Karl-Anthony Towns says a max was never on his mind. The Knicks’ second apron explains the $76 million gap

Karl-Anthony Towns finally put a number on how much the Knicks’ championship core means to him, or at least he said what the number is not. In a sit-down with Malika Andrews before Tuesday’s ring night, with Jalen Brunson next to him, Towns said he would take less than the maximum to stay in New York.

“Oh yeah, because I want this team to stay together,” Towns said. “That’s always been my main priority, was to keep everyone here, to keep this core, this special team that we have. So it was the first thing on my mind as soon as it was. And there was nowhere in my mind a max was even thought of.”

Asked what he wanted to happen with his center’s contract, Brunson had a three-word answer: “Sign the contract.” Both of them laughed. Neither of them changed the fact that the Knicks and Towns ended preseason about $76 million apart, and that New York has stopped talking until “later in the season.”

KAT: “I want this team to stay together. That’s always been my main priority was to keep everyone here, this special team that we have.”

Brunson: “Sign the contract” 😂 pic.twitter.com/ClLyq9uY3J

— Knicks Fan TV 🏀🎥📺🏁 (@KnicksFanTv) October 20, 2026

Where the talks stand

Towns, 30, earns $57 million this season and holds a $61.1 million player option for 2027-28. He is eligible for a four-year extension worth about $276 million, which would run through 2030-31. Shams Charania reported on October 9 that the Knicks’ latest offer was a four-year deal worth roughly $200 million.

That same day, the team said in a statement: “As an organization, our entire focus is on preparing for the upcoming season and delivering another year for our fans to be proud of. As a result, we will not be negotiating contract extensions until later in the season and will remain solely focused on preparing for the start of the season.”

The pause covers four players: Towns, Josh Hart, Miles McBride and Tyler Kolek. Towns had made his frustration public a few days earlier. “Simply put, I want to do something that can keep the team together and work with the Knicks and also values me,” he said. “None of those things have come close to happening.” Last Sunday, two days before the banner went up, he called himself “obviously very disappointed, to say the least.”

So Tuesday’s comments changed the tone, not the numbers. Towns has never asked publicly for the max. The question has always been how far below it he will go, and the Knicks’ offer sits more than a quarter below it.

Why the Knicks are drawing the line here

The ceiling on this negotiation is set by the NBA’s second apron, not by Towns. After the Finals win over the Spurs, James Dolan said on New York radio that spending into the second apron is something “you’d have to be, you know, suicidal to do.” Teams above that line pay the highest tax rates. They also lose the mid-level exception, the right to combine salaries in trades, the right to send cash in deals and access to sign-and-trades, and their future draft picks can be frozen.

New York has about $226.7 million committed for 2027-28, roughly $9.3 million below the projected second apron for that season, in salary figures compiled by Spotrac. That figure already includes Towns’ $61.1 million option and Hart’s $22.3 million team option. It does not include McBride, whose three-year, $13 million deal expires next summer, or a raise for anyone.

That is why the gap matters so much. The table below shows how the first year of a new deal changes that room. Under a maximum contract with 8 percent raises, Towns’ 2027-28 salary would be about $61.6 million, slightly more than his option. The Knicks’ offer would cut it to about $44.6 million.

Season	Max path ($276M)	Middle ground (~$230M)	Knicks’ offer (~$200M)
2027-28	$61.6M	$51.3M	$44.6M
2028-29	$66.5M	$55.4M	$48.2M
2029-30	$71.4M	$59.5M	$51.8M
2030-31	$76.4M	$63.6M	$55.4M
Room under 2027-28 second apron*	about $8.8M	about $19M	about $26M

The Knicks’ offer would save roughly $17 million in 2027-28 compared with the max. That is close to the cost of keeping McBride as a free agent, or of giving Hart a raise without leaving the apron. A deal around $230 million, which is where most observers expected the two sides to land, would leave enough to do one of those things, but probably not both.

The clock is not as long as it looks

The deadline for extensions with all four players is June 30, 2027, so in theory there is a whole season to work with. In practice, the rules make an in-season deal awkward. A player has to be on an expiring contract to extend during the season, so Towns would have to decline his 2027-28 option first. Hart and Kolek can only extend in-season if the Knicks decline their team options.

Declining an option to sign an extension is common in the offseason, when both sides already have the new deal ready. During the season it turns Towns into a potential unrestricted free agent if the talks fail. The longer the pause lasts, the closer that point gets, and Towns would draw bigger offers on the open market than he is getting now.

Towns gave the Knicks a reminder of his value on Tuesday, even in a loss. He scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter of the 106-100 defeat to the 76ers, including two late threes that brought New York back within one and then two. During the title run he averaged 15.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 19 playoff games.

The Brunson precedent, and the next bill

Brunson’s line was a joke, but it was also a reminder of how this team was built. Brunson signed a four-year, $156.5 million extension in 2024, leaving more than $100 million on the table compared with what he could have made. The Knicks have used that discount as the example ever since. Towns has said he is willing to follow it, but not to the level the Knicks are asking.

The bigger bills are still ahead. Brunson and OG Anunoby both become eligible for extensions next offseason. Brunson’s maximum would be about $257 million over four years, so his own discount cannot repeat on the same scale. Any money Towns gives back in 2027-28 makes it easier to pay Brunson in 2028-29 while staying under the apron Dolan refuses to cross.

For now, both sides are saying the same thing. The Knicks want to keep the champions together without crossing the line, and Towns says he does not need the max to stay. What they still have not agreed on is how much less than the max it should be.