The New York Knicks pulled off their second blockbuster move of the offseason, by landing Karl-Anthony Towns in a three-team trade. The move stunned the basketball world and NBA fans had some interesting reactions to it.
A fan thinks the Knicks are headed to the Finals.
Finals bound – just skip the season damnit!
— Kristen Cook (@KristenKKCook) September 28, 2024
One felt this move shook up the balance of power in the NBA.
https://twitter.com/franklinisbored/status/1839851757389701383
A Celtics fan thinks they’re still the top dog in the East.
Celtics still clear
— Savage (@SavageSports_) September 28, 2024
One reckons the Towns-Jalen Brunson combination will cause problems for the rest of the NBA.
That Towns, Brunson pick & pop might feed families frfr
— Matty (@mattycoverss) September 28, 2024
A fan felt this was a good move for both teams.
Good get for both teams.
Knicks add a big that can score and spread the defense.
Minnesota gets KAT off the books, Julius will carve out a good role, and Donte goes right into the rotation and will play off AE well.
— AlwaysKnocking (@AlwaysKnocking) September 28, 2024
I think this is a good move for the Knicks. Towns, who averaged 21.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game last season, is a great fit with their roster and adds another dimension to their offense with his shooting. They have got the 28-year-old in just before training camp too, so he’ll get to work with this group before the games begin as well.
With this move, the Knicks have well and truly gone all in. They gave up a lot of their draft capital to acquire Mikal Bridges earlier this offseason and have now given away two of their most tradable assets in Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.
The Knicks, the second seed in the East with a 50-32 record last season, are now banking on the core of Towns, Bridges, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart to take them to the Promised Land. I do give them a realistic shot at winning it all with this group, but the Boston Celtics are still better in my opinion.
I’d love to see a series between the Celtics and the Knicks in 2025 and hopefully, we get it in the Eastern Conference Finals. The two teams nearly did face off in the Conference Finals last season, but New York suffered one too many injuries and lost in seven games in the Conference Semifinals to the Indiana Pacers.
As for the Timberwolves, who did make the Western Conference Finals last season, I don’t like this trade for them. Randle, DiVincenzo, and a protected Detroit Pistons first-round draft pick is what they got, and I am not a fan of that haul.
While Randle is an All-Star level player, a frontcourt of him and Rudy Gobert doesn’t seem like a great one, from a spacing standpoint. Gobert cannot shoot from outside while Randle went just 31.1% from beyond the arc last season.
A big reason why Towns and Gobert worked as a pairing, was because the former is an excellent shooter, going 41.6% from three in 2023-24. With Randle now there instead, backup big man Naz Reid is the only reliable shooter in that frontcourt and it will be very interesting to see what plans the Timberwolves have in place to make it work.
As for that draft pick, it might seem quite valuable as it is from the Pistons, but it isn’t really. It is top-13 protected in 2025, top-11 in 2026, top-nine in 2027, and will become a second-round pick after that.
The Pistons look unlikely to pick outside the top 10 anytime soon, so this is likely going to be a second-round pick and won’t be of much value. DiVincenzo is the only acquisition that I like, but he isn’t really someone who is going to move the needle. This just seems like a bad trade for the Timberwolves, but time will tell.
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