Katz says he’s non-guaranteed for next year.

That makes so much more sense.

Unless it’s former #8 pick Frank Ntilikina! But I digress…

Here’s the thing. Did the Knicks tamper to get Brunson? Probably. But outside of him signing with us right away and is hiring his Dad, was there actual evidence of tampering? Like text messages before free agency, etc? I don’t think so which is why the NBA just did its usual penalty of making us give up a second rounder.

And tampering doesn’t affect the product on the court directly. What Cuban did was blatantly lowers the product on the floor and spits in the face of competition. I mean the whole play in was supposed to stop that. And doing this when they owe us a pick with protections seems like trying to go back on a previous deal.

It’s not our fault porzingis didn’t work out. I thought that was a more than fair trade for both sides but many think we didn’t get enough. And Cuban had every opportunity to pay Brunson a fair contract before the Knicks were even on his radar. And he knew the risks of making a big Kyrie trade at the deadline.

There’s no way dumping a must win game when you are still technically alive is the same as a bunch of bad teams jockeying for position at the end of the season by playing their young prospects instead of their more productive veterans. And even that has negative implications for teams battling for playoff positioning. One team may have played that team at full strength and another gets to play the intentional tanking squad.