Mobile Menu
HEADLINES

Karl-Anthony Towns

New York Notes: Towns, Thibodeau, Brown, Wolf, Highsmith

August 16th, 2025 at 9:51pm CST by Arthur Hill

Stefan Bondy of the New York Post (subscriber link) finds it curious that there hasn’t been more talk about an extension for Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns this summer. Towns has until October 20 to add two more years to his current deal, which runs through 2026/27 with a $61MM player option for the following season.

Bondy states that he hasn’t been able to get any information about possible extension talks. Towns’ agent didn’t respond to a text regarding the subject, and team president Leon Rose almost never communicates with the media.

Bondy expects Towns to play out the remainder of his contract, possibly including the player option, before getting a new deal. His max extension would be $150MM over two years, and even though Towns is a perennial All-Star, Bondy doesn’t view him as being worth $75MM per year as teams maneuver to stay below the second apron.

Bondy also brings up several questions the Knicks might want to have answered before they consider committing that kind of money to Towns. Can he stay healthier than he did in Minnesota, will he and Jalen Brunson develop better chemistry in the offense, can he improve his pick-and-roll defense, and does he fit better as a center or a power forward?

There’s more from New York City:

  • Knicks fans are expecting a trip to the NBA Finals this season and would consider anything less to be a disappointment, a survey taken by James L. Edwards of The Athletic reveals. More than 3,000 fans responded, and most are cautiously optimistic that New York will be the No. 1 seed in the East, but they’re split on the firing of Tom Thibodeau. A plurality of 37.7% agree with the move, while 29.6% oppose it and 32.7% are indifferent. Nearly 70% are withholding judgment on new head coach Mike Brown.
  • Danny Wolf, the last of the Nets‘ five first-round picks this year, brings a lot of versatility to the roster, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscription required). He’s a big man who can orchestrate the offense and shoot from the outside, and he has the potential to see time at power forward and center. “He’s just so unique. I don’t want to compare him to certain players,” Summer League coach Steve Hetzel said. “He’s very unique because he can handle, he can play pick-and-roll … at Michigan, he was a primary ball-handler in pick-and-rolls. So he has a ton of skill and he can shoot the three.”
  • The Nets are acquiring Haywood Highsmith from Miami, but he seems to be more of a trade chip than a long-term investment, Bondy observes in another story. Brooklyn is emphasizing the development of its young players, and there might be interest around the league in the 28-year-old Highsmith, who has a $5.6MM expiring contract, once he recovers from knee surgery.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Knicks Notes: Bridges, Towns, Lineup, Carmelo

August 8th, 2025 at 9:07am CST by Luke Adams

In a subscriber-only story, Zach Braziller of The New York Post considers whether the Knicks‘ coaching change will benefit Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns in their second year with the team.

Bridges had an up-and-down first season in New York, while Towns put up big numbers but wasn’t always involved in the offense enough, including in some playoff games. New head coach Mike Brown is expected to bring a faster pace and more ball movement with him to the Knicks, Braziller notes, which could result in better looks for Bridges and Towns.

James L. Edwards III of The Athletic covers similar ground in a mailbag, observing that Brown used some creative offensive sets in Sacramento to get DeMar DeRozan good mid-range looks and could run similar sets for Bridges. Edwards also thinks the Knicks could use Towns as the hub of their offense more frequently and take advantage of his passing.

Here’s more on the Knicks:

  • Edwards also explores some lineup and rotation questions in his mailbag, speculating that the Knicks will open the season with Towns and Mitchell Robinson starting alongside one another in the frontcourt in order to provide more rim protection on the first unit.
  • Whether it’s Robinson or Josh Hart in the starting lineup, Edwards projects both players to be regular parts of the rotation along with Towns, Bridges, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Miles McBride, Jordan Clarkson, and Guerschon Yabusele. Whether Brown opts to go beyond a nine-man rotation to open the season could depend on who the Knicks sign to fill out their roster and whether or not any of the club’s young players stand out during the preseason, Edwards writes.
  • Former Knicks star Carmelo Anthony has chosen Allen Iverson and Dwyane Wade to be his presenters when he’s formally inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame next month, according to a press release.
  • In case you missed it, Mike Weinar withdrew from the Knicks’ search for a lead assistant, but Chris Jent of the Hornets remains under consideration. In other Knicks news, we recently passed along the details on Bridges’ four-year extension with the team, including his unique trade kicker.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Fred VanVleet Elected New NBPA President

