thelesterlee
On Saturday morning, I woke up in Vermont at 6am, hungover as shit, to see my cell phone BLOWN UP with texts about a Knicks trade I missed dancing my ass off at a wedding the night before.
The rest of my weekend turned into watching Karl-Anthony Towns highlights, preparing for one of the biggest Knicks trades ever.
Knicks have acquired Karl-Anthony Towns from Minnesota for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick via Detroit, sources tell me and @JonKrawczynski. pic.twitter.com/FafQlY48Y1
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 28, 2024
MASSIVE blockbuster trade taking place the weekend before NBA Media Day. This Knicks front office has been booked and busy—acquiring OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns in a 6 month span.
We’ll get into the Knicks side of things but let’s start off talking about the T-Wolves.
From Minnesota Timberwolves perspective
Shout out to the new CBA that makes it impossible to keep a team together. The NBA heard people complain about too much player movement and decided to accelerate that by a bajillion.
Karl-Anthony Towns was traded because he makes $49 million this year.
Then makes $53 million next year.
Oh and then $57 million the year after.
And a $61 million player option in 2027 that he will opt into.
Minnesota’s run to the Western Conference Finals last season exposed their need for more playmakers because their half-court offense looked like dogshit.
It was difficult Anthony Edwards iso followed by difficult Anthony Edwards followed by a pass to Rudy Gobert that bounces off his fingertips, into the front row.
Enter Julius Randle.
Julius can play sloppy and out of control—launching 100mph fastballs at his teammate’s sneakers when they least expect it or bulldozing full speed into a stationary defender for an obvious offensive foul.
His shot selection can be all over the place and honestly, he can be a straight-up ball hog—chucking up bullshit possession after possession.
And do not let him start a game missing some jumpers. That man will be a complete non-factor defensively if he’s having a bad shooting night.
But he has something that Karl-Anthony Towns doesn’t—Julius Randle is a DOG.
Opposing teams flew into Minnesota wearing a bib, with a fork and knife in their hands, knowing they could bully KAT and Rudy Gobert’s weird asses around.
Draymond Green had Rudy Gobert in the Crippler Crossface last season and not a single Timberwolf stepped in to save him. Try that against Naz Reid and Julius Randle next season. Reid and Randle might play all 82 games in Timbs and 8 Ball jackets.
Last season, the Timberwolves were the 3rd best 3-point shooting team in the NBA. They instantly replace KAT’s shooting with Donte DiVincenzo’s 40% shooting.
Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert may be an awkward fit. Donte DiVincenzo may feel away about playing in a bench unit with Joe fucking Ingles. But the New York Knicks flew a plane into their Twin Towers and what grows from the ashes may be an NBA Championship.
From New York Knicks perspective
Karl-Anthony Towns is better than Julius Randle. I cannot stress this enough.
The New York Knicks are a more talented team after this trade than they were before.
Towns shot 55% on 2’s and 40% on 3’s last season. He is an astronomically better shooter than Julius Randle.
KAT is a flawed player.
He commits silly fouls, he charges into defenders for blatant charges and will throw little emotional fits when things don’t go his way. He can be selfish when his shot is working—worrying more about his numbers than winning—and when the stakes are highest, Towns will make backbreaking, rookie-level mistakes.
All of those words describe Julius Randle’s game too.
They have the same flaws.
Shout out to Randle for signing with the Knicks in free agency when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving played them. Randle’s rise started this movement but let’s not pretend we all knew he would transform into an All-NBA caliber guy.
Randle signed with the Knicks because he was a free agent and they offered him money. He came in with Marcus Morris and Bobby Portis. The Knicks signed 3 power forwards like, 12 minutes apart, and one of them happened to turn into an All-Star.
However, with the new All-NBA rules making the voting positionless, it’s safe to say Randle will never be close to winning one of those awards again (and probably wouldn’t have won them if the voting was always positionless).
I HATED watching Randle play sometimes. Watching him chuck up fadeaway, long 2’s was a punishment. I refuse to pretend to be sentimental about a player I’ve hate-watched for half a decade. Nothing I do will ever remove the memories of that playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks where Julius Randle looked like he was playing with a medicine ball.
The Knicks were never going to sign Randle to an extension. They could’ve either let him leave in free agency for nothing or get KARL ANTHONY TOWNS.
That Jalen Brunson/Karl-Anthony Towns 2-man game may be the best in the NBA.
It sucks to lose Donte DiVicenzo. I’m sure all the cops in town will miss their Italian hero but I reckon they have bigger problems unloading weapons in crowded subways.
Like, it would have been nice to see all 4 of the Villanova boys on the court together but I could understand Donte not wanting to go from having the literal best 3-point shooting season in Knicks history to being the 7th man and having his minutes cut in half. Donte saw Evan Fournier on the bench, staring at the floor, and knew what his future was about to look like with Thibs.
Mikal Bridges is a better basketball player than Donte DiVincenzo. I cannot stress this enough.
Between Brunson, Randle, DiVicenzo, Bridges and OG, someone would have had to make a massive sacrifice and thanks to this trade, no one has to.
Who won the Julius Randle Karl-Anthony Towns trade?
One team went to the Western Conference Finals and just traded their 2nd best player and the other team made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs without even needing the guy they traded away.
The Knicks won the trade. Duh.
But the secret to this trade was moving on from Donte DiVincenzo and giving more minutes to the new Prince of Madison Square Garden:
7 assists per game, 5:1 assist to turnover ratio
Tyler Kolek dimes from Summer League ⬇️
— Teg🚨 (@IQfor3) July 21, 2024
Knicks are going 82-0 and no one can tell me otherwise.
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