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Knicks Bulletin: ‘We’re gonna have each other’s back, regardless’ – Posting & Toasting
Karl-Anthony Towns ‘very disappointed’ by Knicks tabling extension talks: ‘It was news to me’ – New York Daily News
Preseason Game Preview: Knicks vs. Timberwolves, October 12, 2026 – Posting & Toasting
Knicks pausing all contract extension negotiations until ‘later in the season’ – SNY
Knicks could keep their squad together. Refusing to cross the second apron may prevent that – The New York Times
Bruce Brown making a strong case to crack Knicks’ roster – SNY
TIMBERWOLVES at KNICKS | NBA PRESEASON FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | October 12, 2026 – NBA
Knicks vs Timberwolves (PRESEASON) – Recap & Reaction | POSTGAME SHOW | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
Knicks Look FLAT vs Timberwolves | Rapid Reaction – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks VS Timberwolves Preseason Postgame – Knick of Time
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135 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.10.13)”
On the one hand, it’s publication day for my Rod Serling book — maybe the thing I’m proudest to have written in my whole career.
On the other, I’m spending the day at Frank’s workplace, and a hospital is… not the most fun or glamorous way to celebrate publishing a book.
Take the good with the bad.
Doc rivers and Derek Harper both turning 65 today. The two main PGs of the Riley Knicks.
“…maybe the thing I’m proudest to have written in my whole career.”
Congrats Alan and get well. Looking forward to reading it. Though a bit disappointed to note that you are not proudest of your KB posts…
A beautiful Dolan bashing session on the Zach Lowe show:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7vfjPMGTcNKTeC8Uybi5Yh?si=lNY1VRJ5SXSdCUzg3vb9-Q&utm_source=copy-link&t=796
Everyone is saying it now. All of it.
(It’s about 2 mins long and a great listen)
Congrats on the book, Alan, i hope it’s a success. 😉
I wish you a speedy recovery, and it’s nice to know that you’re in good hands.
The biggest change for me coming out of summer league and pre season is that at the end of last season I thought Diawara was a “must sign” with significant upside to wondering whether he’s going to keep his rotation spot.
I still see the same flashes that made me high on him last year, but it’s not translating into production. I’m starting to think that “maybe” we saw just a short term aberration of good shooting from 3 last year that enhanced the overall picture.
Congrats, Alan. Good luck with the book and your health.
Yes Alan, congratulations snd good luck with your health
Important to remember that progress with young players isn’t always linear and players can take small steps back before leaping forward. And summer league and preseason are not always the best indicators of how a player is progressing.
One thing though. Besides shaking off post championship malaise, the team really needs to be prepared for the fact that every team is going to get up to play them this year.
I think putting Leon’s name on this tantrum is rather insulting to him. His default move has always been “say nothing”. There’s no way he was part of announcing payroll strategy on WFAN or issuing a petulant statement in the media because things weren’t going his way in a negotiation.
Major congrats on the book, Alan. Great achievement, especially for us elderly folks who were in to the show way back when. On the health front, please take care of yourself and get well soon, and remind Frank to weigh in frequently!
I’ll probably listen to the Lowe podcast , but I think it will confirm an impression i already have; that people are piling on to Dolan with a kind of mob mentality and thinking that he is now totally ruining the team. The truth is the Knicks are in a difficult position. Now that the Knicks have won a championship, players want Financial rewards and it’s easy for a player to conclude they should get the max they can get. But if the Knicks did that for everyone they would be way over the second apron, would probably have some bad contracts, and probably forced to give up valuable pieces to manage finances eventually. Boston had to do that with Brown. If you want to mostly keep the team together, they need to control costs as much as possible. If Dolan hadn’t issued his edict, it would be harder for Rose to negotiate with Towns and others because those players would figure now that the Knicks are over the second apron, they can pay me the max. With the edict it’s still hard to negotiate, but at least players know the the Knicks can’t give them everything. That might help (or might not, you never know) in negotiating with Towns and others. The decision not to pause talks now reflects the front office need to cool things off and probably, to give room to explore possible preseason trades. There isn’t a hurry to do any of the possible extensions, so I am fine with the delay.
I’m glad that guys like Fred Katz and Zach Lowe are weighing in. It will definitely have a major impact on Dolan’s decision making. In fact, I’m guessing that he’s arranging a press conference right now to apologize for being rash and petty.
Nope. They intelligently challenged the logic of his mandate and the efficacy of halting negotiations, while doing a good job educating the public about what the second apron really does and why the Knicks are the wrong team to be trying to stay under it.
New York was wonderfully managed snd that’s why we won it all last season but now the team is terribly managed according to everyone, it seems. Something seems fishy about that.
Their job isn’t to impact Dolan’s decision making, it’s to inform the public, and they’re doing it well.
If some people (and I don’t mean you, I genuinely mean some people in general) don’t want to be informed or don’t want to hear information that contradicts their previously formed opinion, that’s on them.
I for one am glad that Dolan’s bullshit isn’t being met with media acquiescence any more.
IMO the entire discussion is overblown. People just hate Dolan and are always looking for reasons to dump on him.
There are 30 NBA teams. 29 of them are under the 2nd apron and the 30th (Denver) is looking for a way to get under and probably will by the deadline.
Not all those owners, presidents, GMs etc.. are petulant or crazy.