July 12th, 2025 at 7:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

7:00 pm: According to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link), the other members of the Executive Committee are as follows:

6:01 pm: The National Basketball Players Association has elected Rockets guard Fred VanVleet as its new president, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). VanVleet will replace CJ McCollum and will serve a four-year term.

VanVleet, 31, has earned tremendous respect from his peers during his nine-year NBA career. He was one of the veteran players Ime Udoka brought in to help change the culture when he took over as head coach in Houston two years ago.

VanVleet was a beloved figure in Toronto before switching teams and played a vital role in bringing the city its only NBA title in 2019. He recently signed a two-year, $50MM deal to remain in Houston, and Charania notes that he has set several records for being the highest-paid undrafted player in league history (Twitter link).

With the expiration of his four-year term, McCollum will take on an advisory position with union, Charania adds. His time in office included a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2023 that introduced the two-apron system and ensures labor peace through the 2029/30 season.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Knicks Reportedly Won’t Pursue Kevin Durant Trade

June 11th, 2025 at 5:04pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Knicks have been viewed as major players in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes, but a league source tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Post that New York won’t be pursuing the Suns star.

A report this morning from ESPN’s Shams Charania identified the Knicks as one of the teams that have expressed interest in acquiring Durant. He also mentioned the Rockets, Spurs, Heat and Timberwolves, but said other clubs have made inquiries as well. According to Charania, the Suns and Durant’s business partner, Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman, are reviewing trade scenarios with the expectation that talks will intensify before the first night of the draft.

If the Knicks have decided not to make an offer, it’s likely due to reluctance to break up a roster that just reached the Eastern Conference Finals. Durant will make $54.7MM next season, which is the last year of his current contract, and he’ll be looking for an extension with his next team.

To match salaries in a Durant trade, New York would either have to part with Karl-Anthony Towns, who is owed $53.1MM next year, or give up multiple rotation players. The Knicks made major changes last summer by trading for Towns and Mikal Bridges and may not be eager to shake up the roster again.

Durant’s age could also be a factor into the Knicks’ decision. He’ll turn 37 in September, and although he’s coming off another productive season — averaging 26.6 PPG while shooting 52.7% from the field and 43% from three-point range — he missed 20 games and his durability might become a greater issue as he gets older.

The Knicks are built around a team of relatively young veterans, with Towns and Josh Hart as the oldest rotation members at age 30, and they may not want to shorten their window as title contenders by giving up major assets to bring in Durant.

The Knicks heavily pursued Durant in free agency in 2019, when he was recovering from a torn Achilles. Bondy states that Durant’s father, Wayne, was pushing him to sign with New York at the time, but he opted for Brooklyn instead.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Trade Rumors: Giannis, Durant, Spurs, Garland

June 10th, 2025 at 11:50am CST by Luke Adams

The trade market for Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to be nonexistent, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on Tuesday during an appearance on Get Up (YouTube link). As Windhorst explained, despite rampant speculation about the possibility of the two-time MVP being traded this offseason, there has still been no indication that either Antetokounmpo or the Bucks are preparing for that scenario.

“Giannis Antetokounmpo has gone overseas to travel with his family. He has made no trade request to the Bucks. He has made no trade hint to the Bucks,” Windhorst said. “The Bucks are proceeding with their offseason as if Giannis is going to be with them, and there’s no significant trade talks right now. The plan is for Giannis Antetokounmpo to be a Buck.

“Now, he can change all that with a simple request, but that request has not happened and it’s not clear it’s going to happen anytime soon.”

Windhorst’s reporting lines up with what we’ve heard recently from Jake Fischer of The Stein Line and Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Both Fischer and Lewis indicated there’s increased skepticism among league sources that Antetokounmpo will end up on the trade block in the coming weeks.

