The last weekend before training camps begin around the NBA is typically a quiet one, but Friday night saw a league-shaking trade go down when the New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves agreed to a blockbuster deal that will send Karl-Anthony Towns to New York for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and a protected first round pick from Detroit.
As many quickly pointed out, the problem with that trade is that it wouldn’t be legal under the CBA as a two-team deal, because both the Knicks and Timberwolves are above the first apron. That means they had to find a third team to take on some salary to make the financials work, because neither team could take on more money than they were sending out — with the Knicks being the team taking on the bigger contract.
A half-hour after the initial framework of the deal got reported, we learned from Tim Bontemps of ESPN that the Charlotte Hornets would be the third team in the deal. Per Shams Charania, the Hornets will take on some salary from the Knicks, with DaQuan Jeffries among those on the move, along with some draft picks for their trouble. Charlotte is well below the luxury tax, so this is just some good business on their end to hop into the deal, take on a little money, and get some draft assets for their trouble. For the Knicks, they simply needed to find a team willing to take on enough money to make this work, and will be thrilled to part with some future second round picks to get this deal done and get KAT to town by the time camp starts.
