The Knicks' long march to the second apron

New York is two seasons away from apparent salary cap hell. But it's already impacting the team negatively. Can they survive the hike intact?

Good morning. Glad to know the U.S. Senate can really focus on the big priorities went they want to. Let's basketball.

The New York Knicks won the NBA championship, and nothing that happens next can take that away from them. (A Clippers-style investigation into Jalen Brunson's below-market extension might try. But there's been zero evidence anything goofy was going on there.) But James Dolan's early mandate that the team not hit the second apron – a declaration made before some Knicks and Knicks fans had even properly slept following the Finals – is providing almost instantaneous clouds on the horizon.

To wit: two of the five starters – one of them the team's second-biggest star, and the other the best friend of the team's biggest star – came into Knicks' Media Day on Monday both seemingly annoyed that extensions don't appear to be in the cards before opening night. The Athletic's Fred Katz has a good story on this. Karl-Anthony Towns was asked if he'd be comfortable with extension talks continuing into the season, and said "there is no comfortability to be had." Josh Hart, in a similar situation, said "there will probably be a little extra weight to the jersey."

The first casualty of the Knicks' salary cap woes is already gone: the team didn't even try to retain Mitchell Robinson, the most valuable non-starter on the team, this summer. From The Athletic's James Edwards III, here's Towns' reaction to that:

“I was very surprised that Mitch wasn’t going to be back here with us,” Towns said. “I think all of us were, so it was a surprise to everybody. Thought something would get done there, but like you said, we have Andre (Drummond), someone I’ve respected a lot from afar and someone that I’ve been a fan of. 

Robinson get dumped off at the airport due to salary cap constraints followed by extension hardball. That's a wake-up call.