It’s still not a sure thing that Antetokounmpo will open next season in Milwaukee, since trade requests often don’t come this early in the offseason. When Giannis’ current teammate Damian Lillard asked out of Portland in 2023, for example, it happened on July 1.

Still, I wouldn’t necessarily expect Antetokounmpo to wait that long to make a final decision — the further we get into June without a trade request, the better the Bucks have to feel about the odds of it not happening at all this summer.

Here are a few more trade-related notes and rumors from around the NBA:

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Knicks Notes: Brunson, Towns, Thibodeau, Hart

June 7th, 2025 at 9:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns are the most valuable trade assets the Knicks possess as they try to finish the job of building a championship roster, according to Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News. Winfield ranks the potential value of everything New York has to work with this summer, starting with Brunson and going down to Boston’s top-45 protected second-round pick in 2028. Team president Leon Rose has limited draft capital remaining after last year’s trades for Towns and Mikal Bridges, so most of the coveted assets would be players.

It seems unthinkable that the Knicks would part with Brunson, their captain, especially after he accepted a team-friendly extension that could keep him under contract through the 2028/29 season. They may be more willing to move on from Towns, whose contract becomes more burdensome until he reaches a $61MM player option in 2027/28. Towns’ defensive shortcomings can make it challenging to have him and Brunson on the floor together, which Indiana exploited in the conference finals.

Bridges, New York’s 2032 first-round pick and OG Anunoby round out Winfield’s top five. The Knicks face a looming decision on Bridges, who is entering the final year of his contract and will be eligible for an offseason extension potentially worth $156MM over four years. Anunoby, the second-highest-paid player on the team, is signed for three more seasons and holds a $48.4MM player option for 2028/29.

There’s more on the Knicks:

  • The team’s next head coach will be walking into an extremely high-pressure situation, as reaching the conference finals wasn’t enough to save Tom Thibodeau‘s job, notes Steve Popper of Newsday. He points out that the Knicks have been mentioned as serious suitors for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant, so the new coach will have to adjust his preferred style if one of those stars is in New York. Popper cautions that the team may have to aim smaller and states that avoiding the second apron figures to be an offseason priority. The Knicks are currently $8MM under that threshold, but can expand that by $3.5MM by declining their team option on P.J. Tucker. They could save another $2MM by also declining their option on Ariel Hukporti, but he may be too valuable at that price to let go.
  • Thibodeau deserved another season as head coach to hone the Brunson-Towns combination and figure out ways to improve the defense, contends Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Washburn argues that Thibodeau took the fall for management’s mistakes, including giving up five first-round picks for Bridges and parting with two valuable pieces from last year’s team to bring in Towns.
  • Josh Hart, who played for Jay Wright at Villanova, fully supports Wright’s decision to not pursue the Knicks’ coaching vacancy. “Man Thank You. Stay retired!” Hart tweeted.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Latest On Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal

June 6th, 2025 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

Kelly Iko of The Athletic reported earlier this week that the Suns have made multiple calls to the Rockets about Kevin Durant since the end of the season and have “gradually lowered” their asking price for the star forward during those discussions. However, John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter links) strongly disputes those claims, referring to them as “beyond untrue.”

According to Gambadoro, the Suns haven’t spoken to the Rockets since February and had put a potential Durant trade on the back-burner while they hired a new general manager and head coach. Now that those tasks have been crossed off their offseason to-do list, they’ll begin having conversations with potential trade partners about Durant, Gambadoro adds.

During a TV appearance on Thursday (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Shams Charania reiterated – as he reported during the season – that there was some mutual interest between Durant and the Knicks prior to February’s trade deadline. According to Charania, New York made an offer for Durant at that time.

A deal involving Devin Booker‘s former Kentucky teammate Karl-Anthony Towns would probably be the simplest way for the Knicks to acquire Durant, since Towns and KD will have very similar cap figures next season. But Gambadoro said during Thursday’s Burns & Gambo show (Twitter video link) that he has heard the Suns don’t have interest in Towns and would prefer a return centered around OG Anunoby or Mikal Bridges if they were to make a trade with the Knicks.

