Briefing: May 23
An old story becomes new again
Good Morning,
I will let Jonathan Macri guide us today…
What's a Wednesday in mid-May if not yet another opportunity to revisit the Kristaps Porzingis trade?
(sigh)
That's where we all were yesterday when video surfaced of Steve Mills and Scott Perry at a recent event where Mills was recorded stating that KP told them he wasn’t re-signing and that if he wasn’t traded by the deadline, he would go back to Europe.
Primarily, the hubbub caused by this was more a commentary on the current state of media than anything else. Nothing Mills stated hadn’t been reported before, but clicks are clicks. As JB pointed out yesterday, Marc Stein noted in his New York Times recap of the trade that KP had made this threat. As for not re-signing, we all remember the controversy over whether or not KP would actually ever bypass a nine-figure payday and sign a qualifying offer of just under $5 million.
In a way, though, I’m happy this video got the circulation it did.
There was a lot about the Porzingis trade that one could question – the return New York got, whether they were foolish not to call his bluff, whether the current regime did enough to repair the sins of the past, etc. – but one thing I never understood was how anyone could argue that KP’s complete and total lack of desire to be a Knick was essentially a non-factor in assessing this move.
There were, and still are, people who say that this shouldn’t have been a consideration for the Knicks – that they had all the leverage as the holder of KP’s rights in restricted free agency. Couple things here:
1. Did we acquire the time travel Fitbits from Endgame and go back to an era when contracts actually meant something in the NBA? Paul George and Kawhi Leonard whined their way off the Spurs and Pacers – two exemplary organizations – over the last two seasons. Jimmy Butler got himself dealt twice. Anthony Davis' exit is only a matter of time. Contracts matter…for the player. For the team, they matter until the player no longer wishes for them to matter.
2. There is no argument that KP would have been worth more signed to a five-year max than he was on the last year of his rookie deal, because aside from the obvious questions regarding his health, such a contract would have placed enormous restrictions on the kind of trade the Knicks would have been able to put him in at that point, what with the NBA’s rules on salary matching.
3. Everyone was quick to point out – correctly, I might add – that for as ballsy as the Porzingis camp tried to come off, they weren’t stupid enough to settle for a qualifying offer with his health so uncertain. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have signed an offer sheet in which he won and the Knicks lost. There would have been teams lining up to give him the max 2 + 1 deal with a player option and trade kicker he likely would have sought. This would have ensured him a massive payday on one hand, but given him a quick exit strategy should the Knicks have matched.
So no, the Knicks didn’t give up some massive leverage advantage by trading him when they did. Quite the opposite, in fact: they exercised their advantage when their leverage was at its highest by trading a player at the last moment before any of the above scenarios could play out, and while the acquiring team still felt like they were gaining a significant advantage by getting KP before he hit restricted free agency.
Don’t believe me? Fine. Play this scenario out in your head then:
The Knicks keep KP past the deadline. He gets on a plane and departs for Latvia or Spain or the goddamned Moon. The media immediately catches wind, and a KP to Knicks: Lat Me Be! headline gets splashed across the back page. His wanting no part of the team is a black cloud that envelops the organization from February until July. Any progress they’d made rebooting the team’s image around the league with players, execs and the like is flushed down the toilet. Their pitch meeting to Kevin Durant – if they even still got one – goes something like this:
“Hey Kev, we have a super young core here …Yeah, no, KP – he’s part of it alright, he’s just busy. … Doing what? Well, he had to wash his hair…that Ivan Drago look doesn’t magically happen by itself, you know, ha! … What’s that? A running mate…well, KP will be your running mate…when he gets back. Yup, any day now. And Timmy! How could we forget Timmy? ... Healthy? Why of course he’s healthy! Why, we saw him livin’ it up in the ice bath just the other day! ... Uh…umm…do you like blues?”
Yeah.
All kidding aside, the thing that #LOLKnicks’ers love to get on their high horse and preach about the most is that the organization is always looking for a hope and a prayer from the outside world, when really, they should have always been looking within, getting the foundation right so the walls don’t collapse upon themselves in hilarious fashion, like we’ve seen so many times before.
Yesterday’s video was the latest reminder that in executing this trade when and how they did, the Knicks were doing just that. There was no magic wand in a vault somewhere they could have waived to magically improve the situation with a clearly disgruntled player sometime between now and the summer. The relationship was doomed. Blindly holding onto “the asset” with fingers crossed and eyes closed would have been akin to attempting to build the house in quicksand…yet again.
Whatever they’re building now – whether it’s a modest, one-story condo or a lavish duplex with a sweet-ass Jacuzzi on the roof – they’re doing so on solid ground. As I wrote yesterday, it’s all fans have ever wanted from this team.
It doesn’t happen without this trade.
Now please, for the love of God and all that is holy, let us never speak of it again.
Thanks for reading, talk to you tomorrow!