![\"Karl-Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2257640134-e1769123318171.jpg\")
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Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks in action against the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n
The New York Knicks<\/a> are not actively shopping Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>, despite a wave of trade speculation that followed one of the team\u2019s lowest moments of the season.<\/p>\n SNY\u2019s NBA<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I checked around on this Monday, and everything that I gathered was that the Knicks are not having conversations about trading Karl-Anthony Towns,\u201d Begley said<\/a>\u00a0on The Putback. \u201cAs of Monday, it was not happening. So, as far as something in the aftermath of that Dallas loss, no, that wasn\u2019t the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Begley added that the calculus could change if the Knicks were to endure another prolonged collapse before the Feb. 5 trade deadline.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if you see another two-and-nine stretch, or something like that, ahead of the trade deadline, that\u2019s where you start to consider, if you\u2019re the Knicks, \u2018Hey, we have to shake something up here and do something significant,\u2019\u201d Begley said.<\/p>\n How the Karl-Anthony Towns Trade Chatter Began<\/p>\n The rumors gained traction after Newsday\u2019s Steve Popper reported that Towns\u2019 name had surfaced in league discussions following New York\u2019s dispiriting 114\u201397 home loss to the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> on Monday, a game in which the Knicks were routinely booed by their own fans.<\/p>\n \u201cHis name surfaced when the Bucks<\/a> and Knicks discussed the chance of a deal involving Giannis Antetokounmpo,\u201d Popper wrote<\/a>, \u201cbut now league sources said that talks have involved other teams including Memphis, Orlando and Charlotte.\u201d<\/p>\n The report fueled questions about Towns\u2019 long-term future with the Knicks, particularly given the team\u2019s rough 2\u20139 stretch that had exposed broader issues within the locker room.<\/p>\n Knicks Respond With Historic Win Over Nets<\/p>\n Any sense of crisis was temporarily quieted Wednesday night.<\/p>\n The Knicks snapped their four-game losing streak in emphatic fashion, delivering the largest victory in franchise history with a 120\u201366 rout of the Brooklyn Nets<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The dominant win offered a reminder of the upside the Knicks believe still exists with Towns anchoring their frontcourt.<\/p>\n Tension With Mike Brown Under the Microscope<\/p>\n 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\u2019s skid.<\/p>\n Those tensions came into sharper focus following New York\u2019s 126\u2013113 loss to the Golden State Warriors<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n According to ESPN\u2019s Ramona Shelburne, Brown\u2019s postgame interaction with Warriors forward Draymond Green<\/a>\u00a0did not sit well with Knicks players or some within the organization.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom what I understand, that did not land well with a lot of folks there in New York,\u201d Shelburne said<\/a>\u00a0on NBA Today. \u201cIn that locker room or even in the organization. While you can understand why he might have a bond with Draymond Green, I don\u2019t think that landed well, especially in the middle of a losing streak.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown served as Golden State\u2019s associate head coach from 2016 to 2022, winning three NBA championships alongside Green and Stephen Curry<\/a>. While the familiarity made sense from Brown\u2019s perspective, the optics were more complicated for a Knicks team struggling to find footing.<\/p>\n Draymond Incident Adds Fuel to the Fire<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 a play that immediately drew scrutiny.<\/p>\n Brown downplayed the moment afterward, focusing instead on Towns\u2019 foul trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cDraymond, that\u2019s how he plays, he\u2019s always going to be intense,\u201d Brown told reporters<\/a>. \u201cI didn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The comments sparked criticism from fans, including Knicks superfan and Emmy Award-winning actor Ben Stiller.<\/p>\n \u201cKAT got dragged by an illegal Embiid-type non-basketball play pull down on his ankle that could have injured him,\u201d Stiller wrote<\/a> on X. \u201cWould have been disastrous if that happened. Would love to see our coach stand up for his big man.\u201d<\/p>\n Knicks Choose Stability, For Now<\/p>\n Begley\u2019s report suggests the Knicks remain committed to Towns, viewing him as part of their core rather than trade bait.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s historic win did not erase the turbulence of the past two weeks, but it did provide a timely reset \u2014 and a reminder that, barring another collapse, New York is not yet ready to pull the plug on its All-Star center experiment.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAlder Almo<\/a> is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy.com. He has more than 20 years of experience in local and international media, including broadcast, print and digital. He previously covered the Knicks for Empire Sports Media and the NBA for Off the Glass. Alder is from the Philippines and is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey. More about Alder Almo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks in action against the Brooklyn Nets. The New York Knicks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-252718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}