Karl-Anthony Towns and the Clippers just don’t line up.
The idea sounds tidy on paper: Towns declines his $61 million player option next summer, hits unrestricted free agency, decides he doesn’t want to re-sign with the Knicks, and heads west to the LA Clippers. But that path is a fantasy. The part about him leaving New York could happen; the part about him landing in Los Angeles won’t.
The Clippers are expected to have cap space next summer, which puts them in the mix in theory if things unravel between Towns and the Knicks. In practice, though, Towns won’t be looking at Intuit Dome as his next stop. He doesn’t need to say it outright for that to be obvious.
If he and New York can’t reach an extension by June 30, and it doesn’t sound like that deal will get done before the season begins, Towns will probably be chasing a situation where he can contend for another championship. The Clippers don’t fit that bill. And even if the front office had never circumvented the salary cap for Kawhi Leonard and Leonard had stayed in LA on an extension, that likely still wouldn’t have changed Towns’ view.
Los Angeles is a far more realistic long shot for Jalen Duren, especially if he plays the season on his $9.6 million qualifying offer. He’s said to be interested in the Kings, so the Clippers at least have a window there, even if it’s a narrow one.
But Towns is a different case entirely. Duren is coming off the best season of his young career, while Towns just put together a year that mattered far more than the numbers alone. He played a central role in helping the Knicks win their first title in 53 years, and that season put to rest the old doubts about whether he could help winning basketball - and even the lingering questions about his defense.
For the Clippers, landing Towns would look like a headline-grabbing victory. It still wouldn’t make much sense.
He’ll be 31 in November, and with LA having lost five first-round picks, the priority has to be younger players such as the 22-year-old Duren. Towns could sell tickets, sure, but he wouldn’t be the answer for a team stuck near the bottom and trying to build something more sustainable.
He doesn’t need that project, and he wouldn’t want it anyway. That’s not a knock. It’s just reality.
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What makes the episode especially relevant around the league is the sense that it may not be the last of its kind. Another investigation is already circling a contract that has raised questions, and if the league concludes there was cap circumvention there too, the punishment could be just as painful. For front offices, the message is hard to miss: the cap rules are not just paperwork, and the league appears willing to make an example out of anyone it thinks tried to work around them. [Read more 🡒]