Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 potential Karl-Anthony Towns trades

3 potential Karl-Anthony Towns trades: Timberwolves and New York Knicks

2. Trading Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks

This trade is interesting from the Knicks’ perspective.

Yes, they would acquire Towns, who is an All-Star talent, but this would sacrifice the bulk of their previous investment in their future, giving up RJ Barrett and two first-round picks. Will that be worth it for what the Knicks are trying to do?

The Knicks ultimately have to decide how they want to build their future under Tom Thibodeau, who, of course, coached Towns in Minnesota.

Do they want to build with young talent, or do they want to go star-hunting and adopt a win-now strategy? There’s also the question of whether or not Towns and Thibodeau would have a mutual interest in a reunion. By most accounts, Thibs and Towns got along decently well, and the Jimmy Butler-Andrew Wiggins dynamic was a bigger issue.

Based on Thibodeau’s history, it is hard to imaging Thibodeau signed up for a full-on rebuild, and the Knicks are likely in the market for star players, no matter the cost. That would make this trade a “go” for them.

For the Wolves, this trade would raise a lot of questions. First, how do RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, and two first-round picks fit D’Angelo Russell’s timeline? How well would Julius Randle fit into the Wolves’ system? How valuable are those draft selections their getting back? Would they be the Knicks’ own selections or the Dallas Mavericks picks they received in the Kristaps Porzingis trade?

These questions, with respect to the quality of each Knicks player involved in this trade, ultimately reveal why Gersson Rosas would be unlikely to pull the trigger on this trade.