Granted, if you have a serious contender that’s different from a team that’s rebuilding, but there are still other contenders that have gone out of their way to stay under the 2nd apron. It’s not just Dolan.
Whether Leon was part of annoucing it is irrelevant. Dolan announcing it was irrelevant. We know by a team’s actions when they are trying to get under the second apron. They trade away more expensive good players and try to substitute cheaper alternatives to fill those roles. They don’t have to announce it. This is only a big story because it’s the Knicks.
The 2nd apron is effectively acting as a hard cap because the combination of lost trade flexibilty, a frozen pick, a potentially severely degraded 1st round pick and enormous tax ramifications are outweighing keeping certain second tier players.
Mitch at best was a 50-50 call for almost any organization. I’m not sure Boston did the right thing in signing him for that much for that long and the 2nd apron wasn’t even an added factor for them this year.
Paying Deuce is probably a 50-50 call depending on the number.
The idea here is to keep the “necessary core” together.
If he screws up with Towns, we have something to complain about, but I think the chances of that happening are close to zero. There’s going to be an amount that Towns, Hart and Deuce have to split to keep all three and stay under. Either they will work that out, Deuce will be moved (Shamet and Alavardo get his minutes) or they will put together a plan to go over the 2nd apron temporarily and break things up quickly later to avoid the most serious issues.
Hubert, when teams spend money basically on automatic without thinking about it, they almost always regret it later. It’s not wrong for the Knicks to push back against paying the max. Dolan’s edict was part of that. Maybe it wasn’t the best way to go about it, but it’s not the catastrophic sin it’s being made out to be.
I love Zach Lowe, but he didn’t say much that was too critical about the Knicks and 2nd apron until people started piling on him about Dolan (most likely Knicks fans). He even admitted that much on the podcast.
He mostly discussed it as acting like a hard cap, talked about how certain teams were avoiding it and seemed to not like it and think it should be changed eventually.
As an aside, Z-Man, I appreciate your willingness to engage on this subject genuinely and peacefully. I disagree with you, but I know your opinion is valid and other folks share it, so I’ve found it fruitful to have discourse about it.
Incorrect. He challenged it immediately and said it made no sense, and brought it up a few times this summer. But he has a national audience. You can’t expect him to be covering the Knicks all the time.
I’ve been listening to NBA podcasts constantly — it’s not something I’m proud of! The people who actually understand the second apron have been saying this about the Knicks all summer. And the people who don’t do their homework have just been thoughtlessly regurgitating “it’s a hard cap”.
“but it’s not the catastrophic sin it’s being made out to be.”
It wouldn’t be Knickerblogger without unnecessary catastrophizing that turns out to be ridiculously overblown in retrospect.
“As an aside, Z-Man, I appreciate your willingness to engage on this subject genuinely and peacefully. I disagree with you, but I know your opinion is valid and other folks share it, so I’ve found it fruitful to have discourse about it.”
Well, even a miserable old [a word I only use when I lip out a putt, usually preceded by “motherless’] can have a good day.
He just did a podcast where he flat out admitted that he was going to trash Dolan and the 2nd apron because behind the scenes people were trashing him for going to too easy on Dolan earlier (almost certainly mostly Knicks fans were doing the trashing).
This is not about necessarily about who is weighing all the factors correctly. You can make a good case for the Knicks going over it and you can make a good case for “it depends on which player and for how long”.
I am just saying Dolan is not the only owner that is refusing to go over it long term. 29 owners are under it and the 30th is on his way even though he has the best player on the planet, that player needs more depth, but the owner keeps trading away what he needs for cheaper alternatives.
Any headlines about him being a petulant child?
No.
He’s calculating his chances of winning, keeping his superstar happy, the cost of going over, how much he can afford to go over, for how long he can go over and then making trades that have been hurting the team’s chance of winning.
A few things here about your very good post…
I agree 100% with your premise. I’ve been against defaulting to the max all the way back to the Porzingis days.
And I actually agree with being wise about these extensions. I don’t think it makes sense to give any of them out unless they’re very team friendly.
The sin here (and I should note no one’s calling it “catastrophic”) isn’t that we’re not giving these guys the max.
The sin is that as soon as the Knicks became huge, Dolan suddenly replaced Leon as the voice and strategist of the team, and has returned to meaningfully meddling with his front office.
The man who wants everyone to be quiet won’t shut up. And he — not Leon, not KAT, not Hart or Deuce — is the one creating the unnecessary distractions he alluded to in his moronic media statement.
If Leon were still in charge, none of us would even know we’re trying to stay under the second apron, and the status of KAT’s negotiation would be a complete mystery to everyone.
I think we all agree on what was the optimal strategy if the goal was to maximize the chances of repeating was to retain Mitch, second apron be damned. I think we also agree that now that that’s behind us, KAT should be retained for something less than the full max but more than 4/$200M (some differ on where the upper limit is), even if it means going into the second apron in order to retain Deuce.
But so long as Dolan is in charge and the edict is in place, these points are moot. No amount of bitching about it, either here or in the media, is going to change that.
So the question for me is, what is the best course of action with the given constraints in place, most importantly, the constraint of Dolan himself?
And it wouldn’t be knickerblogger without labeling reasonable and measured criticism as “catastrophizing'”.
Every time someone says “this isn’t good” people respond with “stop saying it’s the end of the world”.
This is not the end of the world. It’s just not good.
