The trade between the New York Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns is unusual from an NBA perspective. This league is certainly not used to surprising big trades, but a surprising big trade was made the weekend before training camp started, and some were made to nullify such deals. Will the two potential winners participate, hampered by the new collective bargaining agreement designed? Yes, it’s new.
Both the Knicks and Timberwolves entered Friday with championship aspirations for the 2024-25 season. Both depart on Friday with championship ambitions for the 2024-25 season. But they drastically remade their roster, replacing the incumbent All-Stars just days before training camp began. The closest thing to this deal historically was probably the Kyrie Irving-Isaiah Thomas trade in 2017, but even that deal was signed in August. No one has time to be shocked. The season unofficially begins on Monday.
So what should we think about this? What was the motivation for two potential Finals contenders to make such drastic changes to their rosters? And what did both teams do with this deal? Is it? Here are the Shocker results for Friday.
New York Knicks: B+
The Knicks had two big problems to solve over the next year. The short-term issue was the center position. Isaiah Hartenstein leaves as a free agent. Mitchell Robinson injured. Tom Thibodeau’s team is incredibly size-dependent. New York will need to attack center at some point. The long-term issue was signing Julius Randle. He’s a three-time All-Star, but he makes more sense as a floor-raiser than a ceiling-raiser. He needs the ball in his hands to be successful. His jump shot isn’t consistent. So is his defense. He didn’t completely understand the pick-and-roll dance with Jalen Brunson, but to be fair, the Knicks also asked him few questions. In some ways, he was a relic of a team that no longer exists. He helped build the culture that Branson inherited. But there was a pretty strong argument for his fit on a Brunson-centered team. He wasn’t going to get the ball in his hands enough to justify the contract his honors suggest.
The Knicks solved both problems at once. Towns can play either power forward or center, which is a rarity among big teams in the modern era, and would be invaluable to a Knicks team that has invested heavily in Robinson. The Knicks had a short-term answer and avoided the long-term Randle issue to get it. The Towns fit is much cleaner.
He’s not just a good shooter. By almost any statistical measure, he’s the best shooter to ever play center field. Having the talent to shoot big shots makes all the difference. The Knicks no longer have to worry about defenders nearly ignoring Josh Hart. Do this at your own risk. It is completely irresponsible to allow unfettered access to the glass at this interval. But the difference between New York and Minnesota is that the Knicks are far better suited to utilize his remaining talent than the Timberwolves. Towns is a great pick-and-roll finisher. He couldn’t really show it because the Timberwolves didn’t have any guards of value early in his career, and by the time Anthony Edwards became a star, Towns was playing next to Rudy Gobert in a closely spaced lineup. was playing. Jalen Brunson would love him.
Will Towns cause problems on defense? Yes, but it’s doable with the right personnel. Emphasize that the Knicks have the right talent. If they decide he needs to play next to a traditional rim protector, they have Robinson. But the truth is, he’ll probably start as New York’s only big man. He is very good at playing in space, using his athleticism to clog passing lanes and disrupt ball handlers with more aggressive pick-and-roll defense. Thibodeau tends to be quite demanding of his rim protectors, but think about the perimeter defenders on this roster. How many times can you get past OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and Deuce McBride? Anunoby can also protect center depending on the matchup. Towns couldn’t join a more perfect roster for his particular skill set.
Losing DiVincenzo hurts. McBride can no longer be a food and famine reserve. He’s now a sixth man and has a bigger role than he had a season ago. You’re going to hear complaints about his contract. He certainly gets paid too much. A four-year supermax would make most teams nervous, and as we’ll see in a moment, that’s why Minnesota needed to trade him in the first place. But this is the flexibility afforded by the Jalen Brunson discount. The Knicks can afford this deal because Brunson, and ultimately Mikal Bridges, will help financially. That’s a luxury that other teams don’t have.
Money will be tight for the Knicks. They have lost meaningful depth and now have very little first round capital available to trade. The big move has already been completed. Either some version of this team can win it all, or the Knicks aren’t going to do it. But considering the picks the Knicks already borrowed from Brooklyn, the scale of the talent upgrade here makes this a win. This victory comes with a risk, but the Knicks had to take it given the potential reward.
