Knicks Swap Randle for Towns in Big Preseason Move

The NBA season is still a month away, but it feels like it just kicked off last night. The first post Woj bomb by Shams Charania was more like a nuke as he reported on X that the New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves were making a blockbuster deal. He reported that the Knicks and Timberwolves made were swapping Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle in a deal that also included Donte Divincenzo. Is semmed like the majority of NBA fans were shocked and surprised so lets dive in.

Final Trade Details

In order to get this done, Charlotte needed to be included in the final deal. So here are the details Shams later added:

Minnesota Timberwolves Receive

• Julius Randle
• Donte DiVincenzo
• First Round Pick

New York Knicks Receive

• Karl-Anthony Towns

Charlotte Hornets

• DaQuan Jeffries
• Draft Compensation

Timberwolves Pair Randle with Gobert

The Timberwolves have now officially moved away from their big man duo of Gobert and Towns. At time it seemed that those two just could not be on the floor at the same time. That is a tough position to be in when they are making over $90 million a year combined. Although they gave it a really good effort, good enough to make the WCF, it looked to be inevitable that they would need to break that duo up to make it to the next level. They now swap out Towns for Randle, who is making about $20 million less than Towns. The fit may be a bit clunky on the offensive end, but they have more space now to make some moves. Not to mention they added a huge spark off the bench from DiVincenzo.

Towns comes Home to Break Up the Nova Knicks

The major move New York made to get Mikal Bridges seems like a lifetime ago now as DiVincenzo needed to get shipped out to complete the Towns deal. The core 4 Villanova players did not even get to play a game togeter before that was broken up. But in return, Towns gets to come back to the East Coast and play for the team he probably grew up watching.

He bolsters the Knicks center depth that was a huge concern after losing Hardenstein, as well as adds a more flexible option on the offensive side. He will be able to stretch the floor in a way Randle couldn't and will play nicely with the Brunson centered offense. There has been some concerns about Towns on the defensive end, usually involving foul trouble but joining some long athletic defenders in Anunoby and Bridges I am sure Towns can do plenty to round out the starting 5 on both ends of the ball.

So who won the Trade

To be completely honest I think both teams did well here. Timberwolves were looking to move off towns for more than a year and at points it seemed like there was not going to be a destination for him. They ended up being able to get an all star power forward in return along with some bench depth, and although there are concerns about the fit its a solid return.

Without a doubt this is a win now, high risk-high reward move from the Knicks. Last year, there were points where Randle appeared to be unhappy with his performance or lack of involvement. All that being said he along with DiVincenzo and the rest of the team were fully bought into the team and Coach Thibs. One concern worth mentioning is it did not seem like Towns and Thibs got along well during their time in Minnesota. Potentialy chemistry issues are a possibility but if not and Towns buys in fully, this can launch the Knicks into true title contention.

Welcome back NBA, see you in a month.