The Knicks have settled nearly every piece of business from their championship offseason except the largest one: Karl-Anthony Towns is eligible for a four-year extension worth a projected $272 million, and the two sides have not reached an agreement, Jared Schwartz of the New York Post reported Monday.
The math explains the hesitation on both sides. Towns is due $57.1 million next season and holds a $61 million player option for 2027-28, per Schwartz. An extension now would carry a staggering average annual value of roughly $68 million. But Towns has leverage to wait: if he declines the option and reaches free agency next summer, he could sign for a projected standard veteran maximum of $266.6 million over four years, and if he exercises the option and tests the market in 2028 instead, the numbers get larger still. New York can afford patience too, since Towns cannot leave before July 2027 at the earliest.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst framed the front office’s side of it on First Take: the Knicks could offer the full extension today and have not done so, because the roster’s financial architecture was built on stars taking less. Jalen Brunson signed a below-market extension in 2024 that made the current core possible, and the front office would prefer Towns follow that template rather than set a new ceiling. Windhorst added that New York does not want Towns reaching free agency — which is precisely the outcome the max-or-wait math points toward if neither side moves.
The stakes are different for a champion. Towns delivered the best postseason of his career in the title run, and the roster around him is intact after a quiet offseason in which the front office passed on the LeBron James sweepstakes, confident it can repeat with the group it has, per Schwartz. A drawn-out negotiation with the starting center is the one variable that could complicate an otherwise settled team — though there is no reporting to suggest tension yet, only an open question with a nine-figure spread between the answers.
For fantasy purposes, none of this touches Towns’ floor: he remains an elite-category big on a team returning its full rotation, and contract seasons have historically not dented his production. The situation is worth monitoring only in dynasty formats, where a 2027 or 2028 free agency without an extension would introduce the first real relocation risk of his Knicks tenure.
