Now that we know Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers are going to accept the NBA’s punishment for circumventing the salary cap in their dealings with Kawhi Leonard, the New York Knicks need to kick their Karl-Anthony Towns extension talks into hyper-drive. If they don’t, he could become a free agent next summer, at which time the Clippers may be willing to offer him enough money to leave the Big Apple.
Initial inclinations will be to laugh at the idea. Resist it.
The Clippers are now out five first-round picks beginning in 2029, not to mention $30 million, after Ballmer finally waved the white flag. The stench of this scandal will linger in Hollywood, both narratively and functionally, for the foreseeable future.
This effectively kneecaps the Clippers until kingdom come. It also leaves them with nothing to lose. And in this case, there’s nothing more dangerous than a blended cocktail of desperation and cap space.
The Clippers’ Kawhi punishment gives KAT leverage
For much of the offseason, we have operated under the assumption that the Knicks hold leverage in KAT extension talks beyond the whole “We just won the title, and he’s happy here” trope. That stance endures, but it’s now under duress.
Superstars seldom jump ship in free agency anymore. If Towns passes on an extension and declines his $61 million player option next summer, suitors won’t necessarily be lining up to shower a seven-footer entering his 30s with max and near-max offers.
Yet, as the old saying goes, it only takes one team. The Clippers are now that team.
Accepting the NBA’s punishment leaves them with little incentive to rebuild gradually after overhauling their roster. They currently will not control their own first-round pick again until 2034, and will have few opportunities to draft in the first round at all during this span.
In the absence of a traditional young-player pipeline, the Clippers are left with Keaton Wagler, Darius Garland, and cap space as their primary building blocks.
Even after taking on Brandon Ingram’s 2027-28 salary as part of the Kawhi trade, L.A. has a relatively clear path to $55-plus million in spending power next summer. That’s close enough to KAT’s projected max salary of $61.6 million to get his attention. And it’s definitely close enough for them to chisel out the whole shebang.
The Knicks can neutralize this threat before it actually becomes one
A four-year max for Towns from a team other than the Knicks tops out at just under $265 million. Don’t discount the Clippers offering it. Not only do they have minimal incentive to rebuild using conventional methods, but they have a long-term void at the center spot.
Yanic Konan Niederhauser is L.A.’s only viable candidate, and he’s working his way back from a Lisfranc injury. Oh, and more importantly, he’s not Towns.
New York, of course, has the power to end any speculation before it truly starts. Both sides seem interested in an extension, and the prevailing consensus is they’ll get one done.
Still, with the Knicks bent on sidestepping the second apron, the potential math can get tricky. And trickiness can lead to unintended and undesirable outcomes—like KAT and the team failing to find common ground, and the Clippers emerging as a real threat to sign him away in 2027.
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