Charania cited sources this week who said that Durant is expected to draw serious interest from approximately four to six teams this summer.

Charania has previously identified New York, Golden State, Minnesota, Houston, San Antonio, and Miami as clubs who expressed some level of interest prior to the trade deadline, though it’s not clear whether all of those teams would renew their interest during the offseason. During the Burns & Gambo clip linked above, Gambadoro also pointed to the Clippers as a team to watch for Durant.

Of course, Durant won’t be the Suns’ only big-name trade candidate to monitor in the coming weeks. Bradley Beal is also expected to be on the trade block, but will be far more difficult to move due to his salary (nearly $111MM over the next two years) relative to his production, as well as the fact that his contract contains a no-trade clause.

According to Gambadoro (Twitter links), the Suns don’t want to bring back Beal, but he may be prove to be unmovable this summer, as he was prior to the trade deadline. If that’s the case, the club is expected to explore the possibility of a buyout, but there’s no guarantee that the veteran guard would go for that idea.

If Beal can’t be traded or bought out, the Suns would have to keep him and try to rebuild his value, per Gambadoro (Twitter link), who notes that head coaching candidates during Phoenix’s interview process were asked how they’d use the three-time All-Star.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Knicks’ Towns Undergoes Procedures For Playoff Injuries

June 5th, 2025 at 2:00pm CST by Rory Maher

Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns recently underwent unspecified procedures to deal with his bruised left knee and to repair ligament damage in his left finger, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com.

As Shelburne writes, Towns sustained the finger injury in New York’s second-round series against Boston and hurt his knee in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Indiana.

The 29-year-old big man had his injuries reevaluated after the Knicks were eliminated by the Pacers, according to Shelburne, who hears from sources that Towns opted to have the procedures right away in order to maximize his recovery timeframe ahead of the 2025/26 season.

Towns, who was selected No. 1 overall in the 2015 draft, had a productive first season with the Knicks, having been named to his fifth All-Star team and earning a spot on the All-NBA Third Team for the third time.

Towns is under contract through ’27/28 and will be extension-eligible this offseason, Shelburne notes. His current deal will pay him approximately $110MM in guaranteed money over the next two seasons, with a $61MM player option for the final year.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Knicks Notes: Brunson, Adjustments, Bridges, Offseason Priorities, Contracts

June 2nd, 2025 at 7:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Knicks fell two wins shy of the Finals. Their top player has no doubts they can make up that deficit next season. Jalen Brunson believes the core group will do whatever it takes to get over the hump, Zach Braziller of the New York Post writes.

“The most confident. Overconfident. Seriously,” Brunson said of the team’s future. “There’s not an ounce of any type of doubt that I’m not confident with this group. We have a lot of guys who are on this team, and I feel like you guys always ask, ‘what do you work on whenever you come back?’ and stuff like that,. And from what I’ve seen, no one’s really out there posting themselves about the things that they do. We have a lot of guys that just genuinely want to work hard to be better, and I like that, and I appreciate my teammates and everything they do and everything they believe in.”

Brunson was appreciative of the character his teammates showed.

“I think the way this team progressed this year, for me it was fun,” he said. “There were a lot of people saying we couldn’t do a lot of things. A lot of negativity around what we were trying to accomplish and the way we put blinders on and went to work, that’s something I was proud of with this team. I’m proud of how we stayed the course.”

Here’s more on the Knicks:

  • What steps should they take to achieve that Finals goal? Chris Herring of ESPN makes three suggestions — going with Mitchell Robinson as a starter on a regular basis with Josh Hart coming off the bench; improving the second unit and going with a deeper bench rotation; and finding ways to better utilize the partnership between Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
  • Given the draft pick haul they received, the Nets are thus far the clear winners in last summer’s Mikal Bridges blockbuster trade, Brian Lewis of the New York Post opines. The early payoff will begin this month when the Nets utilize some of those draft picks but there’s plenty more to come. Meanwhile, Bridges flopped in the Eastern Conference Finals trying to guard Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, according to Lewis, who says the Knicks could still make the deal a win-win if they reach the Finals next year with Bridges — or in the future, if he signs an extension.
  • Speaking of Bridges, potential extension talks between the two parties this summer are at or near the top of the team’s priority list, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. Bridges could get more money if he waits until free agency next summer but he also looms as a tradable asset if he has an expiring contract. Extending Tom Thibodeau and deciding whether to sign any of their four unrestricted free agents are also on the offseason agenda, Bondy writes.
  • In a related story, Braziller breaks down the contract status of each player heading into the offseason. New York’s top seven rotation players are under contract through at least next season.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Knicks Notes: Offseason, Towns, Rose