As long as Dolan’s behaviour doesn’t result in Leon leaving, there is only so much damage he can do in a practical sense. I have too much respect for Leon to think he wouldn’t quit if Dolan meddled in personel decisions without a valid reason. So as long he stays I’m still optimistic.
“The sin is that as soon as the Knicks became huge, Dolan suddenly replaced Leon as the voice and strategist of the team, and has returned to meaningfully meddling with his front office.”
This is only true to the degree that we know it is, because we have no idea what happens behind the scenes beyond what has been leaked. We do know that Dolan was the leading voice in firing Thibs, and the leading voice in demanding that the team get to the finals or else. I guess you can argue that the Knicks were already huge then, but if you believe that without his meddling, Thibs would have been retained, that “sin” might have been instrumental in getting the team over the top.
“The man who wants everyone to be quiet won’t shut up. And he — not Leon, not KAT, not Hart or Deuce — is the one creating the unnecessary distractions he alluded to in his moronic media statement.”
The media statement that going into the second apron was “suicidal” might be moronic, but he made his feelings clear that he was not going to allow it. In a way, he let Leon off the hook by not saying it privately, just like he let Leon off the hook for firing Thibs. Leon is absolved from the responsibility of explaining the mandate in public, at the risk of being disingenuous or contradicting his boss.
“If Leon were still in charge, none of us would even know we’re trying to stay under the second apron, and the status of KAT’s negotiation would be a complete mystery to everyone.”
Again, if Leon were in charge, we might still be wondering why Thibs wasn’t fired going into last season. Or maybe not. We’ll probably never know because Leon doesn’t have to explain anything, just like he doesn’t have to explain why “he” cut off extension talks.
If anything, it seems like Dolan gets a special kick out of throwing himself under the bus so that Leon doesn’t have to.
We are essentially having a cost-benefit analysis here. It is certainly fair to believe that the benefit of going into the second apron to retain everyone on a team that just won a championship is worth the cost, both in luxury tax and in the ability to modify the team going forward.
My issue is framing the discussion in a way that the benefits are disproportionately inflated and the costs are hand-waved away, or vice versa.
I definitely am on the side of the benefits are worth the costs, but I also think there are some avenues to having it actually work out as well or better in the long run by staying under. Personally, I don’t think our odds of repeating were very good this year either with or without Mitch, so I’m holding out hope that we have a Brunson-KAT-OG core for the next 4-5 years at a “below the second apron” price that allows Leon to work some magic going forward with the cards he has been dealt.
I am just saying Dolan is not the only owner that is refusing to go over it long term. 29 owners are under it and the 30th is on his way even though he has the best player on the planet, that player needs more depth, but the owner keeps trading away what he needs for cheaper alternatives.
Any headlines about him being a petulant child?
dolan isn’t called a petulant child because he won’t go over the second apron. he is called a petulant child because he has often behaved as if he were attempting to make adult diapers great again.
it is true there is unavoidable nuance in the knicks’ cap quandaries. i don’t think it’s impossible to argue the knicks should not have matched mitch’s price, although i think it was plainly the wrong decision and most people are thinking poorly about which way the second apron optionality cut if we are just talking about basketball impact and not luxury tax payments. i definitely don’t think it’s a mistake to refuse to max KAT, though the recent unattributed publicly announced negotiating freeze seems purely silly and unhelpful.
but when a person who has spent decades mastercrafting a self-portrait of permanent ensnarement in stroppy adolescence sits behind words and choices that happen to also admit some nuance, it would be small-minded to ignore the relevance of the little wizard behind the curtain.
‘If anything, it seems like Dolan gets a special kick out of throwing himself under the bus so that Leon doesn’t have to.’
If only. I volunteer to drive!
I apologize for calling you an insulting name. Twice.
I don’t usually share personal details online but Alan’s willingness to share has made me a little willing, so I’ll explain…
A while ago I mentioned I was coming here to avoid a “project” I didnt want to focus on. What that actually was was my son’s mother suddenly became sick and is probably going to die, and I had to figure out what to do.
It’s no excuse for my behavior, but that was the emotional state I was in when I responded to your poking with online violence.
(It’s also why I generally think needling people on purpose for fun is something we should kick to the curb. 9 times out of 10 when you see someone react like I did it’s not because of your comments, it’s because they’re dealing with something they can’t handle. But I digress.)
Screaming at you online made me feel good for a couple of hours. But soon it made me feel deeply ashamed, and I sincerely apologize to you for getting personal.
FWIW I eventually decided to pack up my things and move to Florida suddenly and unexpectedly and become my son’s primary custodian. I’ve been here almost two weeks now. The day I went off on you was the day I was packing.
As you might imagine, he’s having a hard time, and I know it’s incumbent on me to handle my own emotional well being in order to help him with his. And what I said and did to you is not the behavior that I want to model, so I did the work necessary to regulate my emotions and won’t be engaging in any more online histrionics.
I’ll still probably disagree with everything you say bc we’re like oil & water, but like today I’ll do it respectfully, and I’ll disengage quickly any time it deteriorates.
This becomes very easy to reconcile once you choose to simply believe the reliable reporting indicating Dolan is going rogue against the explicit beliefs of the front office!
Just to be clear, I was thinking of the media when I used the catastrophic, not people posting on Knickerblogger.
