Insider Drops HUGE UPDATE... | Knicks News | The Knicks Recap Podcast

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We have a huge update on Karl-Anthony Towns' extension and the teams that are interested in adding him. We're going to break down all of these latest reports today.

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Huge update on KAT's extension. It is opening night. Happy opening night to everybody. We are all champions. The Knicks received their rings tonight and put up that championship batter in MSG. And I can't wait to see that. We're gonna talk more about opening night and the Philadelphia 76ers later on in this video. But to start off, we need to talk about Karl-Anthony Towns. Yesterday, Karl-Anthony Towns needed to make a decision on his player option. Since he didn't, it signals that New York wants him to take a pay cut immediately.

Shout out to dailyknicks.com for giving us this following information. Karl-Anthony Towns can no longer sign an extension with the Knicks while also picking up his 61 million player option for next season. The deadline to do so passed at 11:59 p.m. on October 19th, which was yesterday. By letting this cutoff come and go, New York has made it clear, once and for all, that it wants KAT to take an immediate pay cut in 2027-2028.

That scenario is now off the table. Though Towns can still reach a new agreement with the Knicks in season, he must first decline the option to make it happen. And frankly, the fact this deadline didn't phase New York says a lot about how much leverage it holds. Plus, if they want Towns' salary to scale down, they could just sign him to an in-season extension that starts at his max, 61.6 million, and then declines by 8% year over year. Or, they could wait until after the season, have him opt in to the 61 million, and then extend him. Karl-Anthony Towns has still not made a decision yet regarding that option. But, according to new reports, Karl-Anthony Towns is likely to decline that player option.

According to Jake Fisher, Towns will likely decline the option, allowing him and his agents to continue negotiating with the Knicks this season once New York management decides quietly to reopen those talks. The risk there for the Knicks is that without an extension, Towns can walk out the door for nothing as a free agent next summer. So, when will the Knicks likely pick up extension talks once again? Thankfully, we have that information too. According to Jake Fisher once again, I do believe that all of these circumstances puts us in the position where next time we hear about New York and KAT having extension conversations and potentially Josh Hart as well, it will be post-trade deadline. Meaning after the trade deadline, that's when these conversations about extensions are likely going to pick up once again. That's pretty typical, the flow of the operations here on the front office side of things. Regardless of how things look right now, it's very likely that New York and KAT will reach an agreement. According to Steph Bondy, Karl-Anthony Towns is stuck between 200 million and a hard place. Thus far, both he and the Knicks have chosen the hard place. Their contract negotiations are suspended and Towns could hit free agency in about eight months. Logic indicates the Knicks and Towns will agree to an extension. They make the most sense for each other. Here's what some executives around the league believe that Towns can make in his next extension.

Shout out to New York Basketball on the AppX, and Steph Bondy for giving us this following information. According to a Western Conference executive, on the open market, I don't know that KAT gets paid a ton. Here's what an East executive had to say. I would feel better in the $45-50 million range for next season. And an agent said the following, I think a team would offer a $40-50 million range annually on a short-term deal for Karl-Anthony Towns. So all of these executives around the league believe that New York is offering Karl-Anthony Towns a fair deal when they're looking to pay him $45-50 million in his next contract extension with New York per year.