Even if they won’t come right out and admit it, the New York Knicks are being genuinely impacted by their decision to shut down extension talks with Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, and Miles McBride.
No, the absence of new deals doesn’t explain everything that’s gone wrong with the reigning champs. But it has opened up them to a world of speculation and uncertainty, and potentially contributed to Hart’s own struggles.
This says nothing of the Mikal Bridges discourse. During any other year, his early-season slump would be considered a temporary bump in the road. Instead, it has become grounds for trade and cost-cutting conjecture.
Josh Hart’s uncertain future could be wreaking havoc on his play
Let’s begin with Hart, the emotional bellwether for these Knicks. He is currently shooting a career low on twos, on threes, and from the free-throw line. Just as notably, he scored zero points and didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter of New York’s loss to the Indiana Pacers.
Some will attribute Hart’s onset warts to injuries. He has already missed time with an ankle injury, then an illness, and was also dealing with a calf injury in September. Yet, by his own admission, he isn’t just grappling with injuries.
Following the Pacers loss, Hart told reporters that he’s struggling mentally. “Wish I could tell you [why],” he explained, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “Don’t know. Right now I’m not in a good headspace, and I’ve got to figure out how to improve that. And improve my play.”
Definitively assigning blame to stalled extension talks is a massive leap. But Hart has already said his future will at times become a distraction. And that makes sense.
Sure, KAT’s extension situation has not inhibited his play. But he has more control over his future. Towns holds a player option for next season. The absolute worst-case scenario for him is he picks it up, and earns $61 million.
Hart, on the other hand, has a $22.4 million team option. That gives the Knicks all the control. They can more easily move on from him next summer, if not at the trade deadline.
Stalled extensions have given way to speculation
Towns’ play to open the season has been inspirational. It also means, in all likelihood, the price of re-signing him has gone up.
This, in turn, has led to speculation over who will become collateral damage. For so long, McBride has been the player tabbed to exit. Now, though, Bridges’ slump has paved the way for trade proposals including him that allow the Knicks to retain Towns, and open up flexibility elsewhere.
Neither the Bridges nor McBride conjecture is going anywhere. If nothing changes, Hart’s name will work its way into the gossip factory as well.
Don’t rule out Towns ending up in the rumor mill, either. He is too valuable for the team to deal, but the longer he goes without an extension, the more you’ll hear about teams planning to make a run at him over the summer, if not at the trade deadline. Even if all the hypotheticals don’t carry a ton of legitimacy, the constant conversations about them is nothing if not a distraction to a team that, right now, cannot afford any more.
These are the circumstances to which the Knicks consigned themselves by shutting down in-season extension negotiations. It is much too early to tell whether that will was a damning decision. As they’re seeing now, though, closing the door entirely isn’t making their title defense any easier.
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