It sounds like the delay on Mitch returning was Masai making a late push to sign him, but Mitch ultimately stuck with his Plan A, which was reported days ago, of coming back to the Knick for four years and $60 million.
I am pumped, of course. Spending money in this offseason and then extending RJ and resigning Mitch always made the most sense if the Knicks weren’t going to rebuild, so Rose going the opposite direction last year always puzzled me, but at least Rose knows well enough to pivot, and here we are with Brunson, Mitch and Hart, the best trio of Knick free agents…ever?
My biggest problem last year was that the Knicks couldn’t be satisfied with the team they had, and the moves suggested that they were (coupled with a general, “Maybe someone good will come later?”), while these moves are, “We gotta change our ways,” and I like that.
The Knicks had not resigned any player that they drafted to a second contract since Charlie Ward’s second Knick deal, over thirty years ago (they reacquired THJ and kept David Lee and Nate Robinson for the rarely used qualifying offer season of their rookie deal, but never an extension or second contract at the close of the first), so this is major Knick history.