Karl-Anthony Towns Traded to New York (Official Discussion Thread)

[Note30]

Nope. Ant is slasher, slasher naturally are more comfortable passing to the corners, where Towns usually is not located. It is more about scheme.

.... Kobe was one of the best slashers in the league he still managed to get both Pau and Shaq significant assists.

If there wasn't a good scheme to utilize Towns then Ant should have spoken up especially considering he had the ball the majority of the time.

Have you considered the possibility that it was KAT who didn’t want the be put in the corners? Maybe KAT wanted to be KAT and play more like a guard. Possibly it was KAT who wanted to play more pick and pop.

We’ll never know. But the put it on Ant is absurd. Just as absurd as putting all on KAT or all on Finch.

Maybe sometimes **** just doesn’t work out and it’s as simple as that.

Ah yes, the guy who used to be a pure post up guy and has played almost every style and adjusted his game is the guy who has the problem

Not the coach who has the same system or the lead guard who hasn't developed his game outside of his current game.

[minimus]

That's definitely more Ants fault than Towns.

Nope. Ant is slasher, slasher naturally are more comfortable passing to the corners, where Towns usually is not located. It is more about scheme.

.... Kobe was one of the best slashers in the league he still managed to get both Pau and Shaq significant assists.
.

Kobe? I hope Edwards won't follow him as type of player. Kobe never passed the ball if he could shoot. Never. I never saw a player with such maniac ego. I do love him for his career after retirement tho. When he helped many young players.

If there wasn't a good scheme to utilize Towns then Ant should have spoken up especially considering he had the ball the majority of the time.

Towns had plenty of opportunities as offensive hub. It was not a problem. The problem is his defense when MIN played five-out.

Ah yes, the guy who used to be a pure post up guy and has played almost every style and adjusted his game is the guy who has the problem. Not the coach who has the same system or the lead guard who hasn't developed his game outside of his current game.

Once teams noticed Towns ability to score in the post they started to double-team him. He could not beat double-teams, as result he completely abandoned postups. I am surprised that I have to write it to MIN fan. What we can discuss is Edwards to Gobert pick-n-roll, but I think it is optional in current situation. Snyder built #1 NBA offense around Gobert and DM, while DM never passed the ball to Gobert directly.

[coachEmily]

My wife said the same thing. We are both in shock over this idiotic trade. If they had kept KAT for just one more year I honestly feel this team wins a championship. Now it is first round and out with some of the worst, if not the worst, spacing in the NBA.

But losing KAT won't hurt our defense. And the Knicks fans said they're worried because Randle gave them grit.
So our defense might be better with Randle, plus we've got DiV and he can defend well.
At worst i think our defense will be the same as last season, and our offense will definitely be better with DiV!
Even if we assume McDaniels and Reid won't improve (but they probably will improve!) i still think we've got a great chance at finishing #1 in the West.
And we've still got Gobert and Reid to defend Jokic, and we can keep them on the court for the whole time Jokic is on the court!

That’s the thing, and you make a great point. Scoring is easy (google Ant quote). We never had issues with points when KAT was injured. We had issues with depth. Getting guys to play defense is the key to a playoff team /potential championship team. That hasn’t changed, we actually got better.

I love our roster
2025 is going to be be one wild ride!
And DiV and Randle are both extremely entertaining players

[Note30]

.... Kobe was one of the best slashers in the league he still managed to get both Pau and Shaq significant assists.
.

Kobe? I hope Edwards won't follow him as type of player. Kobe never passed the ball if he could shoot. Never. I never saw a player with such maniac ego. I do love him for his career after retirement tho. When he helped many young players.

Highly inaccurate. Kobe and Jordan both averaged 5+ assists a game playing in the triangle. Kobe was a much better passer than Edwards is at this point.

If there wasn't a good scheme to utilize Towns then Ant should have spoken up especially considering he had the ball the majority of the time.

Towns had plenty of opportunities as offensive hub. It was not a problem. The problem is his defense when MIN played five-out.

You mean like the year before the Rudy trade when the Wolves posted a 13th best defense in the league?

Ah yes, the guy who used to be a pure post up guy and has played almost every style and adjusted his game is the guy who has the problem. Not the coach who has the same system or the lead guard who hasn't developed his game outside of his current game.

Once teams noticed Towns ability to score in the post they started to double-team him. He could not beat double-teams, as result he completely abandoned postups. I am surprised that I have to write it to MIN fan. What we can discuss is Edwards to Gobert pick-n-roll, but I think it is optional in current situation. Snyder built #1 NBA offense around Gobert and DM, while DM never passed the ball to Gobert directly.

