Getty Josh Hart reacts during a game between the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets.
Josh Hart is expected to be rewarded for delaying his extension that helped the New York Knicks land his former Villanova teammate Donte DiVincenzo in free agency.
According to New York Daily News’ Knicks reporter Stefan Bondy, Hart will get more than he could have commanded in the open market if he opted out of his $12.9 million option for next season.
“The word on Hart’s extension, which will be delivered in August, is in the range of four years, $75 million,” Bondy wrote.
Hart was expected to command an average annual salary of around $17-18 million if he became an unrestricted free agent.
Instead, Hart exercised his player option, which kept the Knicks under the luxury tax, allowing them to use the midlevel exception to sign DiVincenzo to a four-year, $50 million deal.
The move appears to be a win-win deal for both the Knicks and Hart.
Knicks Flirted With Bringing Back Thanasis Antetokounmpo
The Knicks pursued their former second-round pick Thanasis Antetokounmpo, but Giannis’ older brother, ultimately re-signed with the Milwaukee Bucks.
“Antetokounmpo chose return to the Bucks over multiple options, including Knicks, sources said. Brothers Giannis and Thanasis, Brook and Robin Lopez all reunited in Milwaukee for next season,” The Athletic’s Shams Charania wrote on Twitter.
Thanasis was the Knicks’ 51st overall pick in 2014. He starred for their G-League affiliate, Westchester Knicks, as he was named to the All-Defensive second team in 2015.
Thanasis has NBA career averages of 2.7 points and 1.8 rebounds across 164 games.
Brock Aller Mentioned as Potential Front Office Leader Candidate
Brock Aller, the Knicks vice president of basketball and strategic planning, has been named as part of the next wave of rising front office executives, according to a Yahoo Sports report.
“Knicks vice president Brock Aller has been mentioned often by NBA figures for his key role as a strategist for New York under president Leon Rose,” Yahoo Sports NBA insider Jake Fischer wrote. “Aller joined the Knicks after rising through Cleveland’s front office, and Detroit’s before that.”
Aller is a key figure in the Knicks front office, facilitating the Hart trade which helped them win their first playoff series for the first time in a decade.
Since Aller came on board, the Knicks have done shrewd dealings from the Ed Davis trade, which netted them multiple second-round picks to extracting extra protected first-rounders and signing key players like Jalen Brunson to descending deals.
Aller spent 15 seasons with the Cavaliers and was a key front-office figure during their title run with LeBron James.
Known as a Cap guru, Aller was one of the Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s trusted men in Cleveland before he moved to New York for a bigger role. He rose from being an intern to becoming Gilbert’s personal assistant and, later on, the Cavaliers’ senior director of basketball operations.
“Aller’s probably one of the finer capologists in the league,” Gilbert told Cleveland.com in a 2017 interview. “He knows more about cap than probably PricewaterhouseCoopers knows about the IRS code. He lives with the cap, with the collective bargaining agreement.”