From ESPN.com:
The Knicks and Timberwolves are finalizing a trade that will see Karl-Anthony Towns land in New York and Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo head to Minnesota, league sources confirmed to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
Talks intensified between the teams over the past 24 hours and the deal was being finalized Friday night, sources said.
Minnesota also will receive a 2025 top-13-protected first-round pick, which was acquired from New York via the Pistons in a previous trade.
A third team, the Charlotte Hornets, also is part of the trade to absorb additional salary, sources said.
The blockbuster comes just days before the start of training camps throughout the NBA and sees the Knicks add a four-time All-Star in Towns who can space the floor with star guard Jalen Brunson.
I won’t lie, I sort of love this trade just to see how many vocal anti-KAT folks will suddenly be, “KAT? Awesome! What a great addition!”
I think the trade makes some legit sense, but it’s definitely not a no doubt about it trade (and the vibes on the deal are horrible, but “vibes” are pretty unimportant, really. Winning creates its own good vibes, ya know?). I do enjoy Leon Rose’s willingness to be bold. I was irked at him last season for not being bold, and since then, he’s been bold as fuck, which is awesome. Good for you, Leon! Put it all out there! The only way to win in the NBA is to make bold moves!
The Villanova quartet becoming a trio is SUPER FUCKED UP for DDV, but, well, that’s the NBA for ya.
I’m glad that Thibs is fine with coaching KAT again. That’s nice.
30 replies on “ESPN.com: Sources: Knicks to send Randle, DiVincenzo to Timberwolves for Towns”
From last thread:
This might make people feel better:
The Metamorphosis of Karl-Anthony Towns
Hyperbole, but good video analysis of him defending Jokic:
Karl Anthony Towns Real DPOTY
Wolves fans have to be despondent at this.
Uh, I guess we’re doing some S&T magic to make this work. It’s a Shake Milton situation with I don’t know who yet.
So having thought about it… it’s a big gamble. But maybe worth taking. The team as assembled was going to have to be one where all the stars aligned for them to win. The obvious upgrade spots were PF or C. On talent alone, KAT is better than Julius. He’s arguably more of a fit, given that we can’t rely on Mitch to stay healthy, and having OG and Mikal makes it easier to play a center who’s not great defensively but can at least block shots. (Something Randle doesn’t do.) and whenever Mitch is healthy, we’ve seen that KAT can play PF next to a C who lives in the dunkers spot.
Losing DDV sucks. Sending out julius right when we are on the verge of contention sucks. this could all blow up in our faces. I’m also not sure what the better move was going to be. So… maybe I don’t hate it?
Man I’m gonna miss Donte… hopefully we at least bring back Evil Donte some day.
Who could’ve predicted this would be a knock-on effect of Randle signing a team friendly extension in 2021?
On the plus side I think KAT needs a leader like Jalen and will thrive under Thibs
I think it’s only a gamble if you view KAT as a C in the playoffs. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s at the 5 on opening day, because we need a 5 right now, but even at the 4 Towns is probably better than Julius. He doesn’t kill your spacing. He doesn’t need the ball in his hands. His defense… I guess we’ll find out who is worse.
Donte is being replced by Bridges and Deuce, who can both probably shoot.
I posted this at the end of the other thread, but I’m so amped I’m gonna repost here.
In the playoffs we will be hopefully able to play a Brunson-Bridges-OG-Towns-Robinson lineup. That should be a VERY good two way lineup with deadly perimeter shooting and nasty amounts of length on defense.
Towns should also be a workhorse when it comes to setting screens. He gets called for illegal screens a lot but that’s because he sets a million screens in most games. The two man game with Brunson and Towns has endless potential.
We are going to be good.
Fun fact I learned while checking out some Minnesota stats… our old friend Pablo Prigioni is the assistant head coach of the T’Wolves.
This has been the most obvious move for a long time (not the DDV part). The only reason I stopped talking about it regularly was that I kept reading that the Knicks loved Julius, Dolan loved Julius and Julius obviously loved playing in NY. So I didn’t think it would happen unless things weren’t working.
This gives us the starting C we needed, better spacing and a more efficient offense that doesn’t even require as many OREBs. Brunson is going to love all the space and ability to kick it out to OG, Bridges, Towns or even Hart if the double comes.
I don’t know what’s going to happen with Mitch, but having him in the backup role with the ability to go big on occasion is a good position to be in. They may also decide to move on from Mitch eventually and use his contract in a trade.
There are a lot things to think about here, but Towns is a much better player than Randle and the fit is very good.
After trashing Payne a bit when we signed him, he may turn out to be pretty key off the bench because we need a scorer with DDV gone.
Landy Shamet might make this team. 38 % career 3 point shooter.
