After it was reported Monday that the Knicks were signing RJ Barrett to a max extension, it was believed they would be out of trade talks regarding Donovan Mitchell. Evidently, this may not be true.
According to both ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the extension doesn’t mean New York is out of talks, but it complicates a potential deal because any trade package for the Jazz star would include Barrett.
The Knicks closed the gap in talks for Mitchell on Sunday but Knicks president Leon Rose gave all parties involved a Monday night deadline or else the team would sign Barrett to an extension, per Wojnarowski. Because they were unable to get a deal done, New York signed Barrett to a four-year rookie extension that can be worth up to $120 million. New York wanted to send Barrett to Utah still on his rookie contract, but both sides couldn’t reach an agreement.
However, Wojnarowski reports that the poison pill provision would make it harder to structure a deal now. The term “poison pill” is used when describing a situation where a team extends a player’s rookie scale contract but tries to trade that player before the extension kicks in.
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ESPN’s Bobby Marks detailed that in the case of Barrett, if the Knicks still wanted to trade him in a package for Mitchell, they would be sending $10.9 million (Barrett’s salary for the final year of his rookie contract) to the Jazz but would have to receive $26.2 million, which is Barrett’s average salary over the next five years.
Wojnarowski also reported that Utah doesn’t have traction on a Mitchell trade anywhere else largely because of the amount of draft picks New York can offer. Charania reported that the Knicks’ last offer included Barrett along with two unprotected first-round picks but it was not deemed as near close to enough for the star guard.
