Three of the starters may see real improvements to their games as well.

As long as he stays healthy, OG will bury the Harrigans and take over both London and NYC in the next few years.

Brunson is going to keep honing his scalpel.

And KAT's synergy with this unit is still in the process of being unlocked.

You keep them together and they have a definite shot at more chips.

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://www.twitter.com/FredKatz/status/2106010488353980453

Why the Knicks should want a Karl-Anthony Towns extension sooner than later
Fred Katz

The hottest topic out of New York Knicks training camp does not have to do with rings. It’s not about a starting five transforming from clunky to harmonic, emerging stardom or the wreckage the defending champs left behind them during one of the most dominant playoff runs in NBA history. Instead, it’s about contracts.

Four Knicks — Karl-Anthony Towns, Miles “DeuIIce” McBride, Josh Hart and Tyler Kolek — are eligible for extensions. Hart said Monday he does not expect one to get done. McBride is not close to receiving one, league sources told The Athletic. Kolek is lower on the list of priorities. And then there’s Towns, the six-time All-Star who threw the team over his back and hauled them to the finish line throughout parts of the 2026 postseason.

None of the four extension situations, especially because the Knicks have a $22.4 million team option on Hart for next season, is more significant than his.

Towns is eligible for a contract worth up to $276 million over four years. The Knicks want to pay him less, much less, enough so that The Athletic’s James Edwards reported last week the two sides were “far enough apart now, per multiple sources, that this could linger into the regular season.”

One question has gained steam, especially since Monday, when Towns said, “I think in this situation, there is no comfortability to be had.” Can he and the Knicks find middle ground before the first regular-season game? And if they don’t, if an uncomfortable situation stretches into October and beyond, could it strain the relationship between the team and one of its best players?

Though unprovable, the question is reasonable. Contract disagreements have hurt relationships between employers and employees since the world’s first job. But as the rest of the NBA focuses on interpersonal dynamics, there is another, possibly more important reason why the start of the regular season should be a high-priority deadline for the Knicks.

Failing to extend Towns before the start of the regular season would wipe the most intuitive contract structure off the table. Towns receiving the money he wants (and certainly deserves after proving his worst critics wrong during the spring’s championship run) and the Knicks maintaining the payroll flexibility they insist upon becomes even tougher after Oct. 19.

By rule, players who have multiple years remaining on their contracts can be eligible for extensions. But their new deals have to be finalized during the offseason. Once the regular season begins, those players are no longer extension-eligible until the following summer. For example, Towns became eligible for an extension in summer 2025, but because he had two more guaranteed years remaining on his contract, he and the Knicks had to table talks once opening day came.

Now, the Knicks and Towns are in a different place. Their star center can hit free agency in 2027 if he declines his $61 million player option for 2027-28, which allows the two sides to agree on an extension any time they’d like. So why would this matter then?

It’s all about the player option.

If he and the Knicks agreed to an extension during the regular season, he would have to decline the player option. Picking it up would mean Towns had two more guaranteed years on his current contract, which would make him ineligible to extend in-season. And the Knicks might want to use that player option to their advantage.

The team would love to ink him to a contract below the value of that player option, but that doesn’t mean it wants him to decline it. The distance between the Knicks and Towns in negotiations is less about the team’s payroll for next season and more about salaries two years down the line.

In 2028-29, Jalen Brunson’s new contract will begin. All signs point to the NBA Finals MVP earning a significant raise — a projected $290 million over four years. Knicks owner James Dolan said in a June interview with sports talk radio station WFAN that he considers it “suicidal” to go into the second apron, the NBA’s most expensive payroll threshold. As a result, the Knicks let Mitchell Robinson sign with the Boston Celtics this summer without an attempt to keep him. And now, they must play hardball with their extension-eligible players.

Because Brunson’s salary could balloon from $40.5 million in 2027-28 to an estimated $64.7 million in 2028-29, the Knicks need to find a way to make up for that money. And that’s where the Towns player option would come in handy.

If Towns declined his player option and then signed a regular four-year contract, he would make less in 2027-28 but more in 2028-29 and beyond, when the Knicks will be desperate for breathing room. Thus, finding a middle ground before the start of the regular season, emotions aside, should be a major priority for the Knicks.