What? The double teams were as a result of lack of decent cutters and slashers around him. Having Vando or Rudy make it impossible for him to get some actual space and score because the defense just collapsed and there's no one to pass it to.

Compare that to earlier in his career when he had Dieng and Rubio, he was still able to hit Dieng from the mid range or up close.

Sticking him in the post when Rudy is an absolute non threat only exacerbates his problems.

Snyder had built his offense around 4 guys who could all hit a shot off one dribble. That had less to do with Gobert and more to do with the fact that his talent was capable of that. The players he had could all just cut or drive or pull up off one bounce, that's a threat that only Ant can do. Conley can't, McDaniels can't. Towns couldn't. Gobert def can't.

Versus Bojan, Clarkson, Mitchell? With that amount of spacing, even Conley could do it, and so could Joe Ingles.

The Wolves now have two guys (maybe 3 who can do that). Compared to just Edwards in the last year and Conley (who never had the opportunity because he was just facilitating).

Towns doesn't have the same spacing. But now he does. NYK is truly going to be a spotlight for him. And if what I've said here is true I think he'll have his best and most effective offensive year yet this year.

[theGreatRC]

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[KGdaBom]

I also thought the continuity of bringing back our top 7 would give us a head start this season in the championship chase ..!

That's honestly the biggest thing I dislike about this trade. That and the overall feeling of moving Towns.

Overall though, I think for the longterm health of the franchise, this was a win.

Wow. That's a big statement. Randle is a talented player, but seems to be persona non grata on every team he's been on.

[KGdaBom]

Everyone is stuck on Julius, when Donte was the key to the trade. Julius is merely a means to an end.

Yep. The trade was for DDV and Cap Relief. Randle was just included to make the $ work.

[KGdaBom]

Everyone is stuck on Julius, when Donte was the key to the trade. Julius is merely a means to an end.

I mean we didn’t trade Towns just for Donte Divecenzo, Randle matters, it’s both.

It's primarily for DDV. Randle was to match salaries.

[minimus]

Read on Twitter

Someone named Sachin Gupta could help here, but he knew about coming madness and preferred simulate soccer in Chelsea

[KGdaBom]

I am disgusted by this trade. Randle is a bum. DD is a backup SG. The first from Detroit? Yeah, that's one of those horrible fake firsts that has so many protections it will never convey.

So we give up the best shooting big man in NBA history, a key piece to a team that was poised to go to the Finals for the first time...for this **** platter. This is KG for Al Jefferson 2.0 with the key difference being Al Jefferson was actually good. Randle is a bum. He's one of, if not the, most overrated player in the NBA because he played in NY.

It also sounds like KAT found out through this on Twitter/X instead of being told by the team. Just sad.

Why didn’t your hawks get Kat, you just let the **** knicks take him for trash and donte?

Hawks tried for years to get KAT and it just never worked out. Either MINN was asking for too much or the Hawks didn't want to pay the LT...which is really what the problem was. The Hawks owner is the sixth or seventh richest billionaire owner in the entire NBA...and has paid the luxury tax zero times in all his years of owning the team. He won't pay it. Getting KAT on his supermax would have sent the Hawks into the tax and Tony Ressler refuses to pay it.

So now I, as a Hawks and Twolf fan, have to watch Randle's fat ass lumber around giving zero effort and being an inefficient chucker on the Twolves and watch KAT take it to my Hawks. It's literally insult to injury.

I wanted Murray, Capela and a FRP for KAT.

[KGdaBom]

I just wish the Wolves got better picks, a much lesser player and never all star Bridges got a boat load of picks, Kat will easily be an all star in the east and we got one???

I agree with you. The Detroit first is not a real pick. It is a fake first. The protections on it mean it will only convey in several years to a single 2nd round pick which is worthless.

That's pathetic that is all we got in a pick.

[KGdaBom]

If I busted my ass for this dog **** franchise over 9 years with 5 different coaches, terrible teammates outside of these past two years, and then at our peak get traded I'd be speechless too.

Especially if it was almost impossible to get good looks in the post because said franchise traded for another "star" player at my same position, and said star player was so limited offensively a core part of my game had to be changed.

Yeah I'd be **** speechless.

Outside of KG, KAT was the only star that didn't ask out or leave and we treated him like ****.

So take your clear disdain for him somewhere else. Loyalty matters, we have none. This probably has rocked me just as much as the Rubio trade/ Jimmy trades. And just like the Jimmy era, nothing good will of trading for a PF who can't space well.

This right here. KAT has put up with so much garbage from this franchise. Almost his entire family died from COVID. He soldiered through that and finally, finally got a good team around him. And this is the thanks he gets?

He just brought a 11 million dollar mansion with his smokeshow partner kat is doing just fine

What's a "smokeshow" partner?

