Bobby Marks, a front office insider for ESPN who used to be an assistant GM with the NBA's Nets, generated great interest in the Twin Cities on Thursday when he tweeted about Karl-Anthony Towns and the possibility that he can earn $188 million on a five-year extension after being named third-team All-NBA.
Twitter isn't the best place for nuance, so a follow-up discussion with Marks generated more relevant information about NBA contract rules and how they pertain to both Towns and Jimmy Butler:
• At the baseline, Towns is eligible for a five-year, $156.5 million extension this summer (a figure that represents 25 percent of the salary cap). Being named All-NBA going into his extension does not guarantee his extension will escalate to $188 million; that's just the maximum number he could get. But Marks said it does provide a certain amount of leverage to Towns and his agent, Leon Rose, heading into negotiations.
"It didn't trigger anything [Thursday]," Marks said, "but it did set things in motion."
Rose also represents Joel Embiid, and when he negotiated Embiid's max extension last summer it included incentives that if he reached certain honors he could earn an additional $30 million. It wouldn't be surprising, Marks said, if Rose seeks a similar deal for Towns.
• If Towns is traded this summer — which most people, including Marks, still consider unlikely — he would still be eligible for the same type of contract extension with a new team.
The only way he would potentially lose money is by playing out his contract and reaching restricted free agency, because the Wolves can offer more in an extension than other teams can pony up in an offer sheet. Given all that, it sure seems likely Towns will sign an extension this summer.
• Butler, who was also named third team All-NBA, would have been eligible for a five-year, $219 million supermax extension in Chicago had he achieved the same thing with the Bulls. But because he was traded, he is not.
