It was only days after the New York Knicks won their first NBA championship in 53 years that team owner James Dolan stepped in and decided to pull a clearly Dolan-ish move: He declared that, yes, winning was nice, but that it was not nice enough to nudge the Knicks into going over the league’s second apron. It was not the focus at the time, but in that moment, Dolan signaled to fans that they had better not get used to the Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby core of the team.
The Knicks can’t pay all of those guys and still field a reasonable team while also remaining under the second apron.
Now, to be clear, the Knicks can go over the apron, especially to make moves that are just designed keeping current players into the future–like signing extensions. Being over the second apron does not result in any massive Knicks penalty–it just makes it hard for the team to add new players.
Knicks Could Sign Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, Other Players
That is not a problem for a championship caliber team, and last we checked, the Knicks are a championship caliber team. So, the penny-pinching that the Knicks have deployed this offseason, starting with losing center Mitchell Robinson, does not make much sense, except to see it as Dolan finding a way to be cheap.
But know this–the rampant contract disappointments going around the Knicks roster right now will affect performance on the floor, one way or the other. Towns, Hart and McBride are the most acutely in need of new deals, and none of them are likely to be signed soon. That will weigh on Hart.
Josh Hart Concerned About Knicks’ Lack of Progress
As Hart told Knicks reporters over the weekend, the contract stuff goes home with players, and creates some anxiety and tension about what’s next.
“Once the season starts, I’ll probably have that mentality of, ‘I don’t really wanna deal with this, I want to try and focus on playing the season,’” Hart said. “But I’m sure there will probably be a little extra weight to the jersey. …
“You don’t know the certainty of your situation and obviously it affects home life,” he said. “There are certain things that you might want to do, but you’re like, ‘I can’t, because I have no idea what the situation will be in two months, three months, four months, in a year, if I’m gonna be here or not.’”
Karl-Anthony Towns Disappointed
Now, the Knicks did a good enough job of addressing contract concerns on media day, and there was probably a hope from the organization’s side that talk about negotiations would end there. But the players don’t seem to be willing to take that tack, especially when they are apparently far apart from the team on contract numbers.
Towns made that clear on Monday.
From Steve Popper of Newsday: “Simply put, I want to do something that can keep the team together, and that can work with the Knicks and also values me. And, I mean, none of those things have come close to happening. … I just won a championship, you thought it would be pretty easy.”
Think again.
Knicks Star Admits ‘Weight’ of Contract Talks as Bad News Piles Up