Hubert, so sorry to hear. You’re a brave and compassionate dude for doing what you’re doing (especially in Florida!), and I appreciate your calling yourself out for poor behavior. While it’s certainly not something I need to do as nothing was directed at me, I forgive you for sullying this site and I agree that needling is in general a poor excuse for humor that often leads to hurt feelings rather than amusement.
Thanks for the honesty, and I hope your support down south is both useful and appreciated.
The undertone that we are now very unlikely to win a championship during the Brunson window due to Dolan’s decree sounds pretty catastrophic to me. It’s very reminiscent of some of the posting prior to winning. But I’ll defer to the crowd on that one.
.
Yeah except for the fact that last year when Thibs was fired after we had our most successful season in 20 plus years people catastrophized that too and then we won a chip.
I don’t know, maybe let’s just see what happens before we assume the worst about Dolan.
The thing I hate about it is if you ever say dolan isn’t the worst in every single thing he does it’s like you’re defending the guy, which isn’t even the case. I just don’t really think him not wanting to go into the second apron is some egregious sin since no one really wants to do that.
The Knicks’ best chance at winning another chip is this year. It was always gonna be this year. They found a five man combination plus key bench pieces that worked. Beyond this year it was going to get more and more difficult to win with this core, because no matter what they do it’s going to be hard to keep the core group together.
The rational play was to go into the second apron this year and bring back Mitch. YOLO. Go for the very difficult repeat. If you fall short, then consider getting under the apron after that one year.
It just really wasn’t very rational to avoid the second apron this year. Not smart in terms of game theory, and not a correct understanding of win curve. The decision was not made by the smart guy, Leon Rose, it was made by the ignoramus dumb guy who thinks he looks cool in a fedora and who is endlessly impressed by Isiah Thomas.
It’s really not all that complicated. You go into the apron for this year and push all the chips in. All of this other talk about how the second apron has this or that penalty is a red herring. We finally have the most “win now” team possible, and this is the time the guy in the fedora thinks we should be making cautious prudent long term decisions.
He’s just a fucking idiot. It’s really simple. We might win a chip again anyway, but he’s a spectacularly idiotic man.
I really don’t think that we’re going to win the chip again, for many various reasons. Mitch was just the first domino, but it’s easy to foresee other dominoes that don’t work in our favor coming relatively quickly. I don’t *want* to think this, but I feel pretty strongly about it.
Thank G-d we won the chip. We’ll *always* have 2026.
What a shocker that you feel this way.
OK, I’ll play ball. We re-sign Mitch and go into the second apron. Season starts and he gets hurt with an injury that keeps him out for the rest of the season (which is not an unreasonable thing to think could happen). Then what do we do? We can’t trade him. we can’t trade anyone, for that matter, unless it matches dollar to dollar. We can’t pick up anyone on the waiver wire. Can’t really make any moves.
We’re fucked. And not just for this season. And it wouldn’t have to be Mitch who got injured. It could be anyone and we’d be really painted into a corner as far as moves we could make to try and mitigate that loss.
WTF is wrong with Florida? (Speaking from Pompano Beach) Also, be well, Hubert.
If it weren’t for the mandate we could have brought Mitch back and signed Drummond (or Huk, or whoever). So the scenario you’re describing is exactly the one we find ourselves in now.
Swift, if one of our core guys goes down with an injury, we’re screwed regardless. It’s not like we have a tremendous amount of flexibility UNDER the apron. If we lose any of the five starters you can pretty much stick a fork in the season regardless of whatever meager flexibility we currently have.
If you re-sign Mitch and he gets hurt and can’t go in the playoffs, that sucks because you have to go with a subpar backup C. Which is the current makeup of the team!
“I really don’t think that we’re going to win the chip again, for many various reasons. Mitch was just the first domino, but it’s easy to foresee other dominoes that don’t work in our favor coming relatively quickly. I don’t *want* to think this, but I feel pretty strongly about it.
What a shocker that you feel this way.”
Why do you say that? It’s not like I’m known for being on Team Pessimist or anything even close to that.
Hubert, keep on doing the right thing, keep hoping….and keep posting.
“I apologize for calling you an insulting name. Twice.”
I appreciate and accept the apology. And I apologize in turn for anything personal that I said in response. You should know that I don’t really hold grudges when it comes to name-calling, if I did I would have been divorced long ago, as rarely a day goes by when my lovely wife or one of my kids doesn’t call me something worse than you did.
I am sorry that you are going through such difficult family circumstances. I don’t wish such things on anyone here, and in fact, I have always admired and been supportive of your dedication to your son under trying conditions. I became a middle school educator for many reasons, but the primary one was to help make family life better for the students, parents, and staff in my domain, and at times even more broadly. Arguing about the Knicks is small potatoes compared to that.
“It’s also why I generally think needling people on purpose for fun is something we should kick to the curb. 9 times out of 10 when you see someone react like I did it’s not because of your comments, it’s because they’re dealing with something they can’t handle.”
There are lots of ways to get under people’s skin. If we are going to be more mindful about triggering folks, all of those ways should be considered. Frankly, needling people in a sarcastic and humorous way is fine with me, both on the receiving and giving end, so long as it’s not personal or mean-spirited. I have a bigger issue with posting that is unnecessarily whiny and repetitive, or that is condescending to the point that it suggests that anyone who disagrees, or who even frames the conversation differently, is utterly stupid. (I think we can stipulate that ptmilo is exempt from this ask.) Sometimes it feels like people who are in dissent get piled on. Another thing that bugs me is when people make all-or-none characterizations and accuse posters of being stans or on Team this or Team that. We all know each other to know that our opinions are varied enough to not be pigeonholed.
