Chris Mannix’s Mailbag: Are Knicks Playing With Fire by Cutting Off Extension Talks?

In the latest edition of the Open Floor newsletter, we rip open the digital mailbag. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions on X, Threads and BlueSky along with longer questions via email at mannixmailbag@gmail.com. Answering your questions will be a regular part of this newsletter this season. Fire away anytime, I’ll get to them a couple of times a month.

Portland Trail Blazers

What’s your take on the Braiden Bell situation in Portland? — Marie, Beaverton, Ore. (via Instagram)

So let’s recap this. Last week, Bell, a 29-year-old broadcaster, was hired to be the lead play-by-play voice of the Trail Blazers. Dream job. The team announced it, Bell posted on social media about it and it seemed like Portland found its man. Hours later, Bell was fired after a local television station unearthed some problematic tweets from more than a decade ago. Bell apologized, and through an attorney has asked for his job back. The Blazers have declined.

No one is defending the tweets. But are we really canceling people for things they said when they were 15 years old? By all accounts, at least accounts that come from Bell’s friends and co-workers on social media, Bell is a decent guy. He said some stupid things when he was a teenager but is firing him really a proportional response? Would an apology and some community outreach have sufficed? I think so.

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More broadly, this is about the Blazers and the sloppy way they continue to do business. It took a reporter hours to unearth Bell’s social media activity. Did anyone in Portland’s front office bother to make the same effort? And when presented with the posts, did they really need to make a knee-jerk reaction and fire him? Not to mention they are in this position because they low-balled longtime broadcaster Kevin Calabro, a regional treasure. The Blazers are just not a serious organization.

I don’t expect Bell to get his job back. Travis Demers, the longtime radio voice, called the preseason opener and the team could leave him in that role. Kyle Draper, who called Kings games last season, was the runner-up to Bell and is still out there. But I don’t see Blazers owner Tom Dundon reversing this decision.

New York Knicks

Are the Knicks playing with fire with these contract extension talks? You would think they wouldn’t want to mess with the chemistry of this team. — James, White Plains, N.Y. (via email)

Well, on Friday, the Knicks made it official: Extension talks for Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, Miles McBride and Tyler Kolek were over … for now. Said the team in a statement, “As an organization, our entire focus is on preparing for the upcoming season and delivering another year for our fans to be proud of. As a result, we will not be negotiating contract extensions until later in the season and will remain solely focused on preparing for the start of the season.”

With Hart, the Knicks are in a strong position. The team has a team option (around $22 million) on Hart, giving them control of a valuable rotation player on a reasonable salary through the 2027–28 season. McBride can be a free agent next summer, but unless he is willing to take a very team-friendly deal he seemed like an obvious candidate to be a second-apron casualty, with Jalen Brunson eligible for a massive extension next summer.

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Towns will be interesting. The Knicks were reportedly offering something in the neighborhood of four-years, $200 million, which would be a pay cut from Towns’s per year salary this season. Towns has expressed a willingness to work with the team on his contract but also wants to be rewarded for helping deliver a championship. And he has not sounded thrilled with the process.

"Simply put, I want to do something to keep the team together and can work with the Knicks and also values me,” Towns told reporters this week, “and none of those things are close to happening."

Look, the Knicks do not want to lose Towns. They paid a steep price for him and if he has another monster season, someone will max him out. And he may not give New York an opportunity to match. The Knicks’ statement aside, the two sides have until June 30th to hammer out an extension. Something tells me that behind the scenes, the work will continue.

Detroit Pistons

What did you make of Jalen Duren’s press conference? Seemed like he really wanted to squash any talk of him being unhappy in Detroit. — Marcus, Auburn Hill, Mich. (via BlueSky)

I agree. While I thought Duren’s “no one got anything from me” point was kind of a strawman—someone in Duren’s camp was talking over the last few months—it was great to see him fully committed to being a Piston. Look, these were tense negotiations. Detroit drew its line in the sand at five years, $200 million. Duren wanted more. The talk of a weight clause added more drama. But Duren could not have been more definitive about his feelings about being back.

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“I am a Detroit Piston. I want to be a Detroit Piston for life,” Duren said. “I want to give everything I’ve got for this city and the fans. And from me to y’all, y’all would have everything I have. Y’all will get everything I can give. And to the city, I want the city to know that I truly do believe in what we’re building.”

That settles that. Now the hard part: Detroit needs more from Duren. He was brilliant in the regular season, nearly doubling his scoring average, bumping his free throw attempts and percentage and earning All-Star and All-NBA nods. But he struggled mightily in the postseason, with Orlando and Cleveland exposing his offensive limitations. Duren significantly expanded his game last season. To advance deeper into the playoffs, the Pistons need him to expand it more.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Is there a team you think everyone is sleeping on? — Kevin, Milwaukee (via Instagram)

Can you be sleeping on Oklahoma City? Can you sleep on a recent champ? I spent a couple of days at Thunder camp last week and I was reminded that this team is stacked. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked great, Chet Holmgren had a strong summer, Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell are healthy. The Thunder had to peel off some role players for financial reasons (Lu Dort, Isiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins) but they have plenty of depth (Mitchell, Jared McCain, Alex Caruso) to go around. And did you catch Aday Mara and Bennett Stirtz in the preseason opener? Sam Presti may have done it again in this draft.

There’s a lot of anointing of the Spurs, and I get it. They have the best player in the NBA and a roster loaded with top-tier young talent. Still, OKC was up 3–2 on San Antonio without Williams and Mitchell for most of the series. If they are healthy, that matchup is a coin flip.

Los Angeles Lakers

Good story on Luka Dončić. Where do you have the Lakers slotted this season? — Anthony, San Diego (via X)

Right now I’d put the Lakers in the 3-6 range. I think they will be dynamic offensively. The chemistry between Dončić and Austin Reaves is outstanding and I think Walker Kessler will put up numbers playing off both of them. I like Victor Wembanyama for MVP, but a healthy Dončić probably has the best chance to knock him off.

My questions are familiar: Does L.A. have enough defensively? Dončić and Reaves are limited on the perimeter, putting pressure on Kessler to clean up a lot of mistakes in the paint. The Lakers do have some strong perimeter defenders (Matisse Thybulle, Jarred Vanderbilt) who will have to be weaved in to balance out the lineup. If they can be a top-half-ish defensive team in the NBA, they have a shot to make a run. If not, I don’t see them getting by San Antonio or Oklahoma City in the playoffs.

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