Karl-Anthony Towns and the New York Knicks may have reached the point of no return.
According to Steve Popper of Newsday, the big man is currently being dangled in trade talks with multiple teams, including the Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies, and Orlando Magic. This news is bound to make plenty of fans happy in the wake of KAT’s immense struggles, but it also comes with a colossal caveat: The Knicks would be incredibly selling low.
The theory of Towns has always exceeded actuality. There is no understating his value as a potential floor-spacer, and dribble-driver. He remains an offensive anomaly at the center position. He is also maddeningly inconsistent, and oftentimes, the biggest defensive liability on the team.
Bake in the fact that he’s having arguably the worst season of his career, and New York cannot hope to make out like bandits by shipping him off elsewhere.
The Knicks cannot expect Karl-Anthony Towns’ trade value to be very high
Even if Towns was having the exact same season that he did last year, other teams would have reservations about taking on his contract. He is on the books for two more years, at a total of $118.1 million (2027-28 player option). Shelling out nearly 35 percent of the salary cap for someone who has yet to prove he can even be the second-best player on a title contender poses all sorts of risks. It might even be flat-out reckless.
Prospective suitors also, you know, have eyes. They see what’s happening in New York. They know not only about Towns’ struggles, but the seemingly tenuous dynamic between he and head coach Mike Brown, and potentially even the rest of the team.
None of which makes KAT immovable. The Knicks should have little problem finding a new home for him. They just can’t expect an already-flawed player operating at the nadir of his powers to net a caps-lock HAUL.
Brace yourself for underwhelming KAT trade packages
Fans will be over the moon that the Grizzlies are listed as a potential landing spot. It perpetuates the possibility of Jaren Jackson Jr. coming to New York.
But shipping out JJJ for a package built around KAT would verge on malpractice for a franchise that appears to be headed for a rebuild following the decision to trade Desmond Bane over the summer, and the persisting rumors surrounding Ja Morant now. Never mind all of Towns’ flaws. He’s on the other side of 30.
Morant himself is a potential analog for a Towns trade. The same goes for Trae Young. The Atlanta Hawks couldn’t get more than CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert for the latter. The Grizzlies, meanwhile, are struggling to drum up an aggressive market for Morant. KAT is more plug-and-play than both guards, but he’s also unable to be the offensive engine that powers an entire team as they each have been at some point.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the Knicks shouldn’t trade KAT. On the contrary, if they can turn his $53.1 million salary into multiple rotation players, at least one of which is a center, there is an excellent case to be made for considering any and all options.
Perhaps the Magic are willing to build something around Wendell Carter Jr., and Jalen Suggs. Yet, even that feels ambitious. (Other teams and salaries must be involved, too.)
Maybe the Knicks can get Cam Spencer and Santi Aldama from Memphis if they’re willing to take on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. There doesn’t seem to be a clear-cut Charlotte deal, but rest assured, you’re not getting LaMelo for KAT.
New York must go into KAT trade talks with eyes wide open
Believe it or not, all of the aforementioned returns might qualify as ambitious. That’s just the reality of what the Knicks are up against. Deeply flawed stars on mega deals are no longer worth the returns they used to be.
With the way KAT is playing this season, and with what he’s on the books for moving forward, he falls firmly into that bucket.
One way or another, the Knicks are about to pay the consequences: by settling for a less-than-ideal return, or coming to find it’s not worth moving him at all.