In any case, I’ll try to do my part in being more mindful about how my posts might land, so long as it’s a two-way street.
I don’t think Drummond comes here for the minimum if we signed Mitch, since he’d be relegated to third string.
Re: Dolan, we all know who he is. Folks don’t change much at his age unless they have a personal crisis of some sort.
The question for me isn’t whether going into the second apron was the optimal choice. It’s how big the gap is the gap in championship probability between doing it and not doing it. Is it 35% vs. 10%? 25% vs 10%? 30% vs. 28%?
My gut feeling is that the difference is rather marginal. I don’t think that we were going to win another chip by standing pat, and the second apron decree might force Leon to look outside the box for creative solutions that will not exist if he committed entirely to this core. And while I also agree that there is considerable downside risk of falling out of the contender class during what’s left of Brunson’s prime, I’m less worried about it 3 years down the road than I would be if we spent the next two years above the apron.
I think not wanting to go into the second apron for Mitch was a mistake but not an egregious sin.
I think announcing that you will never ever go over the second apron and then trying to bully 3 of your best players into submission is an egregious sin. There are teams that don’t want to go over the second apron, but there are no other teams doing that.
If you look at what San Antonio did with Wemby, the whole organization flew to Paris, they put two deals in front of him: one was the max he could sign for, one was slightly discounted. They told him what they would be able to do if he took one, and what they would likely have to do if he took the other. And then they let him choose.
That’s respect.
That’s also what we did with Jalen Brunson, and even Julius Randle years before.
This is very different. It’s not respectful at all, and that often counts as much if not more than the money. And it doesn’t appear to be very effective, either.
And just out of curiosity, where the heck was this second apron BS when we were negotiating with Mikal Bridges last year? Dude was coming off a terrible year, was a pariah in NY, and we extended him at the max, no questions asked! If this was a real thing that the organization cared about before Dolan opened his mouth, why didn’t we play hardball then?
Firstly, congrats to Alan on the book, and sorry to Hubert who is admirably keeping it together during an incredibly tough situation.
My only thought here is that we should split the difference with KAT and give him 4 for 230 mil (or a comparable 3 yr deal) and extend Hart. Then we should trade Deuce into cap space for draft capital and sign Bruce Brown as his replacement.
Swapping Mitch and Deuce for Drummond and Brown sucks, but it’s ultimately necessary under the 2nd apron edict to keep the starting 5 together.
And we still have a decent bench. I think we might need another big rebounder, but I still think this looks like an ECF team.
But I don’t think shutting down talks was a good idea and does feel like a knee-jerk Dolan move. Hopefully it ends up being just a minor bump in the road.
thoughts and prayers are with you al…stay strong, stay positive, when that gets hard make sure to reach out and lean on others…
big hugs to you buddy 😊
You’re not wrong but we also didn’t give up 5 picks to get KAT. If Leon let Mikal walk after giving up 5 picks for one season, it would have been a disaster. We also hadn’t won a title a year ago.
Different circumstances, I guess.
I don’t think the Mikal extension and KAT extension are comparable at all in this context. I suppose one can retrofit the argument to connect the current situation to Mikal, but the circumstances and the costs involved are night and day.
I also don’t think he was coming off of a terrible year or was a pariah. In fact, he had just been a key to beating the highly favored Celtics in the conference semi’s.
He also signed at a time where he could have been part of the trade bait for Giannis at the deadline.
I’d put Deuce before Hart.
In fact, Josh not being extended doesn’t bother me at all. We have him under contract for his age 32 & 33 seasons. After that there’s a decent chance he’s a TPMLE guy. He’s really the last guy we should take care of.
The issue with Josh is that his team option is no less than his market value, and possibly more. Getting it down to the $15M AAV range would probably help with the other deals.
Hey hubert, sorry to hear this man and a lot of respect to you as a super Dad. You did the right but difficult thing in moving to be near your boy during this time.
Any predictions on whether KAT opts out before next Monday’s deadline? Seems pretty likely.
It is true that Mitch is a good player, meaning if you sign him, you are risking a good player getting hurt.
I don’t think this is a good argument against re-signing him, though, as if this happened we’d just be in the same position we willingly put ourselves in–desperately trying to find a playoff quality center off the scrap heap.
We should take a chill pill and realize that below or above 2nd apron is not a basketball move…it’s simply about money. Lots and lots of money that the owner is not willing to burn.
Here is what Grok said: Approximately $77 million in additional luxury tax for the 2026-27 season alone (plus Robinson’s ~$15 million salary), pushing the total tax bill from ~$34.1 million to ~$111.1 million.
No way anyone with a normally functioning brain in the basketball world woudl have come out of the pocket anywhere near this much money for one year of Mitchel Robinson. The same is gonna happen to at least Mikal Bridges next summer if they extend KAT to $60m+
What bothers me the most is that KAT is not even worth $60 like Mitch was worth $15. He was never the franchise player that can be the best player on a contender to begin with and he’s definitively not that at age 32-36. Just an entitled dude with blinders on.
This is why I’ve been saying that Leon has no choice but to trade him now and try to build a third version of a championship team during Brunson and OG window.
Have to trust that Leon will somehow turn this moodiness and drama into a positive like he did with Julius Randle.
