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Grade the Trade: Wolves send Towns to Grizzlies in blockbuster proposal

By Josh Cornelissen

Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.
Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. /
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Minnesota Timberwolves
Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Steven Adams, Memphis Grizzlies. Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images /

Laying out the Towns trade

The Memphis Grizzlies aren’t going to break up their core to add Karl-Anthony Towns, and nor should they. He hasn’t demonstrated that he can win at a high enough level for a good team to change everything they are doing to rely on Towns instead.

They do have enough matching salary to facilitate a deal, however, and with a first-round pick added on top may result in the best offer the Wolves will find on the market given how expensive Towns is about to become. That deal would look something like this:

The Grizzlies giving up Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke will be painful, as both players have been key for the Grizzlies over the past two seasons (Clarke for more than that) but they have to match Towns’ salary somehow. Luke Kennard is a valuable shooter they acquired last season, but adding Towns’ shooting helps to mitigate that loss.

Offensively, the Grizzlies would be downright dangerous. A starting lineup of Ja Morant, Marcus Smart, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Karl-Anthony Towns would be lethal, with high-end floor-spacing from the frontcourt to balance out the middling shooting from the backcourt. Smart, Bane, and JJJ are all great-to-elite defensively, balancing the lineup out.

The Grizzlies might be the team best equipped to handle Towns’ weaknesses and benefit most from his strengths. Yet even if this deal works for Memphis, is it enough for the Wolves to move Towns?