These two lineups will likely comprise 95% of our postseason minutes:
Brunson-Bridges-Anunoby-Towns-Mitch
Brunson-Bridges-Anunoby-Towns-Hart
Those are both pretty awesome.
I will miss Julius Randle, though. And it sucks that we only got to see that January team play for 4 weeks. Jacquez sucks.
You all know I loved this team going into this season so this trade is a bit of a shock but with KAT I think this team is now a true legit championship contender.
I am pleased. Losing DDV hurts my soul. I even (coincidentally) named my son after him. Guy gave us the greatest playoff moment in 25 years.
But this is the right move, and the right way to use Randle. Would still love to have one more wing who can shoot, but I think we’re now a fringe contender!
I’m going to sign off, but my feeling before I go to sleep is that this was a good trade.
I loved Donte & Randle, and I’ll miss them. Randle dragged this team to relevance over the last few years. It feels wrong to no longer have him here.
I think it will 55-45 trade in our favor.
Kat and Brunson plus the 3 great defensive players will be a great fit. Donte leaving sucks but I think he is replaceble.
I just realized the KAT v Embiid matchups are going to be juicy.
I’ll really miss Donte’s energy, and for better or worse I’ll miss Randle too, for all his bad moments he gave it his all and I think history will be kind to him when we remember past Knicks players.
But as one of the OG KAT defenders, I’m so happy with this move so far, of course pending the full details of the trade. Towns can be inconsistent and has some pretty obvious flaws in his game, but he’s coming into a team that can both utilize his strengths to the best with his great shooting and mobility and minimize his defensive weaknesses.
I’m so excited to see the Brunson / Mikal / OG / Hart / Towns lineup on the court, I’m a firm believer this crunch time lineup is second to none in the entire league, we can go against anyone with this, even the Celtics at full strength.
Thibs will have a bit of a headache trying to figure out how the rotations will work, but in a good problem sort of way, because there’s so many interesting permutations available. Resting Brunson should also be much easier now that Towns and Bridges can take over for stretches.
Great move.
(Refresh my memory on the Leon can’t break up the ‘nova boys vs Leon can break up the ‘nova boys argument: who argued what? who won?)
I’m warming to the trade. Like everyone else, I’ll miss Divo. But even when Mitch is healthy, it’s hard to see him as a big body banging on the inside.
Julius was a great big body and I will miss him. I’m sorry he won’t be in NYC for this season. But (I wrote on the last thread that I’ve had that exact same shoulder dislocation and) I don’t think Julius will ever be as strong a big body in the post as he was before he got sandbagged by Miami. I’m hopeful that KAT + Thibs is additive and will prove the KAT-haters wrong.
I am disappointed with this. I really wanted to see the team play as it was. I guess Towns makes the team more balanced, and Randle has been injured, and he loses focus during games. But Towns has been even more injury prone, and he does not lose focus, he is just unfocused. He has not had success with his team except for last year, but he clearly went down the pecking order and was not a key cog for their team. I am surprised Thibs signed up for this, since he already coached him.
🙁
I do think it’s funny that Thibs warms up to the idea publicly about playing Randle at the 5. Then when the peyote wears off, suddenly Randle’s out and KAT’s in.
I do love the idea of KAT at the 5. HIs shooting at that position is a huge differentiator. And it opens it up for Brunson to drive, score and dish.
However, if the Knicks are thinking that it’s KAT at the 4 with Mitch at the 5 as our main lineup, it seems like we’d get less from KAT defensively, and less from our offense with Mitch rim running – even with the extra shooting. Not that we can’t play that lineup, but if that’s Thibs’ main vision, I’m less hopeful.
I loved good, racking ball Julius, he was this team’s identity. But he may never be that good again given his shoulder injury. Divo was one of my favorites last year. Also I never loved KAT’s game so much. So boo. But we’ll see.
Funny to me how Leon seemed so risk averse earlier in his tenure, and now keeps pushing in his chips. Hoping KAT stays healthy.
Yeah, that’s the part I love the most about current Leon Rose. You gotta fucking go for it in the NBA to win, whether that means an earlier than expected teardown (like OKC blowing up a playoff team and getting SGA in the process, then blowing up the unexpected playoff team it got with SGA, as well. Do you know how much guts it takes to blow up a #5 seed?!), or big, sloppy, risky moves that change the direction of a franchise. Pat Riley seemingly does one of those types of moves every freaking year.
So who starts now?
PG Brunson
Wing 1 Bridges
Wing 2
PF OG
C Towns
Who’s the second wing? Hart? Deuce?
I guess I have to have a take for posterity’s sake.
DDV did feel like surplus after the Bridges trade. And Towns is better than Randle.
Towns is going to frustrate me. I know it, I just don’t know quite how yet.
But I like the deal. It makes a lot of sense.
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