1. Trading for Bradley Beal or Karl-Anthony Towns
There are few doubts that adding a player like Bradley Beal or Karl-Anthony Towns would help the Knicks in the short term. However, the contracts these two players have are just ridiculous and something Leon Rose must be aware of in potential trade talks.
Beal recently signed a five-year, $251 million contract extension with the Wizards that also includes a no-trade clause. He may be a talented player, but few players are worth over $50 million a season and Beal simply isn’t one of them. Alongside this, the aforementioned no-trade clause would make moving on from him if he doesn’t work out incredibly difficult.
As for Towns, his contract is arguably worse. While he may not have a no-trade clause, he is slated to make $50 million in 2024 when his contract kicks in. What makes this even more terrible is that at the end of his extension, when Towns is 31 years old, he has a player option worth a whopping $62 million. For how often he fails to step up, there is no way Towns will be worth that much.
These two players’ talents alone would not move the needle enough to make the team title contenders. New York taking on these contracts would be disastrous for their future cap flexibility. With how many extensions the Knicks have to hand out between Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes, and potentially Obi Toppin as well, they simply cannot afford these players.
9 Players the New York Knicks gave up on way too soon
The New York Knicks gave up on these nine players way too soon, chasing win-now options and living to regret it in every case.