Sep 27, 2024, 10:30 PM ET
The New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves are finalizing a blockbuster trade involving All-Stars Julius Randle and Karl-Anthony Towns, sources confirmed to ESPN on Friday night.
The deal would see Randle and Donte DiVincenzo wind up in Minnesota and Towns in New York. The Knicks are set to add a center in Towns to shore up their biggest weakness, and Minnesota is adding shooting and versatility in its quest to exceed last season’s run to the Western Conference finals.
Minnesota also will receive a 2025 top-13-protected first-round pick from New York via the Detroit Pistons, sources said.
The Charlotte Hornets are the third team in the trade, sources added, and they are expected to receive draft compensation for helping make the deal work financially.
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Talks between New York and Minnesota had taken place all summer but picked up steam in the past few days when Charlotte was brought in as the third team, sources said.
The trade was not expected to be completed for a few days.
Having just arrived back in Minnesota for the start of training camp next week, Towns was focused on building off the Timberwolves’ West finals run, and the development was “completely unexpected,” a source familiar with his thinking told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
Towns, who grew up a little under an hour outside of New York City in central New Jersey, will immediately slot into New York’s starting lineup at center, filling a massive need for the Knicks — particularly in light of incumbent center Mitchell Robinson being ruled out for at least the first two months of the season earlier this week because of offseason ankle surgery.
Towns, 28, is a four-time All-Star and a two-time All-NBA selection who has career averages of 22.9 points and 10.8 rebounds while shooting 39.8% from 3-point range. Last season in Minnesota, he averaged 21.8 points and 8.3 rebounds, while shooting 50% from the field and 41.6% from 3-point range. The No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA draft helped Minnesota advance in the playoffs for the second time in the franchise’s 35-year history while making the West finals for the first time in 20 years (it lost to Dallas in five games).
Towns, who is in Year 1 of a four-year, $220 million supermax extension he signed in 2022, will reunite with Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, whom he played under in Minnesota (2016 to 2019).
Randle, who turns 30 in December, averaged 24.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists for New York last season in 46 games before suffering a dislocated right shoulder Jan. 27. After two months of rehab, he opted to undergo season-ending surgery in April.
Randle has spent the summer rehabilitating and was expected to be ready for the start of training camp, sources said.
Randle signed with New York in 2019 and has played the best basketball of his career, making three All-Star teams and a pair of All-NBA teams while helping the Knicks make the playoffs in three of the past four seasons — matching an accomplishment the franchise has achieved only one other time this century.
| Towns | Randle | |
|---|---|---|
| PPG | 23.7 | 22.6 |
| RPG | 9.5 | 9.9 |
| APG | 3.9 | 4.7 |
| FG pct | 51% | 45% |
| — ESPN Research |
He has $28.9 million on his contract for this coming season and a $30.9 million player option for 2025-26.
He and the Knicks had not made progress on a contract extension this summer, sources told ESPN’s Shelburne, essentially signaling the Knicks’ willingness to trade him.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch previously coached Randle in New Orleans, when Finch was a Pelicans assistant coach in 2018-19. He is said to have an affinity for the star forward, sources said.
DiVincenzo, 27, signed a four-year free agent deal with the Knicks last summer and went on to make a career-high 283 3-pointers. Sources told ESPN that Minnesota was high on DiVincenzo as a free agent after he played one season with the Golden State Warriors, and his shooting will be especially needed on a Wolves team that was already a bit light in that area and now is losing Towns, one of the best shooting big men in the league.
Making the deal now means the “Villanova Knicks” — DiVincenzo, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges — never will play a game together after New York made another massive trade earlier this summer to acquire Bridges from its crosstown rival, the Brooklyn Nets.
In that deal — the first trade between the two New York teams in 40 years — New York sent out four of its unprotected future first-round picks, a future protected Milwaukee Bucks pick, a future first-round swap and a second-round selection.
Because Minnesota was well into the second apron and New York was bumping up against the first one, a third team was needed to make the deal work financially. That’s where Charlotte came in, sources said, as the Hornets were able to use salary cap exceptions to take on money from the Knicks to make the deal legal.
Doing the deal now will result in Charlotte getting draft capital for its exceptions — ones it otherwise could have held until later in the season, sources said.
At ESPN BET, the Knicks entered the day at +800 to win the NBA title this season. After the trade, those odds moved to +700, behind only the defending champion Boston Celtics (+340) and the Oklahoma City Thunder (+650).
The Knicks and Timberwolves are scheduled to play a preseason game in New York on Oct. 13. They play the first of two regular-season contests against each other Dec. 19 in Minneapolis.
The Athletic first reported talks on the deal.
