Rob Gray / USA TODAY Sports
The New York Knicks are hot after Donovan Mitchell, but they have to be careful not to end up bidding against themselves in trade talks with the Utah Jazz. We know that Danny Ainge has a history of asking and often getting the world, and in fact Ainge recently asked the Knicks to rescue a king in exchange for Mitchell.
According to Athletic’s Tony Jones, Utah offered Mitchell in New York six future first-round picks plus Quentin Grimes, Immanuel Quickley, Obi Toppin and Miles McBride, but the Knicks “withdrew” from that proposal.
New York was smart to do that. Utah wants rookie-scale elections and players above players who win now (a player on the line for a big payday, such as RJ Barrett) so he can go into tank mode and create financial flexibility through a rebuild, and not there is no other realistic. Mitchell pretending he can offer the six options Utah asked for. New York can offer up to eight, but again, you only need to hang as many options as necessary to exceed the offer of the nearest team.
Miami, for example, can only offer two future elections (three if it drops protections to the 2025 selection it owes to OKC or gets creative with the “next language allowed” according to the Stepien Rule, which dictates that a team cannot spend consecutive seasons without a first round selection).
The Pelicans could offer six options if they wanted to mortgage their entire future to Mitchell, but with CJ McCollum on board, Mitchell feels redundant. The Thunder and Rockets, both laden with draft capital, are still in development. So the Knicks have a lot to offer in terms of draft capital, and they won’t let Ainge be them. They will give one more choice than the next team on the line. Maybe it’s five or four picks with all these young players. But they are not six. At least not at this early stage of the discussions.