Karl-Anthony Towns on chances of signing extension with Knicks before season: 'It don't look good'

As the New York Knicks prepare to begin their NBA title defense with a preseason opener against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night, star big man Karl-Anthony Towns reiterated his frustration over stalled negotiations on a contract extension to remain with the Knicks for years to come.

"Simply put, I want to do something to keep the team together and can work with the Knicks and also values me," Towns said Monday before the preseason opener. "And none of those things are close to happening." Asked about the possibility of an agreement before the regular season starts, Towns said, "It don't look good."

"Simply put, I want to do something to keep the team together and can work with the Knicks and also values me," Towns said Monday before the preseason opener. "And none of those things are close to happening."

Asked about the possibility of an agreement before the regular season starts, Towns said, "It don't look good."

Towns, who played perhaps the best basketball of his life during New York's run to a title back in June, has one fully guaranteed season left on his contract, and holds a $61 million player option for the 2027-28 campaign. He is eligible for an extension worth a maximum of $276 million over four years — a deal with an average annual value of $69 million per season, which would make him one of the highest-paid players in the league .

The Knicks have thus far balked at that price tag, according to multiple reports . Their reluctance owes partly to the prospective perils of paying a 7-footer north of $70 million as he enters his mid-30s, but primarily to the painful financial crunch of paying to keep together a championship roster — a difficult fiscal reality that makes Towns' extension negotiation one of the most interesting to monitor in the league heading into the 2026-27 season.

As it stands, New York has just under $226.7 million in salary committed on the books for the 2027-28 season, according to Spotrac — about $9.3 million below the projected second apron line for that season. That figure includes team options on Josh Hart (who is also currently eligible for, and very much interested in, a contract extension ) and 2024 draftees Pacôme Dadiet and Tyler Kolek; it does not include a new deal for sixth man Miles "Deuce" McBride, who has dramatically outperformed his three-year, $13 million contract and is also eligible for, and very much interested in, a contract extension .

The second apron line is critical because, a scant four days after the Knicks finished off their five-game victory over the San Antonio Spurs , owner James L. Dolan went on New York radio station WFAN and made it clear that he did not intend to approve an offseason spending plan that would increase the team's total salary commitments for this season past that second apron threshold.

Dolan called the prospect of spending into the second apron something "that you'd have to be, you know, suicidal to do." Crossing that line not only imposes a higher tax rate on high-spending teams, but also strips away team-building and roster-management tools like access to salary-cap exceptions, the ability to aggregate players' salaries in trades, the option of sending cash to another team to grease the skids on a swap, and the freedom to acquire players in sign-and-trade deals, among other restrictions.

Dolan's radio-appearance edict reportedly "blindsided" the Knicks front office, which wanted to go over the second apron after patiently and meticulously building a championship roster . Instead, New York spent its summer maneuvering to stay below that $222 million line — and, in the process, lost backup center Mitchell Robinson , who signed a three-year, $47.4 million deal with the Boston Celtics .

It's unclear whether Dolan's "stay below the second apron" mandate will apply beyond this season. If it does, though, it becomes exceedingly difficult to envision a scenario in which the Knicks — who will also see Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby become extension-eligible next summer — keep the core that just won the championship together. The math essentially demands significant financial sacrifice, beyond even the cost savings that New York was able to realize when Brunson opted to extend a year ahead of free agency and when Anunoby and Mikal Bridges took slightly less than their maximum salaries in their respective re-ups.

Towns has publicly and privately expressed a willingness to make that sort of sacrifice. The issue, of course, is just how big a sacrifice a six-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA selection who just performed at his best on the biggest stage imaginable should be expected to make.

The Knicks have reportedly offered Towns a four-year, $200 million extension — less than he got from the Timberwolves in 2022 , and more than $75 million below his max. Towns, very clearly, does not feel that offer accurately reflects the contributions he's made since arriving before the start of the 2024-25 season — a span in which he's averaged 22.2 points, 12.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game on 51/40/84 shooting splits, made a pair of All-Star teams and one All-NBA team, helped the Knicks reach the conference finals for the first time in a quarter-century, and then helped them hoist the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy for the first time in 53 years.

Asked on Monday whether he felt he deserved to be rewarded for that level of achievement on his next deal, Towns told reporters : "No s***, Sherlock. I just won a championship. You'd think it was pretty easy. Unless you guys think I have something else to prove."

Towns evidently believes he's proven more than enough to merit an offer significantly above the ones New York have presented thus far — offers aimed at affording Knicks team president Leon Rose and his front office enough flexibility to try to get Brunson, Anunoby and Hart (and potentially McBride, though the math appears very tight ) extended, all while remaining under the second apron in 2028-29 and potentially beyond.

As displeased as Towns might be by the state of his negotiations, he's still under contract and set to make $57.1 million this season. The Knicks still have the opportunity to extend him at any point during the regular season — though, as Fred Katz of The Athletic recently noted , doing it before the year would allow them to extend Towns off his 2027-28 player option, unlocking potentially advantageous structures as they prepare for a major leap in Brunson's salary on his next deal.

It's also worth noting that the Knicks don't have to stay below the second apron; the league's rules don't dictate that they must, or anything. They are, as SNY's Ian Begley put it , "voluntarily limited" by Dolan's public and apparently ongoing insistence that he will not authorize spending above that line. If the owner changes his tune on that, then the tenor of Towns' negotiation — and Hart's, and McBride's, and so on — would likely change, too.

It doesn't seem like such a change is forthcoming, though. That has Towns (and Hart, and McBride, and so on) pessimistic about the prospect of getting a deal done before the start of the season, and preparing to head into a new campaign with an unwelcome uncertainty hanging over his head.

"In my experience," Towns said, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic , "you just approach the moments right now, and let it go where it goes."