Karl-Anthony Towns Was Reportedly Traded To The Knicks, And Even KAT Seemed Surprised

The New York Knicks have their eyes on winning an NBA championship, and on Friday night, the team swung for the fences in a big way. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves came to terms on a deal that will send long-rumored Knicks target Karl-Anthony Towns to the Big Apple.

According to Charania and Bobby Marks of ESPN, the Knicks will send the duo of Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Timberwolves to acquire Towns, a native of New Jersey who has spent his entire career in Minnesota after the team made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Marks noted that there are still financial terms that need to be sorted out, but the Knicks won’t send reserve guard Miles McBride to the Wolves to facilitate this deal, while Jon Karwczynski of The Athletic reports that a future first-round pick is going to the Wolves, too.

In what appears to be a sign of how out of left field this deal was, even Towns expressed surprise on his Twitter account.

Much has been made about the fact that the Timberwolves are in a financially difficult place with Towns, Rudy Gobert, and Anthony Edwards all on big-money deals, and this should provide them some financial flexibility, as DiVincenzo doesn’t make a ton of money and Randle is on an expiring deal. As for the Knicks, Towns should help with their hole at center, although it will be interesting to see how he fits into Tom Thibodeau’s system as a big man who is not known for his rim protection.

To help make the deal work financially and be legal under the CBA, the Hornets are getting involved and taking on salary from the Knicks, including DaQuan Jeffries, with some draft compensation coming their way for the trouble, per Shams Charania and Tim Bontemps.