For the sake of explaining the math, let’s make up a number and say the Knicks and Towns agree to a four-year, $220 million contract extension after Oct. 19, the last day he has to pick up his player option and still extend. With the player option declined, a conventional structure would pay him $49.1 million in Year 1, $53 million in Year 2, $57 million in Year 3 and $60.9 million in Year 4. That means in 2028-29, Towns and Brunson would combine to make $113 million, approximately 64 percent of that season’s projected salary cap. Starting Towns’ salary high and having it decline year over year would make him even more expensive in 2028-29.

That’s an untenable amount of money for just two players, especially on a team that refuses to go into the second apron. Add in that Hart, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges make substantial salaries, and the situation becomes even more difficult. For reference, Towns and Brunson will combine to make approximately 58 percent of this season’s cap, a much more team-friendly share, which allows the Knicks to surround the two All-Stars with a tremendous supporting cast.

That’s why the player option matters so much. If Towns were to pick it up, it would overlap with Brunson’s final below-market season, 2027-28. The Knicks could essentially use it to frontload Towns’ next contract, then dip him to a lower number once Brunson’s salary spikes.

For example, let’s say the Knicks and Towns agree to that same hypothetical four-year, $220 million extension. If they did so before Oct. 19, New York could have Towns pick up his $61 million player option and then sign a three-year, $159 million extension.

The money and the years would be the same: Towns would be under contract with the Knicks for four seasons, and he would earn $220 million over that time. In fact, there’s an argument the structure would be financially advantageous to Towns, too. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. Receiving extra money upfront allows a player to invest it earlier. And he might not be as concerned about the next contract after this one, since he’d be in his mid-30s by the time he’s a free agent again.

In 2028-29, when Brunson’s new deal kicks in, the Knicks could then drop Towns’ salary down as low as $49.1 million, giving them an extra $4 million of breathing room. The lower Towns’ contract becomes, the greater percentage of it they could frontload into his player option, and the more this structure would help the Knicks down the line.

For example, if Towns were to sign a four-year, $200 million extension during the season, when he must decline the player option, he could make no less than $48.2 million in 2028-29. But if he agrees before Oct. 19, then he can pick up the player option, and the Knicks can drop him down to $42.9 million in 2028-29. Towns’ salary can decline by a maximum of 8 percent year over year since the Knicks hold his Bird rights.

In fact, $200 million over four years is a particularly interesting number, if only because a $42.9 million salary in 2028-29 would mean that Towns and Brunson would combine to make 58 percent of the cap, the same number they’re at now. Towns currently makes 35 percent of the cap; Brunson, 23. In two years, they could just reverse.

But $200 million over four years would mean Towns did the Knicks a significant favor. He is worth more than that. De’Aaron Fox makes more than $50 million a year, as do Evan Mobley, Devin Booker, Trae Young, Jamal Murray, Donovan Mitchell, Jimmy Butler, Paul George and Jaren Jackson Jr. — all great players, some who are unquestionably deserving of their contracts, but none who just played the best basketball of their lives while leading their teams to a title. If Towns were to hit free agency next summer, he’d have suitors all over the league. And if he were to leave, the Knicks could not replace him.

They know this. And they realize their financial flexibility is cramped in 2028-29, which means they also know that their best chance to find a mutually beneficial contract structure is to agree by Oct. 19.

martin wrote:Ive always thought there could be 3 reasons to not spend over the second apron: 1) you don't want to go over the second apron in general 2) you don't want to go over the second apron NOW and 3) You don't want to go over the second apron for a player like Mitch. Maybe the second and third are the same for the Knicks at this point in time.

If it were Brunson instead of Mitch who needed the extension, there is no doubt the Knicks would be over the second apron. If Mitch were already signed to a $15m remaining year and they needed to bring back GTA, Mo, Shamet, they would possibly go over? Yes.

