Which NBA teams are closely aligned with an agency?
The Knicks/CAA and Lakers/Klutch aren't the only ones with strong ties.
Earlier this week, I published a story at Yahoo Sports that largely focused on the New York Knicks’ potential recruitment of Devin Booker, a superstar who has publicly voiced his dream of playing with Karl-Anthony Towns. The bond between Booker and Towns can’t just be traced to their days at University of Kentucky; they are both clients of agency powerhouse Creative Arts Agency (CAA) and were also formerly repped by current Knicks’ top exec Leon Rose.
The Knicks’ CAA connection is deep.
From the front office to the floor, the Knicks’ CAA ties now run throughout Madison Square Garden. Tom Thibodeau? CAA client. OG Anunoby, whom the Knicks acquired and signed to a max deal? CAA. Jalen Brunson, whom the Knicks recruited and persuaded to sign a below-market deal? CAA. Even Rose’s son, Sam, is a CAA agent who reps Brunson. And Towns? You guessed it: CAA. The family ties go further: Brunson’s father, Rick, was Rose’s very first NBA client as a scrappy young agent out of New Jersey. And now Rick Brunson is one of Thibodeau’s top assistant coaches on the Knicks’ sidelines.
Scoff all you want about Rose’s CAA connection. But it has helped chart the path for him and the Knicks to become an NBA superpower.
Looking at the Knicks’ salary commitments, the team is paying nearly $130 million to CAA clients for this upcoming season — Towns ($49M), Anunoby ($37M), Brunson ($25M) and Hart ($18M). That’s about the size of the entire payroll of the Detroit Pistons roster, all to CAA clients.
For those wondering, yes, that’s the largest team-agency financial connection in the NBA.
I spent the past week building a database that tracks each team’s players and their respective agents/agency. While player salaries are fairly easy to research, the same can’t be said for agency data. However, I was able to collect from publicly-available resources such as Spotrac, HoopsHype, RealGM and other sites. When sites disagreed, I double-checked with my own sources to verify and confirm to the best of my ability. It’s not the easiest thing to pin down.
Usually, the various outlets said the same thing and I didn’t have to sweat it too much. Sometimes, they spit out different names. For example, three sites each list a different agent for New Orleans Pelican guard Javonte Green. That was a fun one to track down.
I should also mention that players are known to switch agents on a whim. Last year, for example, Julius Randle left CAA for WME and then rejoined CAA just to be traded away by the Knicks. By the time I finish writing this sentence, it’s possible that a player has swapped from one power agency to another. I did my best.
With that said, which teams have the largest financial connection to a single agency?
Let’s take a look.