If the New York Knicks are going to trade Karl-Anthony Towns, they are apparently looking at a return comparable to what the Atlanta Hawks received for Trae Young.
Speaking on his Katz and Shoot podcast, Fred Katz of The Athletic shed light on how people inside the NBA view New York’s big man. “I’ve spoken to people around the league, and asked them, ‘Where do you think his value’s at?’” he explained. “And the most common response that I get is, ‘Look at the Trae Young deal.’ Trae Young had a player option for next season, and all he got back was CJ McCollum, and Corey Kispert, and that was it.”
This is…bleak. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if the Knicks don’t have plans to shop Towns.
Unfortunately, it seems like they do.
Karl-Anthony Towns’ trade value probably isn’t that low
According to Steve Popper of Newsday, the big man is currently being dangled in trade talks with multiple teams. The list includes the Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies, and Orlando Magic.
For their part, the Knicks could just be doing their due diligence in the wake of a debilitatingly bad stretch. Just because they’re gauging Towns’ market doesn’t mean they’re prepared to accept pennies on the dollar for his services. Perhaps that changes if the locker-room dynamic is so very down bad that they believe his exit would be addition by subtraction. They have given no signs they’ve reached that nadir just yet.
Even if they do, the Knicks almost assuredly won’t be getting as ostensibly hosed as the Hawks were in their Trae Young package. Towns has an extra year of team control on his contract, and more critically, he continues to be an anomaly at his position.
Seven-footers who can put the ball on the floor and also launch threes do not grow on trees. Towns’ efficiency and usage are flirting with personal lows at the moment, but for all his faults and foibles, we have a decade’s worth of evidence that he’s better than this. As Katz himself also notes, KAT is more scalable than someone like Young, who must dominate the ball to be at his most effective.
With all that said, the Knicks can’t hope to get a king’s ransom for KAT
Spotlighting Towns’ superior value in contrast to Trae still doesn’t carry much weight. League perception is all that matters. And right now, the Knicks would be moving Towns from a position of weakness.
Plenty of prospective suitors would be hesitant to sponge up the two years and $118.1 million left on his contract (2027-28 player option) even if he were tracking toward a fourth All-NBA selection. Hesitance will reach a fever pitch when he’s having the worst offensive season of his career, remains a net-negative on the defensive end, and sending mixed signals galore about his commitment to the team and its general concepts
This really leaves the Knicks with only one option. If the plan is to use Towns as a salary magnet in a trade for Jaren Jackson Jr., Giannis Antetokounmpo, another star, or a group of better-fitting non-stars, they have to hold onto him, and hope he rehabilitates his value by the offseason.