Just days after the Minnesota Timberwolves traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks, Anthony Edwards could only scratch his head and answer candidly when asked during the NBA's media day about KAT's departure and the arrivals of Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.

“I think everybody know KAT my brother. So that definitely hurt. It's a business. I just gotta roll with it. They (Randle & DiVincenzo) not here yet, so I'm ready to get to know them. Get it figured out as fast as we can because we're trying to get back where we was and go even farther.”

On Friday night, the Timberwolves completed the trade that sent KAT to the Knicks in exchange for Randle, DiVincenzo and a first-round selection from the Detroit Pistons. The Knicks are also sending DaQuan Jeffries and draft compensation to the Charlotte Hornets to round out the deal.

The Timberwolves' trade wasn't a surprise

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In the resulting shockwaves after the trade, NBA rumors were flying this deal may have been a long time coming, as highlighted by ESPN's Brian Windhorst on The Hoops Collective.

“[Timberwolves president of basketball operations] Tim (Connelly) came out to [Karl-Anthony Towns] house [in the summer of 2023] and they had dinner and they sat around and Karl was just like, ‘Hey are you gonna trade me?’ And Tim said a bunch of things. ‘We don’t want to trade you’, ‘we think you’re a great fit here’, ‘we’re building this team around you and Ant’ and all these things, but at the end of the conversation Tim couldn’t say to him ‘I’m not going to trade you,'” Windhorst revealed.

Minnesota gets a big offensive boost from this trade. DiVincenzo really improved in the last couple of years and showed a scorer's mentality in clutch moments. He can provide catch-and-shoot three-point shots out of the backcourt. Randle can also create his own shot. Although he tends to hold the ball, he can work defenders to string together moves to get in the paint or use his mid-range game.