Minnesota Timberwolves: B+
No one wanted to admit it, but Minnesota had to trade Karl-Anthony Towns. There are arguments in favor of waiting a year. The Timberwolves are now seven wins away from winning the championship. It’s usually a team that does it. But Minnesota saw what happened when New Orleans tried to trade Brandon Ingram this summer. It’s never been more difficult to trade a player who isn’t consistently performing at the maximum level, yet is expected to make the most money. Towns isn’t just hoping for the biggest bucks; He would be confined there for another four years. There was a plausible scenario that Minnesota tried to make this type of trade next summer but was unable to do so. That is the restriction on new CBAs. It could have been now, or it could have never been. The Timberwolves chose not to take the “never” risk.
Minnesota is not New York. Edwards, Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels are all performing near market rate. Naz Reid has a player option for the 2025-26 season, which he will undoubtedly decline for a raise. Gobert may have some money left over for 2025-2026, but only if Minnesota gives him more long-term security. The Timberwolves are a second apron team this season. This freezes the 2032 first-round pick. The last thing they want is to risk a repeated apron penalty bringing it to the end of the first round. Minnesota had to save money somewhere.
If he had a little more trust, that place might not have been Towns. However, in the playoffs, there were more games with 20 points or less (9 games) than with more than 20 points (7 games). The Timberwolves lost the first three games of the Western Conference Finals by a combined 13 points. In those games, Towns was 15-of-54 from the field and 3-of-22 from 3-point range. At Reed’s price point, you can tolerate disagreements from players. Not the biggest. Gobert is too fundamental to Minnesota’s defensive identity to be moved. Edwards is the face of the franchise and the team’s best offensive player. After all, it was either Towns or a role player. Towns made more sense, especially since he replicated much of what Reed brought to the table. Moving him opened more doors.
In Randle, the Timberwolves are looking to get a cheaper replacement. The Timberwolves were paying $50 million for a $40 million player. Now they’re paying $30 million to a $30 million player at the same position. Even if the fit isn’t perfect, the savings will outweigh the loss of staff. Randle is the better creator of the two, and that will be valuable in Minnesota. Last season, the Timberwolves needed someone other than Edwards or Mike Conley to create shots. Randle will help in that regard, especially since he brings in rookies Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon. The drop in shooting numbers from Towns to Randle will be especially painful for a Gobert-centered roster. DiVincenzo will help in that regard, but he probably won’t finish games unless Randle does. Depending on the matchup, that’s not the worst idea. We’re lucky to have DiVincenzo, Conley, and McDaniels surrounding and guarding the Edwards-Gobert pick-and-roll.
However, Randle has a player option for the 2025-26 season, so it is unlikely he will be acquired. At most, the contract is for two more years. If this doesn’t work out, the Timberwolves could let him walk and regroup under the tax line. They could use his salary space for a better fit through a trade, and considering all the picks currently owed to San Antonio and Utah, the picks the Pistons acquired from the Knicks in this deal will be huge in that respect.
They no longer risk being stuck on a roster they don’t want. What if the Randle version works? Great. Re-sign Towns for less than keeping him and find other ways to save money under the apron. If not, is there a need to change direction? We have a ready-to-play young core here in Edwards, McDaniels, Reed, and Dillingham. DiVincenzo fits with everyone, so he fits with them. If the Timberwolves need to get younger at some point, they’re free to do that too.
This was a bad trade if you believed the Timberwolves were one of the favorites to win this season. The Timberwolves could very well be in the “it would take two or three big breaks to win a championship” group, currently occupied by eight or nine teams. There was no answer for Luka Doncic in the Western Conference Finals. Doncic isn’t going anywhere. Oklahoma City has improved dramatically since last spring. A win against Denver doesn’t magically solve the Nuggets. In Game 7 of that series, they trailed by 20 points. The Western Conference is too deep to lock yourself into a team that may or may not be ready to make the Finals. Minnesota was willing to sacrifice some of their 2025 capital to extend the run and add a little more versatility. This was a controversial move, but probably the right one.
Towns isn’t ultimately what matters here. He was the third best player on last year’s team. But Edwards has a chance to be the best player in the world and has years of runway ahead of him. If sacrificing Towns was necessary to ensure Edwards had a long-term contender, it was worth it.