[KGdaBom]

Over the last 5 years, Towns has missed more games than Embiid, Paul George, Porzingis, and OG Anuoby

That is a very solid point.

[KGdaBom]

Gobert couldn't keep up in screens & KAT couldn't rim protect. Reid was the best mix of those 2.

In addition to the offensive initiation improvement, while Randle may not be some notably good defender either, he provides more d versatility to the Wolves.

Overall there are more d options in the playoffs. Though I see a gap in small ball 4's, which existed before. I think someone sufficient of that profile ought to be addressed. Maybe trade Alexander-Walker. Could match up better w/ Luka's of the NBA.

Naz Reid is a largely hideous defensive player, that take is pretty off if I'm being honest.

It's one of the reasons why I would start him. You can hide in between McDaniels and Gobert.

Two things. One I think we need to be going after a backup center that's legit sized and can defend and rebound. We got pretty small after Rudy now. Two, I wonder if there is any thought to bringing Conley off the bench?

PG - DD, Conley, Rob
SG - Ant, Naw, Shannon
SF - McDaniels, Ingles, Minott
PF - Reid, Randle, Miller
C. - Gobert, ????,Garza

That's how I would organize the depth chart, I'm sure other people have different views which is fine.

DDV is just a shooter isn't he. My understanding is that he has about zero PG skills.

[KGdaBom]

So apparently Keita Bates-Diop is heading to Minnesota in the trade and Daquan Jeffries is getting 6-7 million with only one guaranteed year in a Sign and Trade to Charlotte to make the money work, sliding into their room exception.

Strange thing is that it puts the Knicks like 1.5 million below the 2nd apron, with only 12 guaranteed contracts.
Since they are hard capped at the 2nd apron by aggregating players in a trade, they can't fill the last 2 necessary roster spots.
They are going to have to dump more salary in another trade to fill out their roster with minimum guys (Shamet and Marcus Morris).

That's not even accounting for Julius Randle's 4.1 million trade kicker, which would be paid by the knicks, but they wouldn't get to use as outgoing salary.

The cap gymnastics necessary to make the trade work financially for the knicks are interesting.
The only other small salaries they can trade before dec 15th are jericho sims and their recent draft picks Kolek and Dadiet.
Their next lowest tradeable salary are McBride at 4.4 and mitchell robinson at 14 million, 2 rotation guys they want to keep.

I would have loved to get Sims in the deal, he's on a minimum contract and could offer a defensive backup to Gobert.

Bates-Diop would put us at 15 guaranteed contracts plus the partially guaranteed Dozier.
Good chance we try to salary dump a minimum guy or two before the season starts.

So the Knicks are paying the $4.1 million to Randle, but who's salary cap is that 4.1 million counting against?

[KGdaBom]

So apparently Keita Bates-Diop is heading to Minnesota in the trade.

Does that mean Garza gets cut, or partially-guaranteed Dozier?

If one has to go let it be Dozier. I believe in Garza.

[KGdaBom]

Kg was our best player
Steph 2nd
Tommy G our 3rd

Ant is our best now
Rudy is the second best
KAT was our third best

(Offense isn’t the whole game)

Delusional.

Rudy by most every advanced stat was either the best or second best player on the wolves. By what measurement has kat ever been more impactful then Rudy at any point of their careers?

No question whatsoever Rudy was better than KAT last year.

[KGdaBom]

Rudy by most every advanced stat was either the best or second best player on the wolves. By what measurement has kat ever been more impactful then Rudy at any point of their careers?

How about normal stats? Points, rebounds, assists? If all you have is advanced metrics you're missing a huge part of the picture. It's the equivalent of making a building and looking at all the amenities and tech and ignoring the fact the other building is a mansion and the other is a trailer home.

Do we just call whoever gets the most points is the better player? Is dlo a better player then Rudy because he scores and gets more assists?

Eggzactly.

[KGdaBom]

Believe it or not I was busy the last few days and just heard about this deal a couple hours ago. After reading it all I'd prefer we didn't make the deal. I heard something about the protection on the draft pick diminishing over the next couple years so maybe we will get a FRP out of the deal.

[Tukkerwolf]

After reading it all I'd prefer we didn't make the deal.

What would have been your alternative? We had two realistic options:

1. ship the 6th highest paid player in the league, yet 3rd most important player on our roster to another team. Options would be very limited and I genuinely believe NY was the only feasible deal on the table this summer.

2. Gut the team completely in order to maintain the core of KAT, Gobert and Ant who take up 100% of our cap space.

I think I'd rather have more flexibility and players like NAZ, McD, DDV and NAW surrounding Gobert and Ant than the three high earners and a bunch of fillers.