***The Trade Karl-Anthony Towns Thread***

[Neeva]

Lol

[_AIJ_]

Ingram is so much better than towns

[guest81]

Would this KAT issue be around if KG was part of this franchise in some way? I don't mean as a player, but just someone that would help the team out in non-game role. I would have to think KG would have given him a piece of his mind and tell him to grow the F up. It seems like there is no one in the FO that has the balls to tell this to KAT.

He had Jimmy and thibs on the team already

Jimmy isn't even close to KG's level. KG is the Timberwolves. It's a world of difference if it's coming from KG.

Well if that's the case,kat has also played with kg

[Rookie-Mistake]

Will he get booed in game 4?

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[shangrila]

So I think there's a few facts about this situation that we can all probably agree on;

1. This team won't trade KAT by their own volition. Even if we lose the rest of this series by an average of 50pts with Towns averaging more fouls than minutes played, they're still going to offer him the supermax and attempt to build around him. It's the exact same thing as Washington and Beal; small franchises unwilling to let whatever small glimpse at stardom go. Silver lining in that comparison, however, is we have Ant.

2. So the only way the team trades KAT will be if he requests it, which is unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely. It's clear to me that he's developed a hero complex, where HE has to be the one that leads us back to contention. Which I think is a good excuse to rationalise taking the money over a "better" situation (I don't expect him to understand that he's contributing to his current issues). Finally, his focus on reputation and how he's been "deframed" (his words, not mine) could honestly go either way; he decides to tough it out leading to multiple 1st round exits while he cashes supermax cheques he doesn't deserve (though in fairness, almost no one does) or he decides to find a "winning" situation by leaving. Regardless of the reason, however, I think the fact is a trade is going to be driven from his end, not the team's.

3. With new ownership on the way, this team is not going to be interested in taking a step back. So the idea of getting a pick and/or prospect heavy package is likely unrealistic; agree or disagree, this team is going to want to continue building up and not bottoming out.

4. Other teams are unlikely to entirely empty their teams for Towns. Similar to the way most of us approached the Simmons stuff, the idea will be to pair Towns WITH the guys already on the roster, not replace them with him. So, again, the idea of getting guys like Ingram or Haliburton are unlikely. And all of this also assumes that he doesn't come at us with a specific list of teams he wants to go to, which would obviously further depress his value.

5. Even with the above and his play/attitude, Towns will still command significant value. Teams will think they can fix him, blame the team, whatever, but we won't walk away with expiring contracts and a pair of protected 1sts.

[shangrila]

With the above in mind, there's a few deal frameworks that I think would be realistic;

1. Suns - Deandre Ayton S&T, picks
Obvious connection for Towns here with Booker and a clear path to contention (even if he's dragged literally kicking and screaming all the way there) and it ticks a number of boxes for us; Ayton is an established young player that would allow the team to, at least at face value, continue trying to compete, while the picks help to make up the difference. There could be other pieces included, of course, although their roster is somewhat bare of young players we might want (Cam Johnson would have been good but as a FA and with Ayton already being a S&T I think that gets dicey).

2. Pacers - Turner, salary (Hield?), picks (Ideally top 3 this year)
The Pacers are a team that doesn't rebuild (I think they've had 1 top 10 pick since like the 80s) so I do think this might be realistic from them, pairing Towns with Haliburton and Duarte. For us it's a sort of "soft" reset, getting production from Turner to help offset losing Towns while also getting that young piece to replace him moving forward (none of the top guys this year are franchise calibre prospects, but both Chet and Smith Jr would be nice compliments and Paolo could be an offensive hub, even if he's got some concerning defensive issues (at least for us after Love and now Towns)).

3. Pelicans - Valanciunis, salary (Graham?), prospects (Jones would be amazing), picks (maybe the Lakers picks?)
While I did say Ingram might not be on the table, I imagine pushing all of their chips in to upgrade from JV to Towns would interest the Pels. If Zion returns you're then looking at a core of McCollum-Ingram-Zion-KAT which would have to be a heavy favourite in the West. For us we might be able to trade water with JV while having some valuable picks moving foward (and maybe even this year) from the Lakers.

4. Hawks - Collins, Capela, extra (not sure what)
Pairing Trae with someone else that can generate offence is probably high on their list and this would keep us competitive with 2 vets that aren't really that old (Capela is 27, Collins is 24, KAT is 26). Depending on Towns' value there might need to be more, though I'm not going into that (I'm never dealing with Hawks fans again), but it would help us from taking too much of a step back.

There's likely more, but these were the main ones that came to mind.