June 1st, 2025 at 6:00pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Knicks have played their final game of the season after losing Game 6 to the Pacers on Saturday. Now come the questions. But according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the team should be wary of overreacting to the loss, just as the Pacers were when they lost last year’s Eastern Conference Finals to the Celtics.

Marks points to an interview with owner James Dolan earlier this season on Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart‘s Roommates podcast.

“You really have to do the fundamentals, the basics. You’ve got to build a team. You’ve got to build an organization. There is no waving a wand over a team and all of a sudden it makes it a great team,” Dolan said at the time.

The question is whether that will hold true for a team with some real areas of concern on its roster and very limited avenues to address them. The Knicks’ entire bench outside of Mitchell Robinson and Miles McBride are free agents, with team options on P.J. Tucker and rookie center Ariel Hukporti. They will have access to the $5.7MM taxpayer mid-level exception, but using it will trigger a hard cap at the second apron. The rest of the much-needed depth would have to be filled out using minimum-salary contracts, the draft (New York holds only the No. 50 overall pick), and limited trade tools.

Marks points to Robinson’s $13MM expiring salary as a potential trade chip if the Knicks decide to make a bigger move, but they also only have one movable first-rounder (the Wizards’ 2026 top-eight protected pick), along with a few potential pick swaps, to include in a deal.

Finally, the Knicks will have Mikal Bridges‘ extension to decide on. A new deal for Bridges would kick in for 2026, so it doesn’t impact this summer’s salary situation. Karl-Anthony Towns is also extension-eligible, though with three years left on his current contract, it’s a less pressing concern.

We have more from the Knicks:

  • Given the reluctance of Knicks leadership to speak openly or address the media, parsing the next steps forward is something akin to reading the tea leaves, writes Steve Popper of Newsday. He points to president of basketball operations Leon Rose‘s patience in building this roster, though the Towns and Bridges trades seemed to signal a willingness to be more aggressive. Popper also points to the same Dolan interview referenced by Marks, in which the reclusive owner said, “[Rose] has done a good job of lining up the contracts. So this isn’t our only season. So we’re going to play a bunch of seasons together. You take a look at teams like Boston that have played together. They get to draw off something that they built off that period of time. And for this team, that’s really the challenge today, going into the playoffs. It’s to build that inside of the team, something that we can draw on.”
  • While reports about the team’s frustrations with Towns’ defense began circulating moments after the Knicks’ season ended, Brunson’s praised Towns prior to Game 6 for how he was able to fight through multiple playoff injuries to stay active and involved in the series. “I have the utmost respect for him and the way he’s been able to play throughout this entire season and playoffs,” Brunson said, per Jared Schwartz of the New York Post. Despite a lingering knee injury, Towns finished the series with averages of 24.8 points and 12.2 rebounds while shooting 36.7% from three on five attempts per game.
  • While it could be a challenging offseason for the Knicks, Rose has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to how to keep taking the right steps forward as an organization, writes the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro. Vaccaro says that while Rose’s track record spearheading the Knicks isn’t impeccable — after all, whose is? — it has come pretty close, as has his ability to pivot in the rare moments he does make mistakes, such as the summer of 2021 when he built the offseason around signing Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker. Vaccaro suggests the club would benefit from acquiring a starting-caliber player who could shift energizer bunny Hart back to the role he was meant to play, as the team’s sixth man. However, he cautions that any such move would need to be for a player who can defend at a high level, given the limitations to the Brunson and Towns defensive tandem. Rose has earned that benefit of the doubt, Vaccaro writes, but his test starts now.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0
Load More Posts