Knicks Table Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart Extension Talks: What It Means for the Champs
The New York Knicks won the NBA championship in June. Four months later, with the season opener nine days away, they have told two of the players who won it that contract talks can wait.
New York has tabled extension discussions with Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart, ESPN reported. A team statement issued Friday said the Knicks will not negotiate extensions until later in the season, and that “our entire focus is on preparing for the upcoming season.” Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Towns, Hart, Miles McBride and Tyler Kolek are all extension eligible.
The Towns Number Is the Whole Story
Towns is eligible for a four-year extension worth more than $276 million. The New York Post reported the Knicks offered roughly $200 million over four years. That is a $76 million gap, and it is the reason nothing is close.
He makes $57 million this season and holds a $61.1 million player option for 2027-28. If he declines it, he hits free agency next summer. Last season he averaged 20.1 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists on 50.1 percent shooting for a title team.
Hart’s situation is quieter and less urgent. He is eligible for up to four years and about $132 million, makes $20.9 million this season, and the Knicks hold a $22.3 million team option for 2027-28. He averaged 12.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 66 starts.
Hart’s public response has been relaxed. He has said he is not worried and expects things to work out, which is the only sensible thing for a player on a team option to say in October. New York controls his next two years either way.
What It Means for the Champs
This is a second apron decision dressed up as a scheduling decision. Extending Towns at anything near the max locks the Knicks into punishing tax territory and the roster-building restrictions that come with it, for a center who turns 31 in November. Waiting costs them nothing today and risks losing him for nothing next July.
The front office is betting it can revisit this in February with more information: how Towns fits whatever the rotation looks like, how the defense holds up, whether the title team is still the best team in the East. That is a defensible bet. It is also a bet that a player who already felt lowballed will be in a better mood after six more months.
What we do not know is how Towns actually feels about the pause. He has not publicly addressed it, and the reporting on the earlier offer being poorly received comes from team-adjacent sources rather than from him. Treat the temperature readings carefully.
New York opens its title defense October 20 against Philadelphia. The Knicks will start the year as champions with their starting center eight months from free agency and no deal on the table. That is a strange way to defend a ring, and it might still be the correct one.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
