Getty Julius Randle (left) and RJ Barrett of the New York Knicks.
With a rabid fan base like the New York Knicks have, there’s really no way to keep everyone happy unless you’re winning championships every year.
The team has proven in the past that swinging for the fences in free agency and trades hasn’t been the path forward to long-term success, so the franchise has now gone in a different direction and started developing some of their own talent.
To their credit, the Knicks have drafted quite well over the past several years with Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes, RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin and Mitchell Robinson all becoming starters or rotational pieces.
Surrounding them are veteran pieces such as Julius Randle and Evan Fournier, players who have been solid throughout their career, and in the case of Randle, members of an All-Star team. Adding Jalen Brunson into the mix is expected to make them into a playoff team, but some fans aren’t convinced.
Fresh off an RJ Barrett extension that’ll pay the former number three overall pick upwards of $120 million over four years, fans have begun to question the decision making of the Knicks.
Mid 3
To preface, not everybody criticizing the Knicks is necessarily a fan of the team, but the “Mid 3” tweet speaks for itself.
“This has to be the most expensive “Mid 3 ever,” wrote Twitter user iAmPatrickL in a tweet that has massed over 49,000 likes at the time of this writing.
It comes in a response to the Barrett extension coupled with Randle’s and the signing of Brunson that brings the trio’s pay roll to over $340 million. Bringing on Donovan Mitchell would see that number skyrocket even further. It’s a tough pill to swallow for a team that likely wouldn’t be close to a championship even with the addition of Mitchell, but it could come down to developing more pieces.
They’re really calling the Knicks’ trio the “Mid 3” now 😭
In order to get Mitchell now, the team would have to give up a lot of draft picks and likely some of that young core. On the bright side, it would mean somebody with a decent-sized salary would have to be moved, and that could be anyone from Derrick Rose or Evan Fournier to Randle himself.
Barrett is still a candidate to be moved in a trade, but things have gotten a lot more difficult on that end, and it’s hard to imagine the Knicks inking this extension with him just to move on from him in the end.
Latest on Mitchell
Although there’s now the $120 million wrinkle in the trade talks, Barrett’s not actually off the table according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“There’s still a pathway,” he said on August 30. “It’s more complicated, but RJ Barrett now, four years, nearly $120 million. [He] averaged 20 points in his third season in New York. He could still be a part of the package, it just becomes more complicated for New York and Utah to do a Donovan Mitchell trade.”
Obviously, the easier way to get a deal done would be centering talks around other players and including more draft picks. While there’s still reason to be optimistic about a deal for Knicks fans, it’s not the same as it was just a week ago.
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