The winners and losers of the Karl-Anthony Towns-Julius Randle trade

Evaluating every aspect of the shocking Knicks-Timberwolves trade.

In the final stages of the offseason’s dregs, the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks produced a mind-bender of a trade.

Very rarely do contending teams swap key players, but that’s what we got here. The Knicks, already loaded, added another star player in Karl-Anthony Towns — solving what had previously been a glaring weakness at center. The Timberwolves shipped out the second-best player from their Western Conference Finals team to bring in Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. It’s a characteristically bold move for both franchises.

There’s a lot of angles here, and all of them have significant implications for the present and future of the NBA’s top tier. Let’s take a look.

Winner: Jalen Brunson and the Knicks’ spacing

First thing’s first: the Knicks offense just got a lot better. Mikal Bridges and his floor spacing already helps Brunson, but now the Knicks can join in on the Celtics-led trend of five-out basketball. Brunson is going have a field day compared to the tight confines of last season.

Consider that in last year’s playoffs, Brunson usually shared the court with Josh Hart and a non-shooting center. With Brunson serving as the Knicks’ only consistent creator, opposing defenses sold out to make things tough on him. They ranged way off of Hart and stationed help defenders constantly in driving lanes.

Brunson and his crafty maneuvering managed to overcome that, but it’s hard to overstate how much easier Towns will make his life. All of a sudden, Hart is the worst shooter in the Knicks starting lineup. The Knicks can have everybody stand on the perimeter while Brunson operates.

As good as Brunson was as an offensive engine, the numbers showed the difficulty of his circumstances. Of the 35 players who shot or passed out of at least 200 isos last season, Brunson ranked 31st in points per possession. I’d bet on that number increasing this year.

Towns gives him a deadly pick and roll partner. Most teams won’t be able to switch that, with Brunson attacking bigs and Towns bullying smaller players. The Knicks should be able to generate consistent advantages with that play.

This offense has a chance to be elite.

Loser: Minnesota’s title chances this season

There are ways, admittedly, the Wolves get better immediately with this trade. Randle is a more reliable offensive creator than Towns, a more effective off-the-dribble playmaker and significantly better passer. DiVincenzo fills out what had previously been a thin bench, and provides them with a much-needed dose of three-point bombing.

But I’m more pessimistic than most on what this means for the 2024-25 Timberwolves. And that is an important consideration when you have as good of a roster as the Wolves have. They are coming off a season in which they knocked out the title favorite Nuggets in a heavyweight battle and then lost in the conference finals. This is a title contender.

There is a talent downgrade from Towns to Randle. Towns is a deadeye shooter and an effective off-ball player who meshes with Anthony Edwards. Randle tends to hold the ball much longer than Towns and operates in the midrange, making him a tougher fit with Edwards. Whatever your mileage on Towns’s rollercoaster performance in the 2024 playoffs, Randle has consistently underperformed in the postseason in his career.

Losing Towns removes the defensive strategy that beat the Nuggets, who still arguably loom as the Western Conference favorite. Towns could credibly guard Nikola Jokic with Rudy Gobert as a roamer. Randle might fare better defensively in other matchups, but he won’t be able to do the same work on Jokic.

Randle’s offensive fit with Gobert could be clunky. They will have to weaponize the Randle-Gobert pick-and-roll as a form of secondary offense, and stagger Randle and Edwards as much as possible.

Winner: The Timberwolves’ financial flexibility

While I question the Wolves’ on-court outlook, there’s no doubt that this trade stabilizes their rocky financial situation. Their ownership, which is currently locked in litigation, was on the hook for a hefty luxury tax bill after years of spending the minimum. This trade lessens that impact.

Multiple key players, including Gobert, Alexander-Walker, and Reid, are up for new contracts next the offseason, and there was little chance of re-signing all of them with their current cap situation. The move that made sense was always to move Towns’s max salary. It had seemed likely, though, that they would wait until the trade deadline or after the season to make that decision — with the goal of giving this team a fair shot at another playoff run.

Instead, Tim Connelly and co. jumped at this opportunity. They will now likely have enough room to retain their core after this season — and they clearly see Reid as a foundational piece. DiVincenzo is a crucial part of this trade; his contract is incredibly team-friendly, carrying through 2027, and his on-court fit is undeniable. Minnesota also adds a protected Pistons first round pick, which should be a convenient trade chip.

If Randle proves to be a good fit and the Wolves are able to remain one of the conference’s top contenders, then this trade could turn out like the Gobert deal from two years ago: a bold, risky maneuver that works out better than most expect.

Loser: The Knicks’ wing depth

Concern from the Knicks perspective comes down to two things: defense and depth.

Let’s start with the depth issue. The Knicks were already a top-heavy team, which plays into Tom Thibodeau’s infamous habit of keeping his starters on the court as much as possible. Now they’ve traded two key pieces for one, further diminishing their rotation.

With center Mitchell Robinson likely out for months to start the season, here is the Knicks bench: Miles McBride, Precious Achiuwa, Landry Shamet, and Jericho Sims. Two of those guys are centers, and another (Shamet) isn’t even signed to a full NBA contract yet.

Hart is a do-it-all ironman and Bridges has literally never missed a game in his life. But OG Anunoby has a lengthy injury history and he essentially has no backup. Rookies Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet might be thrust into action earlier than expected. The Knicks don’t have much flexibility to add pieces, either.

Integrating Towns on defense will be a fascinating process. After two years playing power forward next to Gobert and Reid, Towns will go back to nominally playing center — a position where he struggled defensively in the past for Minnesota. The Knicks have the personnel to cover for him, and can use Anunoby and Hart on some opposing centers, hiding Towns from pick and roll actions.

Towns’s defensive weaknesses are his lack of footspeed in drop coverage — letting speedy ball-handlers get around him — and his struggles to protect the rim. With one of the league’s best casts of rangy wings and perimeter stoppers, those weaknesses should be minimized.

The Knicks now have one of the best starting lineups in the league, and look tailor-made to challenge the Celtics.