Knicks Trade Rumors: Karl-Anthony Towns' Timberwolves Contract Seen as 'Too Onerous'

Karl-Anthony Towns has been linked to the New York Knicks in trade rumors over the last several months, but the franchise might not want to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves star's hefty contract.

"What I had heard was that the salary, some people felt that the salary was just too onerous, at least at this point," SNY's Ian Begley said during an appearance on The Lowe Post podcast with ESPN's Zach Lowe (15:30 mark). "They've felt that the salary was going to really hurt them later in his deal.

"But listen, I think obviously this dynamic can change at the drop of a dime. I do think though that if they loved the idea of Towns right now, they could've had him. That's just my kind of read on the landscape in general."

Towns will earn $36 million in 2023-24, which will be the final season of the five-year contract he signed in 2018. However, he signed a four-year, $224 million supermax extension with the Timberwolves in July 2022 that will kick in during the 2024-25 season.

By the 2026-27 campaign, Towns will have a $60.7 million cap hit and in 2027-28 he holds a player option worth $64.9 million. That type of money would make it more difficult for the Knicks to build a roster in the future.

With the updated rules under the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement, the league will impose more significant penalties for the highest-spending teams, and the Timberwolves will need to offload some salary.

Towns is considered Minnesota's most expendable asset with Rudy Gobert on a massive contract and Anthony Edwards being the face of the franchise both now and in the future. According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the belief is that Towns holds more trade value than Gobert.

"Towns is also generally regarded leaguewide as the far more tradeable of the two given he's the younger of the 7-footers (27 to Gobert's 31) and his long-distance shooting ability," Stein wrote. "Towns begins a projected four-year, $235 million contract extension in 2024-25."

The Knicks were first linked to Towns in April when an NBA source told Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports that the two sides had mutual interest.

"The interest in making that happen would be mutual, for sure," the source told Deveny. "KAT and the Knicks are intertwined. To some people, it is more a matter of when they go after him, not if."

Adding Towns to a core of Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle could be exactly what the Knicks need to be more competitive in the Eastern Conference after suffering a conference semifinals loss to the Miami Heat in last season's playoffs.

However, it's unclear if the franchise is still interested in pursuing him this summer.