Josh Hart said a line that has only made Knicks fans happier with every blockbuster appearance he has made for the team. “I’ve been looking for a home, and I think this might be it,” he said, via SportsNet New York.
Even though he meant it with every fiber of his being, however, the financial reality of him as a talented late 20s winger playing defense leaves the door open for an early Knicks exit. Hughes noted:
Hart has a $12.9 million player option for 2023-24 that he’s all but certain to turn down. At 28, when free will comes, the six-year veteran would be foolish to give up the chance to re-enter the market in search of a richer deal…
Teams with limited space will see him as a plug-and-play piece, and it will be a surprise if he can’t make at least $16 million a year on a new deal.
The latter figure could actually be conservative if it can continue to produce at anything close to its current level. From a strictly offensive standpoint, that probably takes a lot for a player whose career three-point conversion rate stands at 34.6 percent (he’s hit nine of his 14 deep attempts as a Knick). But so far he has given us little reason to doubt him.
On the plus side, the Knicks own the rights to Hart’s Bird, so they’ll have the opportunity to pin him even if he opts out of his current deal. However, the very notion that Hart could end up just being a year-end rental is hard for Knicks fans to grapple with.