The Minnesota Timberwolves drastically altered the course of their future last Friday when they made the shocking decision to trade their former franchise player in Karl-Anthony Towns. The number one pick from the 2015 NBA Draft was once the cornerstone for the Timberwolves organization, and now he will be moving on to compete in the Eastern Conference with the New York Knicks.
This was an extremely surprising development, but not one that came without careful consideration. According to an insider, Minnesota took several offers concerning Towns from New York over the course of the last three months, rejecting the Knicks multiple times until they found a deal they were comfortable with. Clearly, Tim Connelly worked hard to get a good result for the Wolves.
Ultimately, the motivation for going in the direction Minnesota has chosen remains unclear, but one thing seems clear: the Timberwolves did not have the means to pay all their players and still remain as a top championship contender in the Western Conference. That appeared to be the team's primary motivation to trade their second-best player.
But speaking at Timberwolves practice on Wednesday, Jace Frederick of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Chris Finch seemed to dispute that notion with his latest comments. "I think it's extremely important to recognize this is not a money deal," said Finch. "This deal, in totality, checks a lot of boxes."
Chris Finch: “I think it’s extremely important to recognize this is not a $ deal. … this deal, in totality, checks a lot of boxes.”
— Jace frederick (@JaceFrederick) October 2, 2024
Finch: Trading Karl-Anthony Towns "not a money deal"
This is a bit of a surprising statement from Finch at first glance, but you can understand the motivations behind him saying something like this. He did not want to tell everyone that the Timberwolves only did this deal because of cost-saving reasons. Doing so would serve to devalue the new players Minnesota has coming in.
There is also plenty of truth to the second part of Chris' statement as well. The trade that the Wolves pulled off checked a lot of boxes as to what they needed. In the Dallas series in the conference finals, Minnesota struggled to attack matchups in the post offensively. Getting a guy like Julius Randle in the mix should serve to change that in a big way.
Given that Donte DiVincenzo will in all likelihood come off the bench, he will be in position to contend for Sixth Man of the Year right alongside Naz Reid. Donte's presence will be huge for the Timberwolves' bench unit. So Finch is absolutely correct that this deal should be beneficial to Minnesota in multiple facets.
In the end, it is probably still true that the finances played a big part in the Wolves agreeing to this trade. But the other factors that Finch mentions carry weight as well, and it is not unreasonable to think Minnesota now has a more well-rounded roster overall.