The deal, which can be officially completed once the moratorium period ends on July 6, will feature a fifth-year player option and a trade kicker, according to Wojnarowski. It will be the largest contract in Knicks history, tweets Steve Popper of Newsday.
It’s the second huge move the Knicks have made in the past 24 hours. On Tuesday night, the team reached an agreement with the Nets to acquire Mikal Bridges for a package that includes five future first-round picks and a pick swap.
Between Bridges and Anunoby, New York will head into the 2024-25 season armed with two of the league’s best three-and-D players on the wing.
The Knicks acquired Anunoby from Toronto in December for a package headed by Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett. The former Raptor made an immediate impact with his new team, helping New York win 12 of his first 14 games before an elbow injury sidelined him for several weeks.
Anunoby had a positive on/off-court rating in each of the 23 regular season games he ended up playing for the Knicks, with the club registering an incredible +21.7 net rating during his 802 minutes on the court. Both the Knicks’ offensive rating (122.6) and defensive rating (100.9) during those minutes would’ve ranked first in the NBA.
Injuries have long been a issue for the defensive star, who has missed 29, 34, 15 and 32 games in the past four regular seasons and was unavailable for most of the Eastern Conference semifinals vs. Indiana due to a hamstring ailment. Those health concerns were thought to be a factor that might keep his overall payday this offseason in check, but that certainly won’t be the case.
While Anunoby isn’t signing a maximum-salary deal (which would have been worth a projected $245M+), his deal with the Knicks will average $42.5M per season, based on Wojnarowski’s report, which is higher than his projected maximum starting salary ($42.3M). The five-year, $212.5M contract will also exceed the maximum offer that any rival suitor could have made to the 26-year-old ($182M over four years).
According to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, Anunoby might have had max offers on the table from other suitors, but wanted to help build a title contender in New York.
Depending on how the Bridges trade ends up being structured, the Knicks will be hard-capped at either the first tax apron (approximately $178.7M) or the second apron ($189.5M) for the 2024-25 league year. A first-apron hard cap would make the Anunoby contract a tighter fit, but based on the terms reported by Woj, it could start as low as $36.64M. It’s also worth noting that early reports often overstate the actual value of the completed deal, so Anunoby’s starting salary could even come in a little below that.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes, New York’s team salary currently projects to be about $6.6M below the first apron with 11 players under contract (including the team’s two first-round picks), but that figure will remain fluid until deals are officially completed.
Anunoby had been the No. 5 free agent on our top-50 list. Three players in our top 10 — Anunoby, his former teammate Pascal Siakam and Kings guard Malik Monk — have now reached tentative agreements to remain with their current teams ahead of the start of the free agent period on Sunday.