NEW YORK you— Karl-Anthony Towns joined the Knicks on Wednesday, as the Minnesota Timberwolves dealt their four-time All-Star to New York in a three-team trade that included the Charlotte Hornets.
It was agreed upon Friday, took a few days to complete under the NBA’s onerous new trade rules, and Towns has not been able to practice with the Knicks in their first two days of training camp in Charleston, South Carolina.
After practice in Minnesota, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch glowingly looked back at his time with Towns, lauding him for how gracious he was immediately upon being hired mid-way through the 2020-21 season to replace Ryan Saunders, with whom Towns was very close.
“Performance-wise, one of the most skilled players I’ve ever coached, no doubt about it. Incredibly talented player who did a lot of amazing things in last year’s playoffs. That doesn’t happen without his contribution on both ends of the floor, for sure,” Finch said. “Just a really good guy, big for the community. So it’s always hard. It just is. You don’t think about the human side of things when you’re contemplating these types of moves, but when they happen, that’s the first thing that comes to mind.”
The Knicks can’t wait to plug him into their center spot, believing his outside shooting can be the key for a team that thinks it can contend for a title this season.
He possesses a combination of playmaking, shooting, rebounding and defending that, in combination with his size, enables him to compete at a level that is rare in this league,” Knicks President Leon Rose said in a statement.
The Timberwolves got three-time All-Star Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo from the Knicks, who reacquired Keita Bates-Diop and also got a first-round pick.
The Knicks sent the Hornets Charlie Brown, DaQuan Jeffries and Duane Washington Jr, in addition to two second-round picks, in return for the draft rights to center James Nnaji.
Towns arrived in Minnesota as the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft and leaves what looks very much like a team on the rise. The Timberwolves reached the Western Conference finals last season, even though Towns was limited by injuries to 62 games.
Now, the 7-footer – having averaged 22.9 points and 10.8 rebounds, shooting 39.8% from 3-point range – takes an All-Star pairing with Anthony Edwards for one with Jalen Brunson.
“Nine years ago, I came to Minnesota as a young man with a dream, and little did I know the place would become my home and its people my family,” Towns wrote on X in what he called a post to the Timberwolves family. “Your love, support, and unwavering loyalty have fueled my journey and inspired me to be the best player I could be.”.
I’d like to thank my teammates, coaches and the entire Timberwolves organization for the endless opportunities and memories. I will always be grateful for the relationships I built and for the battles we fought together.”
He reunites with Tom Thibodeau, one of his former coaches in Minnesota, after the Knicks traded away two key pieces to acquire him.
Randle was the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2021, when he led the Knicks to their first playoff berth since 2013, and the Knicks have gone to the postseason in three of his five seasons in New York after being one of the worst teams in the league before he got there. The last two years, the Knicks reached the Eastern Conference semifinals, though Randle missed the postseason last year following surgery for a dislocated shoulder.
Julius played a major role in establishing the foundation and culture of our team and we can’t thank Julius enough for what he did for this city and organization both on and off the court,” Rose said.
DiVincenzo averaged a career-high 15.5 points last season, his only one with the Knicks, and his career-best 283 3-pointers made were third in the NBA and set a single-season franchise record.
DiVincenzo represented the major added depth on the wing in the deal that brought in the trio for the Timberwolves. Finch added that financially, the club wasn’t motivated to move the Towns deal even as they were on track to pass the second apron of the luxury tax.
“Our ownership was and is committed to paying large amounts of tax for this team to be highly competitive. That hasn’t changed,” Finch said. The deal in its totality checks a lot of boxes. We think it is a great basketball trade. We think it makes us deeper in a lot of ways and in ways that we needed. It does give us flexibility and mechanisms to keep remaking the team going forward. That, more than anything-that whole package there was the reasons for the deal. But that doesn’t change our expectations coming into the season-we’ve got a very, very talented roster, same core as last year, and we’ve got two great weapons to add to that.
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