Extension negotiations with Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, and Miles McBride are already complicating the New York Knicks’ title defense. The potential absence of any deals will not blow this team to smithereens, but by the players’ own admissions, it is already a distraction as they prepare for the regular season.
Blame the second apron. Just don’t wish it never existed.
Without it, the Knicks would not have Towns. Or Jalen Brunson’s contract. Or even Mikal Bridges’ current deal.
Heck, without the second apron, the Knicks wouldn’t have a title at all.
The Knicks were built in part by the second apron
This discussion has layers, but it can technically end with Towns. He didn’t just prove himself indispensable during New York’s championship push. He became the league’s foremost, perhaps only, Victor Wembanyama foil.
If not for the second apron, though, the Knicks wouldn’t even have Towns.
The Minnesota Timberwolves didn’t trade him because they were obsessed with Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. They moved him because keeping his supermax deal alongside Rudy Gobert and the progressively more expensive Anthony Edwards and Jade McDaniels became financially prohibitive. Those four couldn’t be kept together without Minnesota belly flopping into the second apron.
Our trip down Second Apron Memory Lane can end here, because New York isn’t taking home hardware last season without Towns. And yet, the benefits keep going.
Before the KAT trade, Brunson signed a four-year, $156.5 extension during the 2024 offseason. Had he waited for the summer of 2025, he could have re-signed with the Knicks for a total of five years and nearly $270 million. If the second apron hadn’t existed, he might’ve done just that.
Instead, Brunson guaranteed himself less money by signing early, which put the Knicks in play for a series of other transactions they would have second-guessed, or been unable to pull off.
Chief among those what-ifs: the Mikal Bridges trade. The Knicks wouldn’t have burned a trillion first-round picks to get him if they knew they’d be in the second apron by 2025-26. Bridges’ contract at the time was still a bargain, but if Brunson waited for free agency, they wouldn’t have been able to pay Bridges and Towns this past year .
The second apron may have even factored into the contract Mikal just signed last summer. Once upon a time, his four-year, $150 million extension was erroneously considered an overpay. It now looks like a steal—a figure he would have blown out of the water had he, too, waited to explore free agency.
If the second apron doesn’t exit, maybe Bridges is more inclined to hit the open market, rather than accept a deal that helped buy New York one more season (this coming one) without having to break up the starting five.
The second apron is both a gift and curse to New York’s core
Make no bones about it, the second-apron is a potential buzzkill now. Since owner James Dolan refuses to enter it, navigation extensions for KAT, Hart, and McBride have mutated into a high-stakes migraine. New York is trying to lock them down while staying not only below the second apron in 2027-28, but also in 2028-29, when future deals for Brunson and OG Anunoby could both take effect.
Fans should absolutely lament what the second apron is threatening to do over the next year or two. Granted, Jimmy D could just guppy up, and enter the second apron. Going into it shouldn’t be taboo for a genuine title threat. Teams must just have to be selective about when they do it.
Until proven otherwise, it doesn’t seem like Dolan will give the Knicks that luxury. And if it doesn’t, this core’s shelf life tops out at 2027-28.
Still, even if it’s the case, there’s no use wishing for a time machine that could undo the second apron’s existence. The core that just won the title wouldn’t have been in place without it.
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