Karl-Anthony Towns, Knicks
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Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks in action against the Brooklyn Nets.
The New York Knicks are not actively shopping Karl-Anthony Towns, despite a wave of trade speculation that followed one of the team’s lowest moments of the season.
SNY’s NBA insider Ian Begley reported Thursday that, as of earlier this week, New York was not engaged in conversations about moving its five-time All-Star center.
“So, I checked around on this Monday, and everything that I gathered was that the Knicks are not having conversations about trading Karl-Anthony Towns,” Begley said on The Putback. “As of Monday, it was not happening. So, as far as something in the aftermath of that Dallas loss, no, that wasn’t the case.”
Begley added that the calculus could change if the Knicks were to endure another prolonged collapse before the Feb. 5 trade deadline.
“I think if you see another two-and-nine stretch, or something like that, ahead of the trade deadline, that’s where you start to consider, if you’re the Knicks, ‘Hey, we have to shake something up here and do something significant,’” Begley said.
How the Karl-Anthony Towns Trade Chatter Began
The rumors gained traction after Newsday’s Steve Popper reported that Towns’ name had surfaced in league discussions following New York’s dispiriting 114–97 home loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, a game in which the Knicks were routinely booed by their own fans.
“His name surfaced when the Bucks and Knicks discussed the chance of a deal involving Giannis Antetokounmpo,” Popper wrote, “but now league sources said that talks have involved other teams including Memphis, Orlando and Charlotte.”
The report fueled questions about Towns’ long-term future with the Knicks, particularly given the team’s rough 2–9 stretch that had exposed broader issues within the locker room.
Knicks Respond With Historic Win Over Nets
Any sense of crisis was temporarily quieted Wednesday night.
The Knicks snapped their four-game losing streak in emphatic fashion, delivering the largest victory in franchise history with a 120–66 rout of the Brooklyn Nets.
Towns played a steady, efficient role in the rebound performance, finishing with 14 points and eight rebounds on 5-of-8 shooting in just 20 minutes. He posted a plus-21 as New York overwhelmed Brooklyn from the opening tip.
The dominant win offered a reminder of the upside the Knicks believe still exists with Towns anchoring their frontcourt.
Tension With Mike Brown Under the Microscope
The trade chatter surrounding Towns has been amplified by his uneven season under first-year head coach Mike Brown, who has publicly questioned his effort at times and presided over a locker room that showed visible cracks during the team’s skid.
Those tensions came into sharper focus following New York’s 126–113 loss to the Golden State Warriors last week.
According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Brown’s postgame interaction with Warriors forward Draymond Green did not sit well with Knicks players or some within the organization.
“From what I understand, that did not land well with a lot of folks there in New York,” Shelburne said on NBA Today. “In that locker room or even in the organization. While you can understand why he might have a bond with Draymond Green, I don’t think that landed well, especially in the middle of a losing streak.”
Brown served as Golden State’s associate head coach from 2016 to 2022, winning three NBA championships alongside Green and Stephen Curry. While the familiarity made sense from Brown’s perspective, the optics were more complicated for a Knicks team struggling to find footing.
Draymond Incident Adds Fuel to the Fire
The postgame optics were compounded by an on-court incident during the third quarter, when Green drew a flagrant foul after appearing to trip Towns — a play that immediately drew scrutiny.
Brown downplayed the moment afterward, focusing instead on Towns’ foul trouble.
“Draymond, that’s how he plays, he’s always going to be intense,” Brown told reporters. “I didn’t think it impacted us. But what I did feel was KAT picking up his fifth foul, and us having to sit him down, that hurt us.”
The comments sparked criticism from fans, including Knicks superfan and Emmy Award-winning actor Ben Stiller.
“KAT got dragged by an illegal Embiid-type non-basketball play pull down on his ankle that could have injured him,” Stiller wrote on X. “Would have been disastrous if that happened. Would love to see our coach stand up for his big man.”
Knicks Choose Stability, For Now
Begley’s report suggests the Knicks remain committed to Towns, viewing him as part of their core rather than trade bait.
Wednesday’s historic win did not erase the turbulence of the past two weeks, but it did provide a timely reset — and a reminder that, barring another collapse, New York is not yet ready to pull the plug on its All-Star center experiment.