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The New York Knicks have earned the right to have a quiet offseason. Champions get to do what they want. Yet, the 7-foot elephant in the room still looms over New York as it continues to take its laps around the dog days of the NBA calendar.

Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns is eligible for a four-year, $272 million contract extension. That is the most that the soon-to-be 31-year-old can receive from the Knicks. Towns was extension eligible last offseason. However, nothing came to fruition between the two sides. Towns will make just over $57 million this coming season and has a player option worth just over $61 million the following year before his contract expires.

One thing I’m certain of is that New York’s decision-makers will offer Towns an extension. What I’m not certain of, and don’t expect, is whether the cash-conscious Knicks will offer him a max contract.

It’s been well-documented how much Jalen Brunson left on the table to secure his future while giving New York the flexibility to build the team that hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy just a few months ago. Brunson’s sacrifice, which helped lead the Knicks to their first NBA title in 53 years, has now become a talking point in the NBA sphere.

Should stars give up money like Brunson to win? Victor Wembanyama recently left money on the table.

Now, Towns finds himself in a similar position to the one Brunson was in a few years ago, and the fact that the two are teammates casts somewhat of an unfair spotlight on the three-time All-NBA selection.

Here, from the vantage point of the suits in New York, I’m going to look at the pros and cons of giving Towns a max extension.

Pros

Towns, in theory, deserves it

Say what you want about big men not aging well, his difficulties fitting in under head coach Mike Brown and the strategy behind not giving players max contracts, but the Knicks became title contenders when Towns arrived in Manhattan. I’m not saying he’s the sole reason — please don’t think I’m saying that. However, he’s been a big reason why New York entered a different echelon the last two seasons.

In Towns’ first season with the Knicks, New York made its first Eastern Conference finals appearance in a quarter century. This year, well, yeah … we know what happened.

Towns surely recognizes that organizations should, at some point, reward winning players. Despite the label that’s been attached to him, Towns has reached at least the conference finals in each of the last three seasons, including the Western Conference finals in his final year in Minnesota. He’s a winner.

Players should try to get as much money as possible. It’s not Towns’ fault that the system is set up this way. Brunson is going to eventually get rewarded financially for his previous sacrifice.

Just because Brunson took less money doesn’t mean Towns has to. The circumstances are different. Brunson crawled so everyone else could run, and now the Knicks have the roster and a chance to win another title or two over the next two seasons. Who cares if they’re in jeopardy of breaking up the team three or four years from now because Towns got a max extension? Also, owner James Dolan should consider going into the second apron for as long as this team has a chance to win. If he was willing to do that, then this wouldn’t be as interesting of a conversation.

How does a team make one of its best players happy, someone who played a massive role in changing how the franchise and these decision-makers may be talked about forever? Pay him as much as they can and ride off into the sunset with the (majority of the) team that broke the mold. Deal with the consequences after.

Other players might take notice

Now that conversations are bubbling up about star players — in their primes — sacrificing money in this second-apron world to possibly compete for a title, surely players would acknowledge a franchise willing to pay players who got it done, right?

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when the Knicks struggled to land marquee free agents (well, players who were considered marquee names at the time of their free agency). Many fans still feel the pain of missing out on LeBron James, Kevin Durant, etc.

Two ways to capture the attention of potential players are to have a winning environment and show a willingness to reward players for succeeding.

Giving Towns a max extension could open the eyes of players the Knicks might have interest in down the line, or at the very least garner their respect. It also shows the players in the building that winning gets rewarded financially.

Cons

Loss of flexibility

This, in my opinion, will ultimately be the biggest factor if New York’s brass doesn’t offer Towns the max extension.

Since president Leon Rose took over, he and his staff have routinely put themselves in a position to pivot, whether by being financially smart or stockpiling draft picks to make a move. There’s a world where that approach doesn’t change just because the franchise won a title. Instead, the Knicks could look to maintain their contender status while reshuffling the deck if Towns is unwilling to sign a deal for decently less than his max.

Dolan doesn’t want his team in the second apron. That was made evident by New York losing Mitchell Robinson in free agency to the Boston Celtics. If Towns signs a max extension, Brunson doesn’t take another discount when he’s extension-eligible, and Josh Hart gets a decent-sized extension this summer or next, it would be impossible in the near future for the Knicks to avoid the second apron and all its penalties while keeping their core intact. OG Anunoby has three years (third year is a player option) left on his contract that will pay him over $40 million each season. Mikal Bridges signed an extension recently that will pay him in the mid-$30 million range over the next few seasons.

I don’t mind the idea of running with the same championship core until it’s clear the wheels have fallen off, especially in a place like New York, where this cast of characters will be idolized for eternity. However, I can also understand why people whose job is to put a winning team on the floor could be uneasy with not being able to make significant tweaks here and there.

Will Towns age well?

This and loss of flexibility could be packaged together. Towns will be 31 shortly after the season starts. That’s not old, but the back half of a max extension gets dicey in basketball years.

Towns isn’t as explosive as he was when he entered the league, but he hasn’t shown any major athletic decline recently. With that said, Towns had procedures on his knees not too long ago.

Listen, it wouldn’t be crazy for the Knicks’ brass to think Towns might not be worth all of that money in two years. Big men don’t tend to age well, even if Towns is a rare species of big man. It would be understandable for New York’s suits to want to hedge their bet a little, sign Towns on a deal less than his max and give themselves some wiggle room in case he starts to decline in the back half of his deal.

Conclusion

It all comes down to this: Will the Knicks prioritize the player more than the strategy? The former would be a slight departure from the latter.

Towns has done everything to warrant getting the most money possible. And on the other side, New York’s decision-makers have earned the right to be as flexible as possible because doing so led to a title in the same way Towns’ play did.

Maybe Towns is willing to take less money and everyone is happy. That would be a win-win. However, if Towns wants all the money he can get, no one should blame him. He’s got a limited time to earn as much as possible as a professional athlete. Players are human, too. Conversely, Towns shouldn’t feel slighted if the Knicks don’t offer him the max. It’s the business, and just like he has a job to do, so do the people making roster and financial decisions.