Contract extensions have become a contentious conversation around the New York Knicks, mostly because of the tension between center Karl-Anthony Towns and a front office that seems unwilling to spend on him, leading to the team to announce that they're shutting down all contract extension talks until later in the season.

But Towns isn't the only one up for an extension and when looking at a certain fan-favorite guard's feelings toward the team, his extension talks may be bearing more fruit.

Guard Miles McBride, who has been with the Knicks longer than anyone else on the roster, is up for an extension this season and has repeatedly affirmed how much he loves the Knicks and their fans and subsequently how much he would love to stay with the team.

In a recent interview, McBride's agent, Mark Bartelstein, affirmed McBride's love for the team and his relationship with the front office, but also addressed how taboo the topic of an extension has become around the team right now.

“No doubt, he would love to get that,” Bartelstein said on SiriusXM NBA Radio (via New York Post). “But at the end of the day, you work for the Knicks and it takes two sides to get a deal done. And if the Knicks aren’t ready to do extensions right now, then we just gotta buckle up and go have a great season."

Bartelstein continued, "We've got a great relationship with [president of basketball operations] Leon [Rose] and the front office. We'll see: there may be opportunities during the season, maybe in the near future. Who knows when we'll be able to have those conversations," Bartelstein said. 

The suggestion that McBride may be able to secure his extension later this season is coming from a place of an agent's optimism, but even Bartelstein's comments remain cloaked in a certain layer of exasperation at the Knicks' current operating policy. 

McBride's potential extension wouldn't be an expensive relative to what the Knicks are contending with regarding Towns' situation, but it wouldn't be a negligible amount either. 

To make things even shakier for McBride, he stands out as the most expendable of the three players eligible for extensions, Towns and swingman Josh Hart included. That leaves McBride at risk of either being traded midseason or simply left to walk at the end of the season when his contract expires and he becomes a free agent.

That isn't the result that McBride or his agent want out of this situation, at least based on every comment they've made publicly, but it is a very real possibility if extension talks continue to be put off. 

McBride has show that he can be a productive player and could thrive in a starting role in another situation, which itself is another reason that he could be separated from the Knicks as they could see him as a more valuable midseason trade piece than he could be as an extended member of their roster. 

The start of the regular season should be a period of optimism for the defending champions, but for McBride and his fellow extension-eligible teammates, there some uncertainty mixed in with the optimism with no clear sign of when that will change.