DHJ Quick Take<\/p>\n
Long-Term Commitment: Despite ongoing trade rumors, sources close to Karl-Anthony Towns state that he is deeply committed to the New York Knicks and has expressed a desire to remain with the team for the remainder of his career.<\/p>\n
Persistent Trade Speculation: Towns has been the subject of trade discussions since last summer, largely due to his massive contract ($224 million) and the Knicks\u2019 rumored interest in other superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n
High Stakes for \u201cKAT\u201d: While Towns \u201cbadly wants things to work\u201d in New York, league executives believe he could be the primary trade piece or \u201cscapegoat\u201d if the team fails to reach the NBA Finals this season.<\/p>\n
A source close to Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> told Vincent Goodwill of ESPN<\/a> that the big man wants to spend the rest of his NBA career with the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n Towns has been the subject of trade rumors going back to last offseason.<\/p>\n \u201cHe so badly wants things to work here,\u201d a source close to Towns told ESPN. \u201cHe wants to be a Knick for life.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, Sam Amick of The Athletic<\/a> reported that Towns was upset the Knicks tried to trade him to the Milwaukee Bucks for\u00a0Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>\u00a0last summer. Many people around the NBA believe New York and Towns could part ways this offseason if the team struggles in the 2026 playoffs since Towns\u2019 offensive role with the Knicks has diminished under first-year head coach Mike Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they come up short, if they don\u2019t make the Finals \u2014 aside from Mikal Bridges<\/a>, because he was traded for all the draft picks \u2014 Towns will take the most heat because of his r\u00e9sum\u00e9,\u201d a high-ranking rival team executive told ESPN. \u201cBecause Jalen Brunson<\/a> won\u2019t take the heat and they\u2019ll say Towns didn\u2019t deliver. Especially with Giannis sitting out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Towns will make $57.1 million next season. The Kentucky product, who is eligible to sign an extension this offseason, has a $61 million player option for the 2027-28 season. The six-time All-Star played in 75 games this season. He averaged 20.1 points, 11.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists a night while shooting 50.1% from the field, 36.8% from beyond the arc and 85.8% from the free-throw line. <\/p>\n The Knicks lost to the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals in six games. Towns and Co. are under major, major pressure to reach the NBA Finals this year due to how expensive New York\u2019s roster is. <\/p>\n It will be fascinating to see how far the Knickerbockers go in the 2026 playoffs and if Towns is on the team next season. Towns, who doesn\u2019t have a no-trade clause in his contract, holds career averages of 22.8 points, 11.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Knicks. He\u2019s made three All-NBA teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DHJ Quick Take Long-Term Commitment: Despite ongoing trade rumors, sources close to Karl-Anthony Towns state that he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-716755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116455967589697909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}