Knicks Forced into IMPOSSIBLE Decision…

Knicks Forced into IMPOSSIBLE Decision…

The New York Knicks are being forced into an impossible decision as team president Leon Rose is going to have to make a very tough call on this team’s future in regards to what players are going to be staying and what players are going to be going. And this comes out at a very interesting time regarding the recent news of Male Bridges and Yiannis on Tetakmpo when it comes down to that contract extension for Bridges. And we’re going to break it all down. What’s up guys? Welcome back to Nick’s Digest. It’s Chris here. We’re going to jump right into things. As always, if you guys are part of that 66% that’s not subscribed to Nick’s Dig, just make sure to subscribe for daily New York Knicks updates. We have the latest and greatest updates on the New York Knicks. So, make sure to subscribe if you’re interested. Join a channel membership. You got a bunch of cool perks, but let’s jump into the video. There’s a lot to go over as Leon Rose is going to have to make one of the toughest calls that he’ll ever have to make as president of the Knicks. We know that this team is not going to be sustainable for like a million years, but right now going into next season, it is. And next season, the Knicks truly do believe that they can win the NBA finals and they are going all out to try to do that. It’s one of the reasons why there’s a bunch of talk about Giannis is because the Knicks really think that they could win the finals and they think getting Giannis puts them over the top. But the main point here is with the roster they have now, the Knicks do think they can win the NBA Finals. And because of that, they’re not willing to make any drastic changes to the roster unless it is for Giannis. And with the Giannis stuff likely not happening at this point, it feels more like Giannis is going to stay in Milwaukee for the upcoming season. At the very least, the Knicks are likely going to be running it back with a very similar lineup. However, with a revamped bench unit that features Jordan Clarkson and Gershon Yabuy joining the team and helping the Knicks get that better bench and also now have a truly really nice 10-man deep roster while also they will make another signing. Whether that’s a few different names that’ll come up that we will talk about later today or sometime tomorrow, we do have a lot of updates on all that. But jumping into what Bobby Mark said about this Knicks team, he mentioned that for two consecutive seasons, New York has danced around the second apron. The Knicks traded for Towns last off season and recently signed Gershon Yabusaley to part of the taxpayer mid-level exception. Those two transactions hardcapped the Knicks at the second apron each of the last two years, whether it was Towns in 2024 or Yabu in 2025. Both times the Knicks have now found themselves pretty capped. Now, on top of that, Marks also mentioned that while the Knicks won’t exceed the second apron this year, that could change in 2026 27 if they want to keep their top seven players under contract. New York is $52 million below the second apron next season. a byproduct of Jaylen Brunson taking $12 million less in salary almost exactly a year ago, a little over a year ago. That discount gives New York the room to sign Male Bridges to a 4-year, $156 million contract extension. Now, we know that Male Bridges is eligible for that extension and that Bridges was a solid player with the Knicks last year, but there’s a few reasons why the Knicks have not signed Bridges to that extension and why Bridges hasn’t agreed to that extension. One of them being well honestly the Knicks are probably a little bit wary of giving him that big of an extension and there’s a world where male wants to sign a five-year deal in the offseason. Both of those things are possible and there’s a world that male thinks that with a new coach that’s not Tom Tibido he’s going to have a much better season. Something that very likely could happen. I think male will fit in really well with Mike Brown and he’ll work really well there. And I do think he’s in for a better season than he had last year and I think that will impact his contract decision. But also, as Ian Begley mentioned, there is that looming Giannis situation that does play a part into this. And as Begley mentioned, look, one of the reasons that male hasn’t been extended yet is because once you extend him, he cannot be traded for 6 months. Until the Giannis thing is fully settled, and I don’t think it’s fully settled yet. I think that’s why you haven’t seen Bridges extended yet. When he does extend, it would tell you Giannis is put to bed, is off the table in a sense. That’s one factor at play here in terms of timing. The extension once it happens, if it happens, should tell you something about what’s going on in