The recent extension between RJ Barrett and the Knicks stomps the desire of Utah Jazz to potentially ship Donovan Mitchell to New York for a bountiful return.
As further revealed by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the inking ends the Knicks-Jazz trade talks about the All-star guard, noting that it now forces teams to negotiate differently if they want to due to the ‘poison pill provision.’
Barrett’s deal — which makes him the youngest $100 million player in Knicks history at 22 years old — ends several weeks of trade discussions for Mitchell between New York and Utah, and forces the two organizations, if they choose, to start over talks with significantly different considerations because of the “poison pill” provision now in Barrett’s deal.
Though it doesn’t appear in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, the poison pill provision can be applied when a player, following his rookie scale extension, gets traded before the given extension is finally complete. In that case, a player’s value on the receiving team for matching purposes will be determined by averaging his current year salary as well as the salaries in each of the years of his inked extension. Meanwhile, his current team will note his current year salary as an outgoing cost for matching purposes.
In other words, the Jazz will find it hard to ask for other players if they’ll want to throw Mitchell away to the Knicks and gain Barrett in return as a headliner, due to the fact that the latter has now an increased value upon the extension.
Per Woj, the Knicks have been in the chase to gain Donovan Mitchell, but team president Leon Rose raised a Monday ultimatum to either trade with the Utah Jazz or sign Barrett to an extension. Eventually, a transaction between two teams didn’t come to reality.
From the previous weeks, Jazz exec Danny Ainge remained bold that he’ll get a major asset for Mitchell – a much bigger one compared to what he obtained from the Rudy Gobert package via Minnesota Timberwolves.
The reported reluctance of Knicks to part ways with their boatload of future picks – in which Ainge truly holds in regard – now ultimately hammers their intention to move forward and continue to thrive with Barrett.
Barrett becomes the first Knicks first-round pick to be signed on a multi-year contract extension since Charlie Ward in 1999.
The former No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 Draft, Barrett established himself as a future cornerstone of the Knicks franchise, even helping them to reach last year’s postseason.
Last season with New York, the Canadian cager amassed a 20.0 points average to go with 5.8 boards, 3.0 assists in 70 total games. He is expected to mesh well with the newly-acquired Jalen Brunson and run the show as backcourt tandem in the Big Apple this upcoming season.
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