The NBA was hit with a monster trade between two legitimate championship contenders just days before most of the league’s teams report to training camp for the new season. Karl-Anthony Towns is now a member of the New York Knicks. Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo have joined the Minnesota Timberwolves.
It’s the type of deal that can only happen in the NBA: established stars with huge salaries on both sides being swapped without a single whisper it was coming. A blockbuster like this doesn’t just impact the teams making the trade. Suddenly, the playoff picture in both conferences has been turned upside down on one of the very last days of the offseason.
We already handed out our instant grades for this deal. Now let’s zoom out and see how it affects both the bigger and smaller picture around the league. Here’s the winners and losers from the Knicks/Wolves stunner.
Winner: The Knicks’ filling their biggest hole
The Knicks were about to start the season with Precious Achiuwa and Jericho Sims on their lone centers as Mitchell Robinson recovered from ankle surgery that would sideline him until Dec. or Jan. Robinson will return eventually, but he hardly feels like someone New York can rely on because he’s always hurt. Losing Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency felt like it was going to be a devastating loss for the Knicks until they found a viable solution to their big man problem elsewhere. In trading for Towns, New York answered its biggest question in resounding fashion.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25648766/2154752787.jpg)
Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images Winner: The Knicks’ spacing
The Knicks did not have a five-out look they could go to this season unless you squinted hard enough to imagine OG Anunoby as their big man. KAT immediately changes that: he’s both a high volume and highly accurate three-point shooter, with rare shooting versatility for a big man. How many 7-footers can run off screens to rip threes or hit step-backs with range like Towns? Very, very few. Acquiring a stretch five in Kristaps Porzingis was a key in the Boston Celtics’ championship roster construction last year. Before last years Celtics, the 2023 champion Denver Nuggets got shooting out of Nikola Jokic, and the 2021 champion Milwaukee Bucks had Brook Lopez stretching out defenses from deep. Do you need a five-out look to win a championship in today’s NBA? It might not be a total necessity, but it sure is nice to have. The Knicks got there with the Towns trade.
Loser: The Knicks’ depth
Trading two good players for one good player means your depth is going to take a hit, and that’s exactly the case for New York. The Knicks are now suddenly pretty thin in the backcourt behind Jalen Brunson. There will be a lot of pressure on Deuce McBride to continue his breakout late last season. Any of Cam Payne, Landry Shamet, and rookie Tyler Kolek might see real playing at some point. The Knicks’ top six in the rotation is extremely strong once Robinson returns, and McBride should be perfectly fine as a seventh man, but it’s hard to get through an 82-game season without a deep bench. Head coach Tom Thibodeau rides his starters harder than any coach in the league, but he’s going to have to find more than seven or eight contributors along the way if New York wants to be healthy for the playoffs.
Loser: Wolves’ 2025 championship chances
Minnesota had arguably its best season in franchise history last year, winning 56 games and knocking out the defending championship Denver Nuggets in round two to reach the Western Conference Finals. In Anthony Edwards, the Wolves have a young franchise player who is quickly hurtling up the league’s superstar hierarchy. Everyone knew the Wolves were too expensive to keep together forever, but don’t they owe it to the fans to give it one more chance this season? By trading Towns, Minnesota feels like it’s lowering its ceiling for this season all to save some money on the luxury and increase its future flexibility. It’s a shame. We listed the Wolves as one of the eight teams who could win the 2025 championship last month. If they were a long shot then, they’re a longer shot now. It’s possible getting rid of KAT’s $220 million contract will look savvy long-term, but it’s a bummer Minnesota couldn’t keep this team together for one more year.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25648767/2153260631.jpg)
Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images Winner: Denver Nuggets
Towns rarely got much credit for his contributions to the Wolves’ No. 1 defense last season, but everyone got to see how valuable he could be in the playoffs against the Nuggets. KAT drew the Nikola Jokic assignment so Rudy Gobert could sweep up behind him, and he did a reasonably good job in limiting the three-time MVP. Minnesota felt like a uniquely bad matchup for the Nuggets with their size and Edwards’ nuclear shot-making ability. The Wolves won’t be a pushover this year, but you have to figure Denver’s brass was smiling when they saw the trade come through. The Nuggets have plenty of their own problems — Can Jamal Murray regain his top form after a miserable last six months? Will any of the young players step up to replace the loss of Kevtavious Caldwell-Pope? — but a potential series with Minnesota just got a bit more comfortable.
Winner: Eastern Conference seriousness
The East has been the JV conference from the moment Michael Jordan’s second retirement started with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. Eastern Conference basketball has been making strides in seriousness over recent years, and this should be the best the top of the conference has been in recent memory. The Celtics are reigning champions and the best team in the league. The Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers each reloaded over the offseason and should have their best teams in 20 years. The Bucks still have some title upside in year two of the Damian Lillard experiment, and the middle class of playoff teams — the Pacers, the Magic, the Cavs — is much stronger than it usually is. The East has been so mediocre for so long that it’s legitimately jarring to see teams in the conference swing trades for stars or sign them in free agency. The days of the East being a joke are officially over.
Winner: Naz Reid
Reid was one of last season’s breakout players as the Sixth Man of the Year award winner for the Wolves. The 25-year-old probably isn’t moving into the starting lineup with the arrival of Julius Randle in the Towns trade, but he should be in a bigger role than ever. At 6’9, 265 pounds, Reid’s three-point shooting ability in the front court will be key to keeping the floor balanced for Anthony Edwards with Gobert as a total non-shooter and Jaden McDaniels and Randle being shaky shooters from deep. Reid seems to get better every year, and the Wolves need him to continue that trend if they want to stay at the top of the Western Conference.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25648769/2151930711.jpg)
Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images Loser: The power of friendship
The Knicks pulled the unprecedented move of bringing together four former college teammates in Brunson, DiVincenzo, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart. Villanova won two national championships around that core, and it was a fascinating idea to reunite them in the NBA. As someone who covered the 2018 Villanova team from the Final Four and cites them as one of the best men’s college basketball squads in recent memory, I was excited to see if they could recapture that same magic on the Knicks. DiVincenzo will likely have a bigger role in Minnesota, but there must be a smart part of him that’s bummed to leave his college buddies.
Winner: Wolves’ depth
Minnesota suddenly has the best bench in the league with Reid, DiVincenzo, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker making up spots 6-8 in the rotation. The charitable view of this trade for Minnesota is that they took a slight downgrade at the four to add a fantastic role player in DiVincenzo who fits like a glove next to Edwards. Minnesota also has two first round draft picks in Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. debuting this season. The Wolves should still be a very good team even if I think their ceiling is lower without Towns this season.
Loser: Knicks defense
Towns is not a natural rim protector at center. It will probably be impossible to build an elite defense with him and Brunson both in the closing lineup. Thibodeau is known as one of the best defensive tacticians of his generation, but it feels like the Knicks are making an active choice to tilt the strengths of the team towards the offense with this trade. New York still has a hell of a wing defender tandem in Anunoby and Bridges. Hart is a maniac fighting for loose balls, and Robinson is a gifted shot blocker if he’s healthy. The Knicks defense won’t be bad, but I think it got worse after the trade.
