DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - Mavericks free agent point guard Jalen Brunson has not one foot but "two feet out the door," Tim MacMahon said on Shan and RJ Thursday morning.
Brunson's departure to the New York Knicks has been widely reported as a foregone conclusion for a few days now. And yet, the Mavs will send a contingent, including team owner Mark Cuban, GM Nico Harrison, VP of basketball operations Michael Finley and head coach Jason Kidd to New York for a meeting with Brunson and his representation when free agency officially begins at 5 p.m. CT on Thursday.
Despite the scheduled meeting, MacMahon sees the get-together as a way for Brunson and his representation to avoid a tampering investigation by the league, and that Dallas has virtually no hope of convincing him to not leave for New York.
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"Come on, like, 'There's a meeting now. There must have been no tampering,'" MacMahon said while chuckling. "The Mavericks are going to go up there and go through the meeting, but there's not any optimism. At this point, it would be absolutely shocking for Jalen Brunson to change his mind."
In addition to the Mavericks and Knicks meetings with Brunson, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported that the Miami Heat had also secured a sit-down with the point guard. However, Tim Reynolds reported Thursday that the Heat will not be meeting with Brunson, "and they did not have such a meeting scheduled."
So it's back to a two-horse race (it always was) between the Mavs and the Knicks. But after trades of Nerlens Noel, Alec Burks and Kemba Walker, the Knicks have secured $30 million in cap space to woo Brunson to New York. It's unlikely they would have done all that work had they not had a strong indication of Brunson's intentions, seeing as his former agent, Leon Rose, is the Knicks president, and his father, Rick, is on the coaching staff.
Stay tuned.
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