Karl-AnthonyTowns

Preseason question: What will KAT’s next contract look like? Towns’s box score production was down during the postseason relative to his career norms, but his playoff leap was clear as day to anyone who watched the chaotic energy of his Timberwolves runs. New York didn’t find its title-winning gear until Mike Brown made Towns into an offensive hub, and even KAT’s much-maligned defense hardened into something championship-caliber. Now, Towns has a chance to apply that playoff blueprint for an entire season and solidify himself as a true load-bearing star. 

Of course, nothing in the NBA is as easy as it seems. Financial concerns threaten to break up the Knicks, and Towns’s next contract looms as one of the most delicate variables. KAT will earn $57 million this season, has a $61 million player option for 2027-28, and is already eligible to sign a new extension for up to four years and $276 million. Knicks owner James Dolan is hell-bent on keeping his team beneath the second apron and would surely love Towns to take a page from Jalen Brunson’s book and sign a below-market deal for the good of the team’s cap sheet. But KAT is about to turn 31 and may have only one more shot at a ginormous contract. Such is life in the modern NBA: Once you prove you can do something, you then have to prove it again.