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The New York Knicks have officially signed Jalen Brunson, though it is worth noting that the Dallas Mavericks apparently made several attempts to get something back in return for him.
Of course those efforts failed, as the Mavs had little leverage to begin with.
According to Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News, the Mavs met with Knicks officials “multiple times this week” in Las Vegas to discuss the possibility of doing a sign-and-trade deal instead. New York wasn't able to sign Brunson immediately because they still needed to open up cap space, thereby raising the possibility that they might be open to doing a deal with the Mavs.
Unfortunately for Dallas, the Knicks didn't really have any interest that even a dinner meeting could change.
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Mavs met with the Knicks’ brass multiple times this week in Las Vegas, including a dinner, to talk about a sign-and-trade.
But it was always unlikely bc Mavs had little leverage beyond possible NBA penalty for tampering.
Now Jalen Brunson leaving for nothing is official. https://t.co/gqkQS0ysEp
— Callie Caplan (@CallieCaplan) July 12, 2022
The news certainly didn't come as a surprise to the Mavs and to many Dallas faithful, though. While there were some hopes, recent reports have already indicated that the Knicks were not interested in a sign-and-trade for Jalen Brunson. Fred Katz of The Athletic noted that New York had planned to sign Brunson directly using their cap space, and that's exactly what they did.
Brunson reportedly inked a four-year, $104 million deal with the Knicks, which was significantly higher with what the Mavs wanted to offer him. More than the money he got, though, the 25-year-old playmaker couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a starting point guard role where he could handle the ball more and get out of the shadow of Luka Doncic.
