The New York Knicks finally ended a 53-year championship drought. Now comes the harder task: keeping a title-winning roster together in an NBA increasingly designed to break contenders apart. While Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the rest of New York’s core remain under contract, looming extension talks and the league’s restrictive second-apron rules have already turned the Knicks’ offseason into one of the NBA’s biggest storylines.

Appearing on The Stephen A. Smith Show on Saturday, former Knicks guard Jeremy Lin made it clear where he stands on that debate. “I think you got to keep the core intact,” Lin said. “They have something great going and they’ve really figured that out. So your first five, I don’t think should be touched.”

Lin has also been one of Brunson’s biggest public supporters throughout New York’s title run. Speaking to Melissa Rohlin during the Finals, Lin said, “I don’t think enough people are talking about him giving up $113 million to build a team full of players that want to win. I think that speaks volumes.”

In July 2024, Jalen Brunson signed a four-year, $156.5 million extension instead of waiting for a larger max contract. By doing so, he reportedly left roughly $113 million on the table compared to what he could have earned by waiting for free agency. He added that he does not regret taking the discount because it helped the Knicks build a contender around him.

That sacrifice became one of the defining decisions behind New York’s championship run. The additional flexibility helped the Knicks retain OG Anunoby, complete the trade for Mikal Bridges and absorb Karl-Anthony Towns’ contract, allowing the front office to build one of the league’s deepest starting lineups.

However, the biggest question facing New York is the NBA’s second apron. Knicks owner James Dolan recently said he does not intend to go into the second apron just to keep the entire championship roster together. That comment caused a frenzy throughout the league because several key rotation players are due for new contracts.

Dolan’s concern goes beyond simply writing a larger tax check. Teams above the second apron face severe roster-building restrictions, including losing access to certain trade mechanisms, limitations on combining salaries in deals and future draft-pick penalties that can restrict long-term flexibility.

The challenge facing New York is hardly unique. The Denver Nuggets lost key championship contributors such as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as second-apron concerns reshaped their payroll, while several contenders across the league have prioritized financial flexibility over roster continuity. The Knicks are now confronting the same balancing act between keeping a title team together and maintaining long-term flexibility.

The Bigger Problem: Whether New York Can Even Afford to Keep What It Has Around Brunson

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the biggest question facing the Knicks this offseason isn’t whether Karl-Anthony Towns returns. Rather, it’s whether he’s willing to sacrifice money to keep the team’s core together for the long term. Towns is eligible to decline his $61 million player option and sign a four-year extension worth close to $272 million, a deal that would pay him roughly $70 million a season.

Windhorst suggested the challenge isn’t whether Towns deserves a max extension, but whether giving him one would make roster continuity impossible. “I don’t know if they’d be able to keep the team together,” he said while discussing the financial implications of a full-value extension.

James Dolan already told WFAN’s Carton Show that operating in the NBA’s second tax apron is something “you’d have to be suicidal to do.” “I’ll write as big a check as possible,” Dolan said, “but I can’t write a check that goes into the second apron.”

That ceiling was why Windhorst, per ESPN’s Get Up, framed the solution the way he did: “If Karl Towns is willing to take a little bit of a haircut, $7 to $10 million over the course of multiple seasons, and Josh Hart is also extension eligible this summer, and both of them are willing to take a little bit of a haircut, you could see this core staying together for three, four, five years.”

Complicating the picture further, Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill reported that the Knicks’ decision not to extend Towns last offseason has reportedly stuck with him. Some fans saw it as a frustration that may have contributed to his early-season inconsistency before he settled into the best stretch of his career during the title run.

That dynamic only adds another layer to the negotiations. Towns is coming off the most successful season of his Knicks tenure and is eligible for a deal worth nearly $272 million. While New York would prefer a team-friendly structure similar to Brunson’s, Towns enters talks with significantly more leverage after helping deliver the franchise’s first championship in more than five decades.

While keeping Brunson and the core intact remains the priority, the next biggest offseason decision may involve Mitchell Robinson. Robinson is a free agent and remains one of the team’s most important defensive players. Multiple reports indicate re-signing him is a major priority, but doing so could push the Knicks closer to or beyond key apron thresholds.

Lin’s recommendation sounds simple: keep the core together and improve the bench around it. The reality is far more complicated. Brunson already made a historic financial sacrifice to help build a contender, but the Knicks now face difficult decisions involving Towns, Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson as they try to stay competitive without crossing ownership’s financial red line. Lin’s advice was simple: keep the championship core together. Whether New York can actually afford to follow it is the question that will define the franchise’s offseason.