I would not sign KP or Mitch to long term deals in general as a FO unless you are utterly desperate or in the right position to do so. Reasons are well documented. Keeping GS competitive in Steph Curry's last hurray seems like a solid reasoning desperation move that they squeaked right under the second apron. Boston adds to their center depth and takes a piece away from Knicks and others while matching their 3point shot volume within their offensive system. I wouldn't trust Mitch on a 3 year deal (or KP for 2) because of past history, diminishing returns, and needing 2-3 backups for his elite backup role. Mitch averaged 13mpg in the playoffs and seemed to huff and puff out there? I read or heard it on a podcast recently: Mitch was the only player to not pass the fitness test by the team in training camp. Seems like that happens most every year unfortunately, prob cause of the lingering injuries.

You get a 2 year window while in the second apron before the real penalties kick in?

Key Restrictions and Penalties
Teams that cross above the second apron lose several traditional roster-building tools:
• No Trade Aggregation: Teams cannot combine multiple player salaries together to match a higher-paid player's salary in a trade.
• Dollar-for-Dollar Trades: Teams cannot take back more salary than they send out in any trade (a strict 1-for-1 style or outgoing salary must meet or exceed incoming salary).
• No Mid-Level Exception: Teams lose access to the taxpayer mid-level exception entirely, leaving veteran minimum contracts and draft picks as the primary way to sign external free agents.
• No Cash or Prior Exceptions: Teams cannot send out cash in trades or use trade exceptions generated in previous years.
• No Buyout Signings: Teams cannot sign any buyout players or waived players whose previous salary was higher than the mid-level exception.
• Frozen Draft Picks: Teams lose the ability to trade first-round draft picks seven years into the future. If a team stays in the second apron for three out of five years, their future first-round draft pick is automatically pushed to the very end of the first round.

If Mitch misses large amounts of time in his first year of a 3 year deal, how do you replace him in the second apron territory? It's a nightmare. Seems like you need to be fortified BEFORE you go over the second apron.

Financial penalties start to get super heavy in the 3rd year of the second apron crossover.

IDK, I'm not entirely convinced that the Knicks will never go over the second apron but time will tell.

Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like they are only willing to do what will allow them to max Jalen and potentially OG later.

houston20 wrote:Kat doesn’t have any leverage right now because the teams that have cap space don’t have max slot. Basically the whole nba is broke financially the teams that do have cap space is the nets with 80 million dollars that’s if Randle opts out of deal otherwise wise 50 million dollars, kings 31 million, bulls 42 million, hawks 40 million, warriors 50 million, Memphis 50 million, bucks 46 million and clippers 50 million dollars in summer of 2027. I can already tell kat I know which teams won’t sign you next year the warriors, kings, grizzlies, bulls, hawks won’t sign him because those teams extremely and historically cheap. He won’t go to warriors because he doesn’t want to play with draymond and jimmy. The clippers will be the most desperate team because of lost of draft picks in next 5 years they have to make the playoffs. I am not worried about these extension talks with kat because he doesn’t have leverage. I know why he is doing this nonsense it’s because of his wife the same with josh hart it’s his wife.

He can pick up his option, force Knicks into second apron, he does have some leverage.

DLeethal wrote:If you gotta lose Deuce you lose Deuce. Sucks but that’s reality. OKC was just giving away high quality bench guys this offseason.

Yeah this is the unfortunate reality. Knicks have to keep/ resign their starters. And their bench has cheap long term contracts in Alvarado, Shamet and Diawara. McBride is the best, but he’s probably another Mitch-like casualty. It is what it is.

The talent never gets their fair share for what they bring to the table, being at least the money (even for losing teams with profit sharing). But regular playoff appearances and winning titles benefit those teams exponentially more. It used to be the ring would justify big paydays and now they’re selling the idea that you need take less than your market value if you want to win.

I get that it’s part of how the Knicks were finally able to win a chip after 53 years, but I’m with the players on this. All the more so against Dolan. He’s still an asshat at best.

Understand the purpose of the second apron. Think it sometimes fails to work as intended. My understanding is that it was put in place to keep high money teams from going out and getting a whole bunch of superstars and having an uneven playing field.(LeBron Big 3 rule). However, think they need to address how it’s affecting long term players and team drafted tenure players. Think rule should exclude guys like the Greek Freak, who Milwaukee drafted and was on their roster for years. Which would promote players staying with one team and not move around to short term super rosters. Should also exclude players that have been on a team for an extended period of time. What that is ? Probably up for debate. 5 years? Point is, favor players that are just not being hired as one or two year rentals for quick money chips.