Milwaukee. So Ian Begley thinks that Giannis is a huge part of this and it’s likely one of the reasons why the Knicks haven’t extended bridges is because at the end of the day, obviously like most teams in the NBA, the Knicks want to to trade for Giannis. It’s not like that’s a hot take. And as I’ve said, if Giannis could pick what team he’d get traded to, the Knicks seem like the likely answer. They’re in New York, a city he loves. The Knicks are a really enticing market right now that don’t even look like they need Giannis to win an NBA Finals, but getting Giannis puts them over the top and makes them the clear-cut favorites to win the NBA Finals. Obviously, they’d be hurting their depth there, trading a multitude of players or trading some deal packaged around Carl Anthony Towns. But the general consensus is the Knicks don’t want to trade Towns and would like to pair Giannis with Towns. And doing so, you’d have to trade Mitchell Robinson, male Bridges, Josh Hart for Giannis and AJ Green. Something like that would probably work as I said in a recent video and like the last video I put out on this channel. So, I’m not trying to talk about Giannis a bunch here because we already did that. But effectively, when it comes down to it, male, one of the reasons he is not extended is certainly because of this man right here. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise because Giannis does play a factor in that and we should not pretend like he doesn’t. But also it comes down to male. It does. That’s an impact, too. What’s male going to look like next season? Male Bridges was up and down with the Knicks last year, but he did come through in the playoffs in a major way. Now, when we look at it, it’s not like his playoffs, that’s jump off the page at you, but he did put up 15 and a half points, four and a half rebounds, and three assists while playing phenomenal defense. The defensive monster in Male Bridges showed up in the playoffs after he was kind of asleep throughout the season. He’s got 1.7 steals per game and a block per game. He was excellent on defense against Kate Cunningham. He was excellent against Jaylen Brown. He had two steels that won the Knicks games one and two against the Boston Celtics. If they if those steals didn’t happen, the Knicks likely don’t win that series. Male was phenomenal with the Knicks and no one’s doubting it. Male was great and he had a lot of good moments throughout the season where we saw him be able to take over games and also just play his role effectively. He was unconscious in the mid-range all season long. Giving the Knicks a jolt in shot creation that they needed going into the the year last year. They just didn’t have a bunch of guys who could create their own shot. Male came in and absolutely could do that given it was it not always in the biggest sample size because Jaylen Brunson dominating the ball. We saw when Jaylen Brunson was out for a month, Male Bridges was looking like the number one option for the Knicks and he was doing well. He was still finding his way to those corner threes, which was where the majority of his success always came from. He was hitting big shots. He was moving with the ball well. He was moving off the ball well. Male did a lot of good when he was playing with the Knicks. Obviously, there were the nights where you’d only have four points or something, but then again, there’d be the great nights as well, and yeah, the inconsistency isn’t perfect, but I think with Mike Brown, male’s going to get more opportunities, and that’s big for him. And I think that is going to have an impact on male going forwards and on the Knicks going forward. So, I do think that’s going to help. And I do think that when it comes down to Bridges, we are going to see him probably stick around with the Knicks for the long haul. I don’t really expect the Knicks to lose Bridges anytime soon. And Mitchell Robinson, he kind of becomes the other factor here. In the playoffs, Mitch averaged seven rebounds, four points, really five points, and one steal per game in that time span. The numbers don’t jump off the page, but everyone knows the impact that Mitchell Robinson had with the Knicks. And look, I mean, as TG mentioned that the Knicks vers Boston with Mitchell Robinson on the court had an 18.1 net rating and without him on the court, they had a minus 11.9 rating. So obviously Mitchell Robinson was one of the engines of this team, one of the reasons why the Knicks were able to be so successful and that’s been the case every year he’s been healthy and that’s what makes it difficult what Bobby Marks mentioned that how however a new contract for Bridges that starts at $34.8 $8 million could squeeze out Mitchell Robinson. Like Bridges, Robinson is eligible to sign a 4-year extension and is a free agent if a new contract is not reached by June 30th of