Knicks Star Among Worst NBA Contracts

New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns is entering his second season with the team, which also happens to line up with a four-year, $222 million extension he signed in 2022 with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Now that he's a few years removed from signing the deal, the contract doesn't appear to be valued as well as it once was.

Bleacher Report writer Dan Favale listed Towns' deal as one of the worst in the league going into the 2025-26 campaign.

"Karl-Anthony Towns' production this past season—24.4 points and 12.8 rebounds per game, 42.0 percent shooting from deep—hardly screams "Overpaid!" But the limitations he imposes on team-building structures is real," Favale wrote.

"Clinging to his anomalous stretch 5 skill set gets you only so far. He's almost never taken enough threes, he spent this past season getting neutralized on possessions in which he was guarded by smaller players on the perimeter, and the New York Knicks are the second team to realize he's best served spending plenty of time next to another big who can cover up for his defensive deficiencies."

"Peak Towns is undoubtedly a superstar on offense. The frequency with which we see Peak Towns is more than occasional but not what you'd call consistent."

"Basically, shelling out this type of money shouldn't come with so many conditions about the surrounding ecosystem. Towns is very much a star with strings attached."

Towns turns 30 in November and is now a decade removed from being the No. 1 overall pick, so it's hard to see him being much better than his current output.

Granted, if he stays consistent with what he was able to do, it'll be hard to say he doesn't deserve what he's making.

That being said, Towns is viewed as the missing puzzle piece for a championship-level roster. Any season Towns doesn't win a championship with the Knicks will be considered a failure, and he'll be one to blame.