The Minnesota Timberwolves are stepping into the spotlight, which will mean more attention on the Karl-Anthony Towns situation.
Describing it as a "situation" even feels too intense. The basics are these:
- Anthony Edwards is the best player on the team at this point and going forward, that's clear and essentially indisputable.
- Towns is a target for criticism due to his inconsistency, public comments on his own "greatness," and an approach that borders on "trying too hard while still disappearing on both ends often."
- There is a widespread belief that Towns is available in trade discussions, a claim that sources close to the Wolves continue to say is overblown, if not outright wrong.
- The Knicks are interested in trading for Towns; their interest was first reported in preseason. Notably, Towns is repped by superpower agency CAA, which league sources consistently joke effectively runs the Knicks. Knicks President Leon Rose was a longtime agent with CAA, and the links to CAA have run through the organization for decades.
So if the team is Ant's for the foreseeable future, shouldn't the Wolves look to deal Towns?
It's complicated.
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There is a feeling in league circles that aren't involved with the Timberwolves or Knicks that this situation is largely being promoted from within New York.
The Knicks have been stockpiling assets to acquire a superstar (repped by CAA) for the last several years. Joel Embiid was thought to be the No.1 target last year and over the summer, with hope that the James Harden situation would create an implosion resulting in a trade request from last year's MVP. But with the Sixers off to an excellent start alongside Tyrese Maxey's emergence into All-Star status, there is a belief that the Sixers may have done enough to keep Embiid at least through the season.
(This last element is speculative, but most Philadelphia reporting on the subject has suggested the clock on Embiid's time with the Sixers starts this summer and not before.)
So the attention turns to Towns as the most available star (repped by CAA) for the Knicks to put together a trade package for, resulting in reports of interest.
As for the Wolves, sources say they remain open to discussions on improving the team but are far from "shopping" Towns and any price will be steep as you would expect for a team with leverage and a star on the market.
This is the other complicating factor for the Knicks in any talks for Towns. The Knicks' big trade piece is Julius Randle, who's going through the down year he goes through every other season. Randle is a two-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player who most front offices don't covet.
The Wolves are not down on Randle; he's known as a good player to work with. But his style of basketball is also tricky to facilitate. The Wolves might just be trading one problem (that doesn't seem like much of a problem right now) for another.
Beyond Randle, the Knicks would likely look to include Sixth Man of the Year candidate Immanuel Quickley who coach Tom Thibodeau never seems to believe in enough. The Knicks, multiple sources told Action Network, do not intend on making Mitchell Robinson available in any such talks; they prefer to try and replicate the two-big look of Minnesota with Towns and Gobert only with Mitchell.
The sticking point would be RJ Barrett, who was likely very gettable this summer after signing a four-year, $120 million (with incentives) extension last fall. The Wolves would likely look for Barrett in such a deal, but Barrett is finally having a breakout season, averaging a career-high in points and assists while shooting 50% from 3 and 70% eFG on catch-and-shoot shots this season per Synergy Sports.
So now that Barrett is the kind of player that could net a star in return, the Knicks likely are less incentivized to include him. And around and around we go.
Further complications include some murkiness on how Thibodeau feels about Towns after coaching him in Minnesota for the Jimmy Butler fiasco and if Minnesota would look to move some of the expiring contracts they have on the roster, like Mike Conley and Kyle Anderson.
But the more pressing obstacle to any trade talks involving Towns is… the Wolves are excellent. Minnesota sits at 8-3 with the league's best defense against the league's best defensive strength of schedule at DunksAndThrees.com.
There's a real verve and vibe with the team that suggests they may be having one of those seasons where everything comes together for a team to make a run. Messing with that doesn't seem to make much sense, given how much criticism the team's front office earned for the Gobert trade.
And Towns isn't interrupting any of the Wolves' success. Minnesota has a +7.5 net rating with Towns on-court, four points better than when he's on the bench; the offense is 15 points per 100 possessions better when he's on the floor. (Though the defense is 11.7 points per 100 possessions worse.)
The eye test backs this up. Towns has engaged himself more fully this season after losing most of last season to injury, and after a shooting slump to begin the season, he made 14-of-27 threes in the four games before coming back down to earth on the back-to-back in Phoenix Wednesday.
Still, there are some signs of concern, like how much better the minutes of Edwards and Gobert are without Towns, and vice versa with the two bigs and no Edwards. And the question lingers if this can genuinely be Edwards's team as it has been KAT's for so long.
But for now, the Wolves are finding their ceiling, and the Knicks remain patient in waiting for the right star to come available. There are always plot twists in the NBA season, but for now, you should be skeptical of seeing Towns in the orange and blue in the immediate future.
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