The Knicks pulled off their second offseason blockbuster Friday night, landing All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns. But how much better are they now?
Apparently, late offseason blockbuster trades are the new normal in the NBA.
Roughly a year after the Celtics landed Jrue Holiday right before media day, the Knicks on Friday acquired All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns from the Timberwolves.
If you were stunned by this trade, you’re not the only one. Towns himself was reportedly “stunned” by the deal and was “still processing” it after it went down. While there appear to be some details left to iron out as far salary-matching goes, the raw deal is this: New York gets Towns, Minnesota gets Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle. There’s also a heavily-conditioned first-rounder coming the Timberwolves’ way via Detroit.
On its face, I’m not sure it’s a trade I really love for either team. The Knicks clearly got the best player in the deal in Towns. The Kentucky product is a four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA pick. As far as talent goes, he’s easily the most talented player changing teams. For the Timberwolves, adding a player like DiVincenzo to play with Anthony Edwards is intriguing, but it’s hard to see where Randle fits.
For the Knicks, this feels like a move — along with the Mikal Bridges trade — that helps them match up better against the defending champion Celtics. New York will basically play five out around star guard Jalen Brunson. It will give Boston a taste of their own medicine when Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis are pulled away from the rim to chase KAT on the perimeter. They also have two elite defensive wings in Bridges and OG Anunoby to contend with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
When the Knicks and Sixers square off it will be mighty interesting. On one hand, Towns has not proven to be a match for Embiid defensively. On the other, Towns’ shooting will pull Embiid away from the rim, hurting the team’s ability to play drop coverage. Nick Nurse will likely have counters lineup-wise, but Towns’ presence as a three-point shooting big has the potential to put the Sixers in a bind.
What I’m most curious about with the Knicks is how this affects them stylistically. They were lauded last season for being a uniquely built team with one superstar and a great complement of role players. They’re essentially abandoning that notion now since they allowed Isaiah Hartenstein, who was an enormous thorn in the Sixers’ side in the playoffs, to walk and are moving on from DiVincenzo, who was their most prolific three-point shooter.
It’s also fair to wonder about the vibes. All we heard about was the “Nova Knicks” and how the team didn’t need another star because of how they played. The loss of DiVincenzo on the court will be mitigated by the returns they’ll get from Towns, but how much will this affect their locker room?
For the Timberwolves, this just feels like a bad trade. DiVincenzo should be a great fit. He took 8.7 threes a game and made over 40%. That should be a huge help for Edwards and Rudy Gobert. DiVincenzo is also a hard-nosed player and proved to be a strong playoff performer last season. Where I struggle with the deal is the addition of Randle. He’s slightly older and much less efficient than Towns. This feels like it was a deal to get off Towns’ money now to get the most value possible before being forced to do so next offseason.
Still, it feels like Minnesota’s front office owed it to the team to make one more run with the group that got to the Western Conference Finals. Perhaps the Timberwolves are looking at Naz Reid, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, as a player who can do a lot of what Towns’ does at a fraction of the cost, relegating Randle to more of a sixth-man role.
I’m dubious with both teams. As we’ve learned here in Philly, breaking up teams after successful runs can lead to disaster. If not for Tyrese Maxey landing in their laps in 2020, I’m not sure this franchise would’ve ever recovered from letting Jimmy Butler go to Miami and re-signing Tobias Harris while clearing space for the ill-fitting Al Horford. It’s fair to argue the 2024-25 roster is the best the franchise has had since the 2019 squad that lost in Game 7 in Toronto. And from a vibes perspective, I can’t recall a better group than the current one during the Embiid era.
In reality, the Knicks’ roster before the deal likely wasn’t good enough to beat the Celtics. It still might not be after the addition of Towns, but I get the swing from New York’s perspective. Take a chance on a star-level talent and hope you can optimize him alongside Brunson. I’m curious to see how it all looks, but the Knicks are as intriguing a team as there will be in the NBA.
For Minnesota, they’re placing big bets on DiVincenzo and Reid. Not bad bets by any stretch, but I’m curious where Randle fits or if his salary will be used in another move down the line.