Jared Dudley Kevin Durant
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Outspoken veteran Jared Dudley believes the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets have strong cases as destinations for free agents.

Speaking with ESPN’s Ian Begley, Nets forward and known antagonizer, Jared Dudley, was asked what he thought of the Brooklyn Nets as compared to the New York Knicks in terms of free agency destinations.

“It’s advantages and disadvantages,” Dudley said. “It’s advantages and disadvantages. The advantages the Knicks have is the history. There’s a lore that they have about playing in the Garden, you know, having that Knicks jersey even though they might not have been good for the last, you know, 15, 20 years and stuff like that. But it’s the Knicks… Out of 10 pages, they got seven pages (of coverage in a newspaper). That’s just how it is. And nothing is going to change there.”

The Knicks do have obvious advantages over the Nets, but Dudley also talks about the advantages Brooklyn has. Most notably, he talks about foundation and culture.

“And so for us, the advantages they have here is, for one, the foundation and the culture we have,” Dudley remarked. “And not just in New York and in the NBA, one of the best young cores here. They have draft picks, they have cap space.”

While the aura of the Knicks and Madison Square Garden may be alluring to some, Dudley recognizes that the Nets are in the position to attract a major talent as well. Perhaps someone who doesn’t want to deal with the intense media scrutiny would prefer Brooklyn.

“So I would say as much media as we have here, I’m pretty sure over there with the Knicks there’s a little more media to deal with, a little more scrutiny. There’s less scrutiny here, and that’s just how it is… And it depends on—some people want to take on that Garden. Some players want this. The advantages depend on the player. And I would say that they have, right now, Brooklyn has put [itself] in fighting position to be able to land somebody.”

It’s quite important for the two franchises to know what players think about them. Both the Knicks and Nets are dealing with big money this summer. Looking to turn themselves into championship contenders in the span of three months, the New York co-tenants have a lot of work to do.

Although already a playoff team, the Nets season ended abruptly Tuesday night with a 122-100 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers which topped off the 4-1 series defeat.

Now, they must deal with an expiring D’Angelo Russell contract. And there’s a possibility that they will have to pay him the max. Assuming that deal happens, it would leave them with around $26 million in cap space (assuming Allen Crabbe opts into his contract). Although that’s not quite the max you can offer a player, it could still be very enticing for a player such as Tobias Harris, who has been rumored to be a target of Brooklyn this summer.

As for New York, they are facing the biggest task of them all. With the help of two max spots, the Knicks are expected to turn from the league’s bottom feeder to a championship contender this free agency. So Jared Dudley suggesting that the media sours players from joining the Knicks may be a point of concern. Especially when their main target is Kevin Durant, a player notorious for his run-ins with the media.

However, these words are coming from Jared Dudley, someone who is probably looking to score himself another contract with Brooklyn. So maybe New York shouldn’t look too far into this quote.