100 percent. It would be very very strange if he opted in.
Well the last part is flatly untrue, but it is true that the defending champion New York Knicks are simply not as compelling as the 2025-2026 Cleveland Cavaliers, so they can’t be held to such lofty standards.
C’mon, Director. Don’t think I don’t remember what you said about moving to Florida (at the exact moment I was contemplating moving to Florida 🙂 )
Dan Gilbert had a stroke and a near death experience. His health has deteriorated as I saw him on a wheelchaoir after they beat detroit saying that this was one of teh best days of his life. Also, his kid passed away too. It was an emotional cash burn decision, not rational one. Cav’s got blown out & swept on their home floor. Not exactly a model of excellence to be copied the team that did it to them.
yikes…my bad. I say a lot of stupid stuff when I’m dieting…sorry I was out of pocket.
I was totally kidding. Didn’t make a lick of difference 🙂
Hope everything works out, Alan. Can’t wait to read your new book. Doubly true after your NYTimes article.
Hubert, sorry you and your son are going through that. That’s a difficult choice to make. I’m sure your son will appreciate having you there.
We know for sure that no team that went over the second apron either won a championship that year or was positioned to win one two years out.
What we don’t know is how things might have turned out if those particular teams avoided going into it that year.
Any predictions on whether KAT opts out before next Monday’s deadline? Seems pretty likely.
there’s close to zero chance he does this
I think the goal should be getting Josh down to $15 million (or preferably less) next year with his extension and then signing Deuce starting around $10-$14 million which seems more than fair and in line with the money that players like Eason, Gillespie, AJ Green, Alexander-Walker, Isaiah Joe, etc. signed for. Maybe make Deuce’s a shorter extension of 2-3 years instead of 4 or a player option in the final year to give him another payday before he turns 30.
If we did that we could potentially resign Towns starting at up to around $52 million and still slide under the apron I believe. that would be around 4/223 for towns which feels like a fair top end for the Knicks. Starting at $50 million would be around 4/214 which would be even better and would be the opening offer that I would push for when negotiations start.
Preseason doesn’t mean much. We’re running full lineup shifts right now with neither KAT or Brunson on the floor alongside the backups. We played only 571 minutes like that between the playoffs and regular season.
A lot of things will click into place when you have a star scorer on the court all 48 minutes. Even OG or Mikal make for better scorers than our backups.
Thing is, there are pretty equal arguments both for and against keeping KAT.
Sure, his contract was already bloated when we traded for him, which is why he costed us very little. And you could definitely argue that he’s not a true #1 guy.
But on the other hand, how many guys at his position (center) boast his full offensive skill set? Maybe 3? And if you add in his improved defense, that’s a really hard player to replicate, even if you bring in a top center like Kessler, Duren or Okongwu.
Honestly, I think KAT’s more crucial to our success than it may seem at first blush.
Then we’d have KAT and Josh under control for two more seasons.
Seems like a great outcome to me!
Just sign Deuce and start the season. We can deal with the second apron when we’re actually over it.
This thing is so stupid. Why are we trying to lock these guys up til they’re 36 years old just to get a discount on one season???
Not sure why KAT would give up the certainty of getting $61M next season without another deal lined up or a deadline to opt-out.
The answer, of course, is Dolan’s razor.
Dude wants to saddle the team with 5 years worth of overpriced contracts just to avoid one season over the second apron.
I love you hubie ❤️
try to keep the main thing the main thing, kids are highly resilient…your love for your son is everything…
stay clear, keep it all as simple as possible…
use us…
The reason to lock in Hart for 4 years would purely be about retaining Deuce.
Hart is worth maybe slightly more than his team option. He’s taking an immediate paycut that you’re making up to him at the tail end when he’s overpaid and the window is closed anyway.
At under $20M when guys are making $60M, the deal can probably be moved regardless of how poorly Hart plays.
With Towns, I’m fine letting him opt in and signing him to a deal based on his market for his age 33-36 season. There’s no rush with him.
Can’ he opt in at any point? I thought the deadline was only about being able to sign an extension before the season’s end…and he can opt in or out then…
That’s how we’re looking at it.
But I’ve heard people like Windsorst and Lowe suggest Hart’s number will be higher than his option, which would make it not about Deuce at all.
kat can opt in at any point. the “deadline” does not force him to opt out unless they agree on a deal, at which point he can simultaneously opt-out and extend. there is no reason to decide anything by oct 19. the only difference is they can no longer opt-in and extend. he will wait.
I hate AI so much…
ME: does towns have a Monday deadline to opt in or out of his player option?
HAL: Yes. Karl-Anthony Towns has until October 19, 2026, to decide whether to exercise his $61 million player option for the 2027–28 season. That’s an unusually early deadline, negotiated into his contract
ME: I think you’re wrong. Please check again. Provide two sources.
HAL: Confirmed. October 19th is the relevant deadline. ONE IMPORTANT CLARFICATION. October 19 is the deadline to decline the option for purposes of preserving in-season extension eligibility—not necessarily the final deadline to exercise the option itself.
ME: So Monday is not the deadline to exercise his player option.
HAL: Correct. My original answer was incorrect.
Ah, my wording was clumsy. I meant that it seemed pretty likely that he wouldn’t opt in by the deadline, not that he would “officially” opt out.
Imagine if Leon traded KAT a week after the parade to Atlanta for Okongwu, NAW and unprotected 1st and then he signed Mitch to the same deal he got at Boston.
