Knicks rising payroll a likely factor in OG Anunoby, Isaiah Hartenstein free agency discussion

The bill has come due, and now it’s time to check the receipts.

The Knicks are coming off of one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, securing 50 wins and the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed for the second time this century.

But now it’s time for players to get paid, time for checks to get signed, time for negotiating, bargaining and making difficult business decisions.

The decision the Knicks face entering the offseason after their second consecutive second-round playoff appearance is all about dollars and cents.

Is it worth it to flirt with the first apron and become a tax paying team for a roster that may only top out at the second round?

The Knicks already have $123 million in guaranteed salaries for the 2024-25 NBA season

Julius Randle is due $28.9 million, Jalen Brunson is set to earn $25 million, and Bojan Bogdanovic’s contract fully guarantees for $19 million on June 28.

Josh Hart is owed $18.1 million, Mitchell Robinson is on the hook for $14.3 million, Donte DiVincenzo will earn $11.4 million and Miles McBride is entering the first year of his three-year extension and will collect $4.7 million next year.

With the salary cap at $141 million, the Knicks have committed 87 percent of the cap to seven players on the roster.

The issue is the Knicks have two key free agents set to command significant pay raises on the open market: OG Anunoby, who is expected to decline the $19 million player option on the final year of his contract and enter free agency on Monday, and Isaiah Hartenstein, who became the starting center after Robinson’s early-season ankle injury and drew league-wide acclaim for his play on both ends of the floor.

The most the Knicks can offer Hartenstein is a 75 percent raise on his 2023-24 salary, a four-year, $72.5 million deal paying $16.2 million in Year 1, while he is expected to command a salary with an average annual value of $20 million or more on the open market.

Things are more complicated, however, when it comes to Anunoby

The Knicks traded away two former franchise building blocks in RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, plus the No. 31 pick in the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft for Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa, only for Anunoby now to be testing free agency and Achiuwa to be entering restricted free agency.

If the Knicks let Anunoby walk as a free agent, it would mark one of the largest blunders in recent franchise history given the cost of acquiring him for what would amount to a half-season rental.

Re-signing him, however, will not be cheap. In fact, applying the same 75 percent raise given to Hartenstein to Anunoby’s $19.9 million player option gets you a $34.9 million Year 1 salary and a five-year, $202 million contract in total.

While that number might sound exorbitant, here’s something to consider: Anunoby’s former teammate, Pascal Siakam, just agreed to a four-year extension worth $189 million with the Indiana Pacers and will make the same amount as franchise cornerstone Tyrese Haliburton for the next four seasons.

It’s hard to imagine the Knicks traded for Anunoby, however, without having a contract extension figure in mind, especially considering Anunoby is not only a CAA client, but is represented by Sam Rose, son of Knicks president Leon Rose.

Anunoby is deserving of a significant raise on the four-year, $72 million deal he signed with the Toronto Raptors in 2021. The Knicks went 12-2 immediately after acquiring him and boasted a 20-3 record in regular season games he appeared after the Dec. 30 deal with the Raptors.

But just how much of a raise is on the table in New York?

The Boston Celtics, for example, will reportedly have to offer unrestricted free agent guard Derrick White — drafted six slots after Anunoby in the 2017 NBA Draft — a four-year, $127 million contract to keep him in a green and white jersey. White may be the fifth-best player in Boston, but his services on both ends of the floor are invaluable.

The Minnesota Timberwolves also recently signed forward Jaden McDaniels to a five-year, $131 million extension as the fourth-best player on the team behind Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert.

It costs to keep a good core intact, and the Knicks are learning the cost of doing business. Whatever the number, as it pertains to Anunoby, a deal must get done.

But for the Knicks, there will be ramifications

Remember, the Knicks already have 87 percent of the salary cap committed to the seven players who already have guaranteed contracts for next season. If the Knicks were to retain Hartenstein for his Early Bird max, then re-sign Anunoby at a modest $25 million annually, they would be spending $164 million on nine players on the roster.

Of those nine players, four (including Anunoby) were unable to stay healthy through the playoffs and three (Randle, Robinson and Bogdanovic) underwent season-ending surgeries.

The $164 million figure does not factor in a future contract extension for Brunson, who is reportedly willing to leave $40 million on the table to secure a long-term future in New York, or Randle, should he and the Knicks agree to an extension, as any extensions for the Knicks’ pair of All-Stars will kick in at the top of the 2025-26 season.

The $164 million figure also does not account for Anunoby’s potential desire for a salary larger than $25 million in Year 1 salary.

It’s important to remember the luxury tax line, as well, which is at $171 million for the 2024-25 season.

Should the Knicks retain Anunoby and Hartenstein, they would still need to round out a complete roster using a portion of the $5.2 million taxpayer’s mid-level exception and minimum contracts. The Knicks also have the 24th and 25th picks in the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft and could add rookies to the end of the roster, though, it would cost $5.5 million in Year 1 salary to keep both picks as opposed to trading them elsewhere. More luxury tax considerations.

Should the Knicks become a tax paying team next season, they would owe $1.50 for each of the first $5 million spent over $171 million.

It’s a lot of money to pay when you consider running the same team back next season doesn’t pass the Boston Celtics or Milwaukee Bucks smell test.

If anyone can foot the bill, it’s James Dolan, and Dolan’s Knicks are coming off one of the most successful seasons in franchise history.

It would be a grave mistake, however, to assume the same roster can achieve better results in a conference whose juggernauts underperformed last season.

The Knicks need to improve the roster, and they have tough decisions to make, starting with Anunoby and Hartenstein, who could leave for nothing and to handicap the Knicks, or return in an attempt to bring a championship to Madison Square Garden.