Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[michaeltex]

Bobby Marks: Speaking of paying, we're going to probably have an eye on Karl-Anthony Towns. He is extension eligible. Jay, how about this number? Four years, $272 million. That is what Towns is extension eligible for. He's got two years left. He's got a player option for that second year. They can negotiate right now and he can sign that on July 6th. That's the number to certainly keep an eye on. Remember Jalen Brunson had given back some money. Mikal Bridges, will there be a compromise with Towns? Josh Hart is also extension eligible. Also, McBride, but Towns is going to be the player to focus on when we're looking at that next big contract here.

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Knicks are in a hard spot financially. They are already at $205M+ for next season with 6 open slots and are currently sitting on $213M+ the following season with only 7 contracts. (this includes KAT's PO).

Dolan stated emphatically that he will not write checks to go over the 2nd apron, which is projected at $222M for next season. So they only have about $17M to play with. If you estimate $3M for 5 contracts, that puts you just under the apron. 

The starting 5 are all signed, but Robinson, Shamet and Clarkson are all unsigned, these are probably more than vet min players. Alvarado has a $4.5M PO for next season that I suspect he might decline to see if there is a bigger payday available.

Also, now that he has a ring, I think Brunson's going to want to get his max contract as a next step. He currently has 2 years + a PO on the current deal, which has turned into a deep hometown discount.