That’s three very valuable players & perfect team fits for $45m. This leaves a $12 million spending cushion from KATs $57m + an uprotected 1st left to trade for another high level bench veteran. This team would have been be a legit contender. ATL just watched KAT tear them to shreds & NAW unable to score on Mikal so they would have likely went along too.
I’m not crazy about paying Hart for that long on a raise. The only justification would be that we promised him a bigger 2nd deal if he helped us stay under the cap earlier or this is a favor to Brunson.
He’s probably worth a little more than his team option, but a questionable shooter who depends on footspeed is not a great candidate to age well.
EPM
Mitch +1.8
NAW + 1.6
Okongwu +0.2
Total +3.6
Towns +4.6
That’s a lot better than the Sengun idea, but imagine if we just resigned Mitch and kept Sergio De Larrea.
Yes, imagine if we traded some chrome and leather for a bag of nuts and bolts. We’d be unstoppable!
Lol…I was for keeping Mitch becuase I get his value and under rated status but can’t justfy paying $100m+ to just keep Mitch for one year. Come on man, have to be real.
It was either sacrifice KAT or Mitch and KAT won. Next year, KAT will cost us Mikal too because Deuce alone won’t do it.
In isolation I agree.
Disagree.
Last time I checked the Knicks were +945 to win the championship without Mitch. That’s around 9% when you factor in the Bookmaker’s profit (maybe a little less).
How much do people think retaining Mitch would have increased our chances?
Consider the injury risks, being unplayable at times in the playoffs and also consider the possibilty we will still improve the backup C position before the deadline.
I’m not smart enough to do that calculation, but if I say 2% that’s probably too much. It’s probably closer to 1%.
So everyone has their panties in a bunch over 1% and thinks it was a no brainer to do that deal and lose trade flexibilty at the deadline, pay a pile of additional taxes, start the clock running this year insetad of later on more severe loss of flexibility that potentially actually incinerates a pick?
I’m not buying it.
This is not my area of expertise, but I’ve heard multiple analysts whose opinions I respect (there are very few) say they were questioning the deal Boston gave to Mitch without any of these downsides.
IMO Mitch is a big to-do about almost nuthin and the Towns situation will be dealt with. I think the chances of Towns leaving are so low it’s about 10th on my list of things to worry about this year.
I’m way more worried about other things.
1. The west has improved with the new players drafted and an extra year of experience for some of the younger players.
2. The east has improved sharply for the same reasons and because a few injured star plays are back and couple of very good players shifted east.
3. I am worried about backup PF now that Diawara has become more of a question mark in my mind.
4. I am worried about the Knicks getting up as high this year after already winning the title.
In an ideal world, we’d still have a healthy Mitch, but that’s not going to be the reason we lose, assuming we lose.
It was much less than $100M, and I do think you can justify the tax for fielding the best team possible. It’s not all for Mitch just bc he’s the last guy.
Oh Hubert, that is a tough situation you’re facing, i’m sending you strength from the other side of the atlantic. Sometimes it’s good to talk about things to people that are not close to the situation, so if you need to talk, i’ll be here.
I appreciate all the kind words fellas. We’re doing well down here. I do miss me some fall, though.
KAT really doesn’t get the respect he deserves. Maybe this is also a reason why he doesn’t want to take a considerable paycut.
I’ll be down mid-November if you wanna catch a babka, Hubert. Forged in iron, friend.
I think those of us that are angry about the 2nd apron aren’t just looking at this summer and Mitchell Robinson. Looking at our cap sheet, I don’t see a realistic way to keep most of the team together unless everyone who’s going to sign an extension, including Brunson, takes some steep discounts from what they could get on the open market. Both Brunson and OG are extension eligible next year; outside of dumping one of our starters for a much smaller contract what is going to be the plan anyway?
I can imagine lots of things but KAT makes $57M and NAW/Okongwu make a combined $30.5M so Atlanta would need to add another $25M or $26M to get the salaries to work for that trade.
Always down for babka, Clarence. There’s another great bakery here on Key Biscayne — Flour & Weirdoughs.
What did E say?
He never said anything. He hasn’t been on for a while.
Wiseman and scrubs starting.
Wiseman outrebounded by RJ smdh.
And then a Wiseman turnover.
Lookin pretty bad out there!
“Wiseman and scrubs starting.”
Deuce started. Not a regular starter, but not a scrub, either.
How did I know you were going to point that out?
Starting lineup:
Alvarado
Deuce
Brown
Diawara
Wiseman
Everyone not named Alvarado and Deuce look like shit.
Alvarado’s not a scrub, either. Brown and Wiseman, yes. Diawara, we have no idea yet.
“How did I know you were going to point that out?”
I dunno. It’s simply a true statement.
Hubert, best of luck in Florida. I’m sure in some ways you don’t like the idea of living there, but you never know. I lived in Xiamen, China for a year and a half. I didn’t know much about the city when I moved there, but I ended up liking it a lot and would be happy to live there again. I’m a northeastern US guy. The prospect of liking a city at the same latitude as Key West never occurred to me. (I went for the job. Turns the city was better than the job.). I’m telling this story because sometimes when life throws you curves, it turns out better than you expect. I hope that is the case for you.
New set of scrubs come in.
Eubanks looks so much better than Wiseman, it’s not even funny.
