Knicks Acquire Bojan Bogdanovic, Alec Burks From Pistons For Quentin Grimes

Keith Smith
Keith Smith, Resident NBA ExpertFebruary 08, 2024
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#nba #nba trade deadline #quentin grimes #bojan bogdanovic #alec burks #evan fournier #malachi flynn #ryan arcidiacono
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The New York Knicks pulled off one of the biggest moves on trade deadline day when they acquired Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks from the Detroit Pistons. The Knicks sent the Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier, two second-round picks and salary filler to the Pistons in the deal.

This move sets Detroit up to actually increase their 2024 cap space, and they get to incorporate Grimes with their young team. For New York, the move took on increased importance with an injury update that came out later in the day on Thursday.

Here are the particulars:

New York Knicks acquire: Bojan Bogdanovic, Alec Burks

Detroit Pistons acquire: Ryan Arcidiacono, Malachi Flynn, Evan Fournier, Quentin Grimes, two future second-round picks

Note: Detroit also waived Killian Hayes and Danuel House Jr. to complete this trade.

Let’s dive in!

New York Knicks

Incoming salary: $30.5 million in 2023-24

  • Bojan Bogdanovic (SF/PF, two years, $39 million, $2 million guaranteed in 2024-25), Alec Burks (SG, one year, $10.5 million)

Outgoing salary: 27.1 million in 2023-24

  • Ryan Arcidiacono (PG, one year, $2.0 million), Malachi Flynn (PG, one year, $3.9 million), Evan Fournier (SG/SF, two years, $37.8 million, team option for 2024-25), Quentin Grimes (SG, two years, $6.7 million, restricted free agent in 2025)

Whew, boy!

The Knicks went big in trade season. They traded for OG Anunoby in an earlier deal, and then swung arguably the day’s biggest trade in terms of players and impact. And New York didn’t sacrifice much draft capital, while still retaining some salary flexibility too. That’s good work.

This trade took on a whole other meaning when news broke that OG Anunoby is out at least the next three weeks after undergoing surgery on his right elbow. That’s on top of Julius Randle, who is in the midst of a multi-week absence after dislocating his right shoulder.

Instead of Bogdanovic coming in as a fill-in starter and then a key reserve, he’ll become a key starter as soon as he’s ready to play. And that’s a good thing. Bogdanovic is still a very good offensive player. He’ll help lessen the burden on Jalen Brunson to create everything for New York while Randle is out.

The 35-year-old remains equally adept at creating his own looks, as he is as a spot-up shooter. That kind of versatility should fit in nicely with Brunson right away, and then with Randle when he returns. Bogdanovic is shooting 41.5% on a career-high 7.4 three-point attempts per game. That’ll help boost a Knicks team that is middle-of-the-pack in terms of shooting.

Defensively, Bogdanovic is competitive. He’s better against bigger forwards now, because he’s fairly strong and a solid positional defender. When he draws a quicker player, he’ll need some help. But the Knicks have enough good defenders to cover for Bogdanovic when necessary.

As for Burks, think of him as the Immanuel Quickley replacement. He’s not as good as Quickley, but that’s the role the Knicks will ask him to play. New York is going to want Burks to provide the sort of instant offense they’ve been missing since trading Quickley.

After a really rough start, Burks has bounced back as a shooter. He’s up to 40.1% on 5.7 three-point attempts per game. He’s also a pretty good creator off the dribble. Burks isn’t nearly the defender Quickley could be, nor the passer, but as a bench scorer, he’ll help New York a lot.

On the cap sheet, things stayed relatively neutral. Bogdanovic is only guaranteed $2 million out of his $19 million deal, but expect the Knicks to guarantee the whole thing. If nothing else, that rolls over a big expiring contract into next year’s trade market for New York.

Giving up Quentin Grimes had to be hard for a Knicks front office that prized the young guard. However, he had struggled to adapt to a backup role this season. Grimes needs consistent minutes and a role. He’ll get that in Detroit, and he wasn’t likely to in a crowded Knicks backcourt.

Detroit Pistons

Incoming salary: 27.1 million in 2023-24

  • Ryan Arcidiacono (PG, one year, $2.0 million), Malachi Flynn (PG, one year, $3.9 million), Evan Fournier (SG/SF, two years, $37.8 million, team option for 2024-25), Quentin Grimes (SG, two years, $6.7 million, restricted free agent in 2025)

Outgoing salary: $30.5 million in 2023-24

  • Bojan Bogdanovic (SF/PF, two years, $39 million, $2 million guaranteed in 2024-25), Alec Burks (SG, one year, $10.5 million)

So…there is a lot going on here. First, this is a 4-for-2 trade. That meant the Pistons had to waive two players. They did that by waiving Killian Hayes and recently-acquired Danuel House Jr.

Let’s start with the Hayes part, as it’s fascinating how quickly he fell out of favor. In his fourth season, Hayes has only shown incremental progress from the flawed prospect he was as the 7th overall pick at the 2020 NBA Draft.

Hayes can’t shoot. He’s never become the defender he looked like he might. His playmaking has been solid enough, but the utter lack of scoring ability sunk Hayes as starting point guard. The good news? Hayes is only 22 years old. He’s a nice “second draft” flyer for team with a good player development staff and available minutes to let Hayes figure things out.

As for the trade, the Pistons main gets in this deal were Quentin Grimes and two future second picks. Even if we consider Grimes a pseudo first-round pick substitute, this is still a bit off the two firsts and two seconds that Detroit insisted they needed for Bogdanovic and Burks.

That said…this is more realistic value.

Grimes is a nice player who should fit in nicely with the Pistons young core. He’ll be able to play with Cade Cunningham, Jade Ivey, Ausar Thompson and Marcus Sasser in versatile guard/wing groupings. Detroit should also have the ability to give Grimes plenty of minutes, which is something he was seeing less and less of in New York.

The two second-round picks, combined with Grimes, are more reasonable value for Bogdanovic and Burks. Both players are still good, but they are aging and they both are coming to end of their contracts.

Detroit also acquired Evan Fournier in this deal. It’s not clear if Fournier will get a chance to play much. Given Monty Williams’ fondness for having vets on the floor, don’t bet against it. If he does get to play, Fournier will have a chance to show he can still shoot and score. He didn’t forget how to play basketball, despite the Knicks shelving him for the better part of the last two years. Fournier will be motivated to show he can still play, given his contract status for next season.

Detroit will likely decline Fournier’s $19 million team option for next season, as they pursue max cap space. It’s unclear if Ryan Arcidiacono or Malachi Flynn will make it to next week, never mind next season. They aren’t likely to be part of the Pistons beyond this season either.

That means the only long-term money Detroit took on was the $4.3 million for Quentin Grimes. The Pistons weren’t going to just waive Bojan Bogdanovic next year, so they actually created almost $15 million more in cap space next summer. Look for the Pistons to have north of $60 million in cap room come July.

 


#nba #nba trade deadline #quentin grimes #bojan bogdanovic #alec burks #evan fournier #malachi flynn #ryan arcidiacono
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