-Ed-Mulholland-USA-TODAY-Sports-3
(New York, NY) — Dear Knicks; Pay IQ.
Immanuel Quickley, in hindsight, should have won the Sixth Man of the Year Award.
The honor’s runner up had a career year, averaging around 15, 4, and 3 on 45% from the floor and 37% from deep. He established himself as one of the league’s top backup floor generals and a very serviceable one if required to start.
He’s not a free agent this year, but he’s got his eyes on the dollar signs.
“He is going to want nine figures,” one league executive told Heavy Sports about Quickley’s intentions. “That’s for four years. I can’t say the Knicks will go that high but they might have to. He is not a guy you want to send to restricted free agency.”
This means that Quickley wants a contract of at least four years, $100 million. New York already signed Jalen Brunson to a nine-figure contract last year and is pretty set with him as their point guard. Quickley will be a restricted free agent, though, meaning the Knicks can match any offer he gets on the open market. But of course, that will force the Knicks to very publicly assess his value if another team makes an offer.
The Knicks have three options: pay Quickly now and avoid his value rising, wait and bet that his value plateaus or declines, or trade him or another guard to free up backcourt money. If New York indeed wants to chase a big name this offseason, the trade package would pretty much have to involve RJ Barrett or Quickley. At that point, the new acquisition would have to be worth shipping off a vital ball-handler and scorer.
The safest bet, though, would be to pay him now. Even if it is a slight overpay, most NBA teams lack strong facilitators off the bench. Swinging for the fence with a superstar and then missing would run the risk of having a key part of the team in a semi-contract year, and unless the plan is to trade him or lock him in eventually, it makes little sense to play with fire.
