Monday Posted & Toasted Notes: Kat Sounds Off, Yearning Mike, Basketball Time!

Last time I checked, we were celebrating. Turns out, we’re now back to watching games take place again! Not Knicks on Friday Night, but hey, the boys can only play when they tell them to, and I won’t complain. Links and things today, quotes (probably) tomorrow.

• Karl-Anthony Towns made it very clear on Monday morning that he and the New York Knicks aren’t even remotely close to agreeing to a contract extension at this point.

“Simply put, I want to do something to keep the team together and can work with the Knicks and also values me. And none of those things are close to happening.

“(Reaching an agreement before the start of the regular season) doesn’t look good.

“No s–t Sherlock (an extension shouldn’t be understood as a reward for last season). I just won a championship. You’d think it was pretty easy. Unless you guys (reporters) think I have something else to prove.”

• Mike Brown is actively welcoming early-season adversity as the Knicks begin their title defense, and he’s “yearning for it.”
• Jose Alvarado got himself a street.
• Free post from Knicks Film School’s Jonathan Macri ahead of the preseason opener, in which he highlighted a bunch of things while discussing whether or not the Knicks can earn that No. 1 spot.
• More on that inside the newsletter, but here’s a summary for the lazy: the Knicks enter the season with the highest preseason over/under win total in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 1993, with sportsbooks setting them around 52.5 to 53.5 wins, but New York has finished with the East’s No. 1 seed only four times in franchise history and hasn’t done it since 1993. Something has to give, doesn’t it?
• Nitty-gritty breakdown of KAT’s contract situation by The Athletic’s Fred Katz and how it could eventually have major implications for Miles McBride’s future in New York.

• Carmelo Anthony believes neither LeBron James, Joel Embiid or Jaylen Brown should remain the central figure in Philadelphia after the Sixers’ blockbuster offseason.
• Speaking of Good Ol’ James, he’s dealing with chronic arthritis in his left foot. I mean, yeah, we all age, you know what I’m saying?
• Giannis Antetokounmpo made it clear he still has “five, six good years” remaining in his career, all of which would probably go for nothing while the Heat remain in cap hell without a strong-enough roster around the Greek. Hooray!
• It’s all good, De’Aaron Fox, it’s all good.
• Build Jalen Duren a statue, unless he’s already a walking one, which I can’t rule out.
• Dillon Brooks hopes he has another decade of NBA basketball ahead of him and doesn’t want his “great year” (?) to make him complacent.
• Bronny James for Deuce McBride. Who says no?
• Old-man-yelling-at-a-cloud Cedric Ceballos argued last year that Stephen Curry wouldn’t have been given the same freedom to launch extremely deep 3-pointers in his era and would never have become a great hooper, let alone the man who changed basketball, and recently explained his take. Not sure it convinces me.