Better for Mo. But we need more, a *lot* more.
Lol Bruce Brown has a visible Denver Nuggets tattoo.
Why the fuck do we have a back to back in the preseason?
Just go with Eubanks. He’s fine. As a third center he’d be the best one we’ve had here in quite a while, which may be damning with faint praise but is also probably true. Wiseman looks perpetually confused out there.
I have no ability to be unbiased on the topic of Bruce Brown. Him and I were at Miami at almost the exact same time, and he’s a cherished alumnus in general. I’ve wanted him to be a Knick since then.
…that said, I do like the idea of him playing off KAT for backdoor cuts, a la his role on the 2023 Nuggets vis-a-vis Jokic.
It’s worth being clear about this: we lost trade flexibility when Mitch left.
Yes, we now technically have the ability to aggregate contracts in a trade, but what are the potential contracts we’d aggregate outside of a trade in which we’d be looking to…replace Mitch, with someone almost certainly worse than him?
If we had Mitch, we’d at least have the kind of midsize salary that typically facilitates trades. Now we’re down to guys who make bupkis and guys who make $20M+. We have very, very little “trade flexibility.”
This is very tough to watch.
Don’t worry, Z. It’s all fake basketball. I think if someone did a study they would find that the worse the preseason record, the better the actual record. Not as a rule, but the correlation wouldn’t be that small, either. The teams who don’t need to try…….don’t try.
I’ll take more eubanks please…
in comparison to wiseman, there is no comparison…
Seconded (actually thirded) on Eubanks over Wiseman. He sucks a bit less.
I actually though Bradley did pretty well at center.
Bradley wasn’t horrible, but Eubanks has a much more proven track record of not being trash.
I’m still processing the fact that Kyrie effin Irving played (and played well) in a preseason game the other night. I literally keep forgetting that guy exists. Anthony Davis hasn’t played in preseason, has he? I know Trae Young has.
I keep seeing Wiseman in position for a rebound and not getting it
if the mavs are as bad as folks think they will be, kyrie could really help a contender…a lot…
Wiseman says “hold my beer, Eubie.”
Knicks actually won the third quarter.
Haven’t watched the game, but Mr. Boxscore says Wiseman has scored 16 pts in 17+ minutes, along with 5 rebounds (and 3 turnovers). Reads like a decent game…
That is a good point about Wiseman. By the eye test, Wiseman was fine on offense. On defense, I wasn’t impressed, but his +/- on a per minutes basis isn’t bad compared to the whole team’s performance. Maybe he’s better than I thought.
wiseman just looks like mikal in that he’s contact adverse…
I’m not smart enough to do that calculation, but if I say 2% that’s probably too much. It’s probably closer to 1%.
marginal championship equity for a mid level contract is always going to be modest, and taking one year of championship-only equity isn’t going to be the best way to look at the cost. if mitch brought trophy odds from 9 to 11pct, that’s a 22% improvement for a team with close to no options to find that improvement elsewhere. and championships are not the only thing that matters. it’s more fun to win early round playoff games than lose them. just ask the hawks fan who sat next to me at game and couldn’t get to their until it was 43-15. if you boiled every three year contract down to 1 year of absolute championship odds, no contender would ever sign a non-max player.
mitch is of course a big health risk but the contract is also an asset. the knicks would have a ton of optionality to get out of the second apron restrictions that really bit, even in a bad mitch case. if you’re not the kind of person who likes to suck the ink of the cba for fun, it’s easy to get caught up in the second apron ultraviolet catastrophe story that many teams are happily pushing out. it’s not impossible to screw yourself, but the knicks would have a ton of optionality to avoid the bad basketball outcomes even if mitch had gone south at 3/47.
good vibes to alan and hubs. as the similarly not so young parent of a grade schooler, i think every extra day of custody easily passes the shitty jurisdiction bar, unlike certain press secretaries.
great now I got dolan on repeat in my head haughtily proclaiming over and over again that going over the 2nd apron is suicide…
sounded way overly dramatic in the moment…now just sounds stupid…
Nope, it was already stupid when he said it.
Wiseman looked mostly G-League material to me, Moses Brown level. He just has no quick twitch spark to his game. Seems partially mental (slow processing of all the variables in a given dynamic situation) and physical (can’t seem to fire his upper and/or lower body in any meaningful way until it is too late.) I keyed on him quite a bit, and it seems like he never gets a 50-50 ball, like, ever. The 80-20 balls become 50-50 balls with him.
Sure, he can catch and finish a lob, but it seems to me that whatever positive he does, he gives it back on the other end and then some. It makes the consistently god-awful plus-minus and on/off stats make total sense.
I wouldn’t mind figuring a way to stash him in the G-League (he’s not 2-way eligible) and see if there’s any development with extensive reps down there. But right now, he seems totally useless. Trace Jackson-Davis looked light years better than him.
true, it also sounded theatrical when he first said it…luke when someone is bluffing and full of bullshit…
Sacramento is 0-3 in the preseason and currently lising big to Portland without playing some of their starters. That puts them in the sand boat as us, OKC and San Antonio. For tgeir sake I hope that similarity carries through to their regular season.
did your thumbs suddenly double in size 😊
for whatever reason whenever I’m on my phone i’m hitting the spacebar instead of the letter n 10 out of 10 times…even while intensely thinking hit the n, hit the n…nope, I’ll end up with a bunch of text, missing the letter n…oh well…
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