It’s a question New York Knicks fans and longtime owner James Dolan have to ask themselves: Who do you want running the Knicks: Leon Rose the agent or Leon Rose the exec?
Because this Knicks team faces some difficult decisions this summer, and the most seismic ones revolve around clients of CAA, the agency that Rose used to run, starting with Karl-Anthony Towns.
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Rose’s deep ties to CAA, as I detailed in depth in October, helped push New York to the doorstep of the NBA Finals. Before the season, the Knicks president most notably acquired Towns, who was once Rose’s top-earning client among a star-studded fleet of athletes when Rose was an agent.
Among league insiders, the Knicks’ loyalty to CAA has been one of the strongest undercurrents of the NBA landscape. The Knicks spent more money toward one player agency than any team in the NBA this season, funneling nearly $130 million to CAA clients Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson. The ties between Towns and William “Worldwide Wes” Wesley, Rose’s right-hand man in the Knicks’ front office, go back over a decade. And then there’s the future of Tom Thibodeau, another long-time CAA client, who expertly engineered a series win over the Boston Celtics, but fell short of the NBA Finals for the 10th time in 10 postseason appearances as an NBA head coach.
Upgrading the Knicks will test those time-honored bonds. If the franchise wants to end the fifth-longest active title drought in the NBA, it will probably mean parting with one or more of those cherished clients.
It almost certainly would be the case if they want any chance in a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes this summer.
The Knicks’ Big Five was exposed against the Pacers. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
(Gregory Shamus via Getty Images)
The Towns conundrum
It’s clear that Towns, a Jersey native, wears the Knicks’ orange-and-blue jersey with pride. He powered through a knee injury in the Eastern Conference finals, averaging 24.8 points and 12.2 rebounds while keeping his foul tendencies in check for much of the series. His scoring surges, particularly in Game 5, carried the Knicks for long stretches.
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But he couldn’t defend. The Indiana Pacers preyed on the glaring weakness all series. He was noticeably absent in transition. On the perimeter, he was hopeless. In the paint, he was punchless. In the six games, the 7-foot Towns registered one block. It’s the first time since blocks became an official stat in the 1970s that a center registered one block or fewer in the conference finals while playing at least 200 minutes in the series, per Stathead.com tracking. That can’t happen.
All season long, Towns anchored the Knicks’ vaunted starting lineup featuring Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Hart, and Anunoby, but the Pacers absolutely shredded them in the Eastern Conference finals. So much so that the notoriously stubborn Thibodeau was forced to pull the plug and move Mitchell Robinson into the starting lineup in Game 3.
The fact is the Knicks just spent $152 million on a lineup that yielded the second-worst defense in the conference finals since NBA lineup tracking began in 2008. The lineup of Brunson, Bridges, Hart, Anunoby and Towns hemorrhaged 126.1 points per 100 possessions to the Pacers, the second-most points allowed per possession among the 63 lineups with at least 50 minutes played in the past 18 conference finals.
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The only conference finals lineup that was torched to a larger degree was the 2016 Toronto Raptors defense — a lineup that was promptly overhauled the following offseason. It’s hard to imagine the Knicks avoiding a similar overhaul and still getting to the Finals one day. This season, the Knicks’ Big Five made a collective $152 million, making it one of the most expensive units in the league. Next season, the bill will only swell more, when the Knicks will pay out $172 million to keep together that five-man group, which was outscored by a collective 31 points this postseason.
The root of the problem is that Brunson and Towns are one-way superstars. To get to the Finals, a team can cover up one of those defensive liabilities, but it’s almost impossible to hide both. It’s easier to shield a point guard on that end of the floor, but not a 7-footer who plays like he’s a foot shorter. As a reminder, Towns went the entire conference finals last year without registering a single block — and the Wolves subsequently traded away their former No. 1 overall draft pick.
And so Rose and the Knicks will have to think long and hard about breaking up their Big Five. Here are three trade proposals to consider this summer.
The Giannis trade
New York receives: Giannis Antetokounmpo
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Milwaukee receives: Karl-Anthony Towns, Tyler Kolek, Washington’s 2026 protected first-round draft pick and two first-round pick swaps (2026 and 2030).
You thought convincing Brunson to take a sweetheart deal was hard? That’s nothing compared to what Rose would have to do to force his way into a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes and win it.
Convincing the two-time MVP that the Knicks are the go-to destination for him — without tampering, of course! — is the only way a trade gets done. Because Antetokounmpo certainly won’t be traded to the Knicks because they have the best trade offer.
Here’s the pitch: Is there a clearer path to the Finals than on a Knicks team with Brunson?
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Think about it. Antetokounmpo is an ideal complementary star for the offensively…
Tom Haberstroh
