Robinson away and get almost nothing in salary in return. It all boils down to who the Knicks prefer to be their long-term center.

Either way, there is still a strong chance that either Anunoby or Hartenstein stay; if they do, the Knicks should have one of the deepest, most well-rounded cores in the association with enough shooting, defense, and rebounding to make some noise for next season and, perhaps, mount a legitimate challenge to the reigning champion Boston Celtics’ repeat bid.

There is no way the Knicks are letting OG Anunoby walk

The sunk cost fallacy is one of the most common human cognitive biases there is; when one has invested a lot of assets, be it tangible or intangible, into something, one finds it more difficult to let go and start over. But with the Knicks, this does not apply. OG Anunoby is not a sunk cost yet; he is entering just his age-27 season, so he’s still in the middle of his prime, and considering how much New York gave up to the Toronto Raptors to acquire him, it will be painful to watch him walk after just half a season.

As one would recall, the Knicks gave up RJ Barrett, a 24-year old wing who has been coming into his own as a more efficient scorer, and Immanuel Quickley, a dynamite spark plug who gave the Knicks some microwave scoring off the bench. Quickley is only 25 years of age, and he appears to be blossoming as the Raptors’ starting point guard.

Losing those two for a player who only played a total of 32 games for the team (regular season and playoffs combined) will be a tough pill to swallow. Expect the Knicks to do whatever it takes to give Anunoby the contract he desires, especially when they’re stacking up on wing depth to try and combat their greatest opponent in the Eastern Conference — the Celtics.

To keep or not to keep Isaiah Hartenstein, part two

During the 2022 offseason, the Los Angeles Clippers chose to sign John Wall instead of keeping Isaiah Hartenstein. Hartenstein emerged as a solid backup center for the Clippers, an active rim protector and rebounder with passing chops, but instead, the Clippers saw Wall as someone who could solve their point guard woes. That decision proved to be the wrong one for the Clippers, with Wall looking washed up almost immediately into the 2022-23 campaign.

This time around, it’s the Knicks that will be facing the decision of whether or not to keep Hartenstein. They will have to choose between him and Mitchell Robinson especially when they’re hell-bent on keeping OG Anunoby. Will the Knicks do something that they regret as well, much like the Clippers did?

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