Karl-Anthony Towns’ next contract has been one of the Knicks’ biggest looming questions, but the pressure may not be nearly as severe as it first looked.
The concern has never really been about Towns walking away next summer. The real issue is whether New York can keep him beyond this season without having to stare down that $61 million salary for 2027-28.
For a while, that looked like a number that might force a painful compromise. Now, the market around him suggests the Knicks may not need to panic at all.
Towns is eligible for the same four-year, roughly $273 million extension that the Cleveland Cavaliers gave Donovan Mitchell. And after what he did to Victor Wembanyama in the NBA Finals, Towns and his camp would have every reason to ask for the full max. But the center market is working against him.
The league has already handed out huge deals to big men, and those contracts are starting to look a lot less comfortable. Five centers are currently set to make more than $48 million in 2027-28: Domantas Sabonis at $48.6 million, Bam Adebayo at $53.4 million, Joel Embiid at $62.6 million, Anthony Davis at $62.8 million and Nikola Jokic at $62.8 million. Of that group, Jokic is the only one who clearly looks like he belongs in that financial tier.
Adebayo can make his case, but even that one comes with holes. The rest of those deals are underwater.
That matters for New York because the Knicks’ front office is not known for handing out contracts that age badly. Leon Rose and company are unlikely to put themselves in the same bind with Towns.
Any new deal would begin in his age-32 season and could stretch through age 35, and it’s hard to imagine him staying worth 35 percent of the salary cap for that entire stretch. By the end, he probably wouldn’t even justify 30 percent.
Sure, all it takes is one team to decide Towns deserves a max contract. But finding that team may be the hard part. Even clubs that are usually reckless know the bill is coming due for expensive centers, and it would be a surprise if Towns hit free agency with a max offer waiting.
That gives the Knicks real leverage. If talks take time and the two sides don’t line up right away, New York still looks like the side most likely to come out on top.
Rudy Gobert’s three-year, $109.5 million extension has been mentioned as a rough comparison for what Towns could end up signing. A deal in that neighborhood, averaging about 22 percent of the salary cap, would be a win for the Knicks. It may even be optimistic, since Towns’ offensive game should keep him in higher demand than Gobert.
But the larger point is the same: this may not be a story about Towns taking a huge discount. It may be a story about the market telling everyone that the huge number was never really there in the first place. Instead of wondering whether his next deal lands near $50 million a year or stays above $60 million, the better question might be whether it settles around $45 million - or even lower.
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