next season. Mitch will be an unrestricted free agent for the second time in his career. The first time he agreed to a 4-year extension with the Knicks in 2022. And now next year all of a sudden it’s 2026 and he could easily be looking for either a new role with a new team or just more money than the Knicks are going to be willing to offer. And that is when things get difficult. If Mitchell Robinson’s demanding a lot of money, Leon Rose and the Knicks are finding themselves in a situation where they’re going to be in the second apron. And it’s one of the reasons why it feels like the Knicks would trade Mitchell Robinson because I don’t think they’re going to trade Male Bridges unless it’s in some big package because they would use Male Bridges as a very tradable contract first. And the reasoning of that is Mitchell Robinson does have that injury-prone label to him. And also on top of things, Mitchell Robinson is the one guy on this Knicks team that Leon Rose did not bring in. Mitch is the only one who’s from the Steve Mills Scott Priera. He’s the last one standing. And I mean, Leon didn’t bring Mitch in. So, it’s a little bit different. And obviously, they love Mitch because he’s very hard to replace. His skill set is very rare. I mean, I know he’s a rim runner, but he’s just better at rim running than everyone. He’s the best offensive rebounder in basketball. And the only guy you can kind of compare to him is Stephen Adams, who just signed an extension with the Houston Rockets. He’s not going anywhere anytime soon unless the Knicks were going to try to trade for Adams, who the Rockets value highly for not only just the way that he’s an excellent teammate, but also what he does produce on the floor now that he’s back healthy after that torn ACL again. So, there’s a lot of reasons to sort of look at everything and understand that Mitchell Robinson’s a tough player to move because you can’t really replace him. And I do think how Ariel Huckporty plays will have some of an impact on what happens throughout the next season and with Mitchell Robinson just in a general sense. But at the same time, are the Knicks really going to trade Mitchell Robinson away when they think they could win the NBA Finals? He’s their rim protector. He’s their offensive rebounder. He’s the best rebounder on the team. Everything Mitch does would if he left, if he was traded, you you now have a Knicks team with a Mitchell Robinson sized hole in your wall. And that’s not exactly what you want to see either. I mean, Mitch also very, very valuable to this team. No doubt about it. We’ve seen Mitchell Robinson absolutely show up and just completely take over just the entire paint on offense, on defense. I mean, the man is so good at getting to the dunker spot. He rolls off picks really well. He’s I mean, again, every time you see a highlight from Mitchell Robinson, it’s likely you’re going to see something with the offensive rebounding. We saw him hit a little euroep that one time. When Mitchell Robinson dribbles, he actually does show more finesse than people expect cuz he’s expected to do stuff like that. slam the ball home and then wait for it do that. That is what Mitchell Robinson is expected of. It’s not to dribble the ball, but it is fun when he actually does do it. I mean, that time he crossed over Rudy Goar was awesome. Once a year, Mitchell Robinson triples the ball and something good happens and then he never gets to do it again. But who knows, maybe with Mike Brown, he’ll get a little bit more leeway to have some fun with it. We’ll see. I also think Mitchell Robinson’s going to fit great into a Mike Brown team because you get to get Mitch out in transition like when obviously David Fizzdale and was not a good coach at all. who was horrific, bottom like five coach ever. But at the same time, when Mike Miller was out there, we saw a faster paced Knicks and Mitchell Robinson running in transition, things looked really, really good. And we even saw Mitch good under David Fisa. I don’t really give FDA a ton of credit, but Mitch was good there and they played in transition and him and Dennis Smith Jr. had a good rapport. So, I believe heavily in Mitch and I don’t want to see the Knicks make a change, but obviously at some point they’re going to be forced into this impossible decision of making a move or finding yourself in the second apron. So, it all depends on what happens throughout this season, how everyone plays, and what the playoffs look like. And then things are going to get really interesting. But guys, what do you think? Let me know in the comments down below. Oh my god, my voice cracked. Like this video, subscribe, turn on post notifications, have a great day and go nicks.

Chris Gallagher breaks down the New York Knicks being in an impossible decision.

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