[Grubie024]

The Jazz look like they'll be eliminated 1st round and roster re-shuffling may be in the cards.
I wonder about a KAT for Gobert deal... Would be palatable to me as a Wolves fan and I'd think the Jazz would have interest, unless they choose to stick with Gobert and unload Mitchell.

[_AIJ_]

KAT is fine. Reaction or overreaction is just his biggest weakness

[m2002brian]

If we could fleece Indiana for Turner and Brogdon, we could reset our front court and backcourt at the same time. Let DLo walk after next season and use the money to sign quality players around Ant, Turner and Brogdon. Hell we could take Hield off their hands by including Malik and Okogie.

[moss_is_1]

I think trading Kat is short-sighted. After the game I was all on board for that, the next day I was cooled off and took back to the old approach. He's not perfect, we knew that though. He's not a #1 guy, we already knew that. We need Ant to be that. If he was already we wouldn't be a 7 seed this season, and we wouldn't have missed so many post seasons with Kat as the guy.

What I will say I think has changed, we aren't going to cave and cater to KAT. I think we would listen to offers, and I think that we won't just be guaranteed to keep Dlo because he is Kat's buddy. We could bring him back, definitely not at the max, or we could move on from him. Then if Kat gets upset, so be it.

[minimus]

It is okay to be upset about Towns limits. But can anyone explain why DLo and Towns PnR never seems to work smoothly? It is because DLo lack of slashing game? Or because of Towns not rolling hard enough? I mean on paper they both should elevate each other, and we had the best offense in regular season, but why they can't just play spread PnR every time in crunch time?

[m2002brian]

If it’s because DLo not slashing enough, then just run the pick-n-roll with KAT and Ant and make them decide who to load up on.

[TheZachAttack]

I have never been on the trade Towns camp. I think I may be close to there now if I am not already. I don't as much mind that teams can send 2-3 defenders his way and take him out of the game. I can intuitively understand that if a team is willing to allow us to take open shots to take Towns away it's not smart to bull in china shop through that.

I also don't really think it's Towns fault that he can be taken out of the game in that way. I think it's pretty difficult when you are trying to either play with your back to your basket or aren't able to handle or move like a guard on the court to create your own shot and navigate around double teams.

To me, it's KAT's inability to adopt a winning mindset as a team leader. It's all of the complaining and his obsessiveness with the media and comments about him (he was on camera saying "see I told those media guys what would happen in our crib" mid-way through the 2nd quarter). KAT is not a player who helps a team slow down in chaos or high pressure moments. KAT throws temper tantrums and takes himself of the game so we can't even force the double-team choice and takes stupid fouls time and time again to take him off the floor.

He doesn't take accountability after games. I think teams adopt the mindsets of their leaders and Towns mentality has created multiple situations over the years where there are toxic scenarios and accountability issues.

Might sound like a first take type take but I think it's true.

[shrink]

I am 100% against KAT - you’d never get back a player as good.

That said, there was something in the post game interview that made me wince. Britt Robson said something like, “Karl, you’ve said you’d do whatever it took to win. Will you commit to stop flailing your arms and fouling?” Towns struggled with the question, then said something like, “I don’t run in from the wing over the backs any more, but we have to go with what brought us here.” I think we got here “despite” his arm flailing, and I don’t know if Towns recognizes that.

[KGdaBom]

If we could fleece Indiana for Turner and Brogdon, we could reset our front court and backcourt at the same time. Let DLo walk after next season and use the money to sign quality players around Ant, Turner and Brogdon. Hell we could take Hield off their hands by including Malik and Okogie.

OK even as a huge KAT fan I would have to consider Turner and Brogdon.

[Neeva]

I don’t think Brodgdan has that much value though so it would have to be something like Towns/19/filler for Brogdan/Turner/indiana’s lotto pick!

[Domejandro]

Turner and Brogdon is a bad package by itself, I can’t understand that proposal at all. The package with the pick is great for Minnesota, but I don’t get that alternative for Indiana.

[Neeva]

Right we would have to end up with a top 5 pick as well.

[life_saver]

Turner and Brogdon is a bad package by itself, I can’t understand that proposal at all. The package with the pick is great for Minnesota, but I don’t get that alternative for Indiana.

I have seen this quote few times recently on twitter - 'The idea of Myles Turner >>> what Myles Turner actually is". I haven't watched this guy much but I feel like he has been getting bit overrated mainly because his name comes up in trade talks a lot and also due to him being a C than can shoot from 3 (although at poor %).

[life_saver]

Pacers would happily trade Turner for KAT..a KAT-Haliburton pairing is a good foundation to build upon for Pacers.