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The Minnesota Timberwolves seem ready to make a Karl-Anthony Towns trade following the disastrous Rudy Gobert trade last offseason. The team needs to try to salvage that move and start refilling its draft capital after giving it all away to the Utah Jazz. As for the New York Knicks, the team found something least offseason with Jalen Brunson and now must move on from Julius Randle to build on that. With all that in mind, let’s grade ESPN’s hypothetical Timberwolves-Knicks blockbuster involving these two players.
Grading ESPN's hypothetical Julius Randle, Karl-Anthony Towns trade
In order to take the next step in the franchise’s development, the Timberwolves need to make a Karl-Anthony Towns trade and the Knicks need an upgrade over Julius Randle (although addition by subtraction could work as well).
For these reasons, ESPN’s Anthony Lopez suggests this hypothetical Timberwolves-Knicks deal:
New York Knicks get:
Karl-Anthony Towns
Minnesota Timberwolves get:
Julius Randle
Isaiah Roby
Jericho Sims
2024 first-round pick
2026 first-round pick
2028 first-round pick (top-5 protected)
“When the Timberwolves traded for Rudy Gobert, their war chest of picks was emptied. This is a chance to help replenish it, but it costs them their three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player in Towns,” Lopez writes. “For the Knicks, this deal gives them a chance to cash in some of the picks once reserved for a Donovan Mitchell pursuit last summer.”
Two additional notes here are that the Timberwolves can’t trade Towns until July 7, and the Knicks have to guarantee Roby and Sims’ contracts before this move.
Knicks grade
The Knicks made one of the best moves of the 2022 NBA offseason, stealing Jalen Bronson from the Dallas Mavericks. And during the regular season, a Brunson-Julius Randle partnership worked out surprisingly well.
However, in the NBA playoffs, we all saw the limitations of this pairing. Randle is a ball-stopper and when teams have multiple games to scheme a defense to stop him, his inconsistencies show up in a big way. This playoffs, his points per game dropped from 25.1 to 16.6.
With KAT, the Knicks get another 20-plus-points-per-game scorer and someone who fits better into the flow of an offense than Randle. Towns has a 25.6% usage rate compared to Randle’s 29.5%.
The fit isn’t perfect, but Obi Toppin can replace Randle’s minutes, or Towns can play at power forward next to Mitchell Robinson to help the team from a rim protection and rebounding perspective.
Jericho Sims and Isaiah Roby are both 24, but they don’t move the needle all that much on the Knicks. It’s the three future picks that have to make Knicks fans squirm a bit.
For a team built around Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett, those probably don’t help all that much from a player perspective. However, it means that New York is going all in on a Karl-Anthony Towns trade and no longer has the draft capital to get a different (better?), unhappy star in the next few seasons.
Overall, this is an upgrade for the Knicks, but not a home run.
Knicks trade grade: B
Timberwolves grade
You can’t feel that bad that the Timberwolves are a disaster right now. The Rudy Gobert trade is one of the worst in NBA history, so it’s of their own doing.
That said, if Minnesota admits its failure and moves on quickly with a Karl-Anthony trade (who has much more trade value right now than Gobert), it will be a shrewd move.
This is a solid deal for the Wolves. The team gets Julius Randle, who is a better fit with Gobert, although the one ball problem with Anthony Edwards does come into play. Still, the T’wolves lineup with Randle makes a lot more sense than what they rolled out last season.
Sims and Roby are nice depth pieces for the team, too, after Minnesota gave up Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Leandro Bolmaro, Walker Kessler, and Jarred Vanderbilt to Utah.
Again, the big coup here is the picks.
These Knicks draft selections would give the Timberwolves two first-round picks in 2024, 2026, and (likely) 2028. That is huge for a team that gave up their own first-rounders in 2023, 2025, 2027, and 2029 (plus a 2026 pick swap).
It gives the Timberwolves a real chance to reset in the next half decade and truly build around Edwards in a smart way before it is too late, and the team has to give up their young star guard as well.
In the end, the Knicks are run by a Kentucky-centric brain trust, and after missing out on Donovan Mitchell, they are itching to make a big deal. It is hard to imagine the Timberwolves getting more in a Karl-Anthony Towns trade than what the Knicks would (hypothetically) give up, so this is a solid move for a franchise in a tough spot.
Timberwolves trade grade: A-
