Assessing Knicks' trade paths to Karl-Anthony Towns

If you’re Knicks president Leon Rose, do you run it back next season? Do you think RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Obi Toppin, Quentin Grimes, Mitchell Robinson, etc. can help you take a step forward in 2024-25? Are you willing to bet that internal improvement of those young players – and a full year of Josh Hart – can get you past the second round next season?

Or, do you trade some of those young players and draft picks for an established star? There could be several big names on the trade market this season. Karl-Anthony Towns, Damian Lillard, Joel Embiid, Bradley Beal, Jaylen Brown etc.

Starting next Friday, you can include up to eight first-round picks in a trade. So you have the draft capital to make a competitive offer. And your young players – Barrett, Grimes, Quickley, Robinson – have improved their trade value since last summer. That gives you the opportunity to put together a compelling trade package for a top player.

With that in mind, we’ll look at the details of potential trades for top players over the next two weeks. We’ll look at Embiid, Beal, Zion Williamson and others. Today, we take a look at potential Karl-Anthony Towns trades:

WHAT WOULD THE KNICKS NEED TO GIVE UP?

Towns is making $36 million in 2023-24. The Knicks would need to send out at least $29 million to make a trade work. For purposes of this exercise, we’ll assume that the Knicks decline their 23-24 option on Derrick Rose and exercise their option on Miles McBride. The Knicks could use a number of combinations to get to the $29 million needed to execute a Towns trade.

If you include Evan Fournier ($18.8 million) in the deal, the Knicks would only need to put a combined $10 million more in the deal. Toppin ($7 million) and Quickley ($4 million) would work. Minnesota may value Fournier as a large expiring contract, which would allow them to shed salary starting in 2024-25.

If they acquired Towns, you’d think the Knicks would include either Julius Randle ($25.6 million) or Robinson ($15.6 million, descending contract) in the trade. Again, it’s not hard to get to the requisite $29 million if you include Randle or Robinson in the trade. You can satisfy trade requirements by adding Toppin, Quickley and Jericho Sims to a trade that includes Robinson.

If you put Barrett ($23.9 million, if trade occurs after 7/1/2023) in the deal, you could add Toppin or Quickley and Grimes ($2 million) to satisfy trade requirements.

Of course, the Knicks can send out more than $29 million in a trade for Towns. But we’d assume Minnesota wants to take back less salary to avoid punitive measures for big spenders in the new collective bargaining agreement.

*We’re not commenting on the wisdom of trading these players for Towns; we’re just laying out the math involved in making the trade work.

WHY WOULD HE BE TRADED?

ESPN front office Insider Bobby Marks breaks down some of the reasons why the T-Wolves may look to trade Towns here.

With extensions coming for Anthony Edwards and, potentially, Jaden McDaniels, the Timberwolves could have an untenable amount of money tied up in Towns, Rudy Gobert, Edwards and McDaniels.

Maybe new owners Mark Lore and Alex Rodriguez are willing to spend top dollar on a team with three max-salary players on it? But in the new CBA, it’s going to cost them. If they are a certain level above the luxury tax next season, they will have to salary match dollar for dollar in a trade as opposed to being able to take back more salary. The value of their midlevel exception will decline and it will be very difficult to add top players in the buy-out market. At a certain salary threshold, the Timberwolves also would be prohibited from aggregating players in a trade. This would make trades of higher-salaried players difficult.

So there are reasons for the Timberwolves to shed salary this offseason. And there are some on-court reasons that support the idea of moving Towns. Edwards’ numbers last season were better when Towns was off the court. As Marks notes, the Timberwolves’ offense was subpar with Towns and Gobert on the court. I’m sure you can find numbers that support the idea of moving Gobert. Either way, it will be onerous for Minnesota to keep the Towns-Gobert-Edwards trio intact while retaining other young players on the roster.

Would the Knicks have interest in Towns? He has plenty of ties to the organization. Towns was once represented by Rose, when Rose was an agent at CAA. Rose and executive Vice President William Wesley remain close with the Towns family. Towns’ father, Karl Towns Sr., attended Rose’s first game as Knicks team president.

Also, Knicks executive Gerrson Rosas was a lead basketball executive for the Timberwolves during Towns’ tenure.

COULD THE KNICKS STILL ADD PLAYERS AFTER A TOWNS TRADE?

Yes. Let’s assume the Knicks stay below the apron of $169 million. This would leave them with access of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($12.2) which can be used on multiple players. They’d also have access to the $7.6 million bi-annual exception. So they would have tools to add other free agents after a Towns trade.

Just food for thought as you consider what the Knicks should – or shouldn’t – do this offseason.

LOCAL TIES FOR MALONE

Mike Malone, NBA champion and head coach of the Nuggets, has New York roots. He was an assistant coach and scout with the Knicks for two years, starting in 2003. Prior to that, Malone was an assistant coach at Manhattan College under then head coach Bobby Gonzalez.

Gonzalez knew early on that Malone had talent.

“This guy was going to become a head coach,” Gonzalez, now a scout with the Detroit Pistons, says. “He had all the right stuff, the players loved him, he could recruit, he could teach.”

Gonzalez said Malone was great with Manhattan legend Luis Flores during the season after Flores transferred to Manhattan. Flores eventually led Manhattan on a run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Malone’s recruiting helped land a verbal commitment from future pro Delonte West. (West later committed to Saint Joseph’s.)

Gonzalez says Malone also helped him adjust as a first-time head coach.

“I think I helped Mike as a young assistant; he certainly helped me. I was in my first two years as a head coach so I was probably a little bit of a maniac….Mike helped me in my first two years kind of figure out, what was my identity as a head coach. But he was not going to be a lifetime assistant, you could see it early on.”

Gonzalez and Malone first met when Malone was interviewing for a spot on Pete Gillen’s staff at Providence. Malone, according to Gillen, was close to leaving the business at the time.

“Pete said (Mike) was taking his state trooper’s exam. He was almost out of coaching,” Gonzalez says. “But I met him in the interview and he was great.”

From Providence to Manhattan to NBA champion. Remarkable run for Malone.