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Yall spent the whole playoffs throwing dirt on Sir Purr and now it's some travesty that the Wolves moved on. Julius Randle will make this a non issue
The Official NBA Season Thread: SFA Prevails
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by pmatic,
- Start date
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I wish you the best of luck if you think Julius Randle is going to accept a bench role in a contract year
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Feel like Donte would've started and played 30 mpg.
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dontsteponmyshoes
Supporter
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I don't feel like anybody in the top 7 of the Knicks should ever worry about playtime when Thibs is the coach
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I need KAT to grab boards like he did before playing with Rudy
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You think JB taking less if this move was on the table?
Moheezy
formerly mizzoe33
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Gobert/Randle front court
Enjoy the last season of Naz on this team
I would’ve prefer to run it back. Media day kicks off and you’re doing a trade this close to the season? This season don’t mean absolute $&@% now to me. Ant will show out cool but now Randle & Gobert have PO options and will pick up, Naz will get a huge contract thrown at him so the Wolves can’t match.
There better be a plan and I’m emotional as hell but KD is not fixing this for me at this point with all the crap that comes with him and his recent injury history too.
Just run it back Dallas was the only other team that we have to compete with. OKC? we body up front, SAC? Whatever, PHX? They still trash! Memphis, FOH. Both LA teams and GS not making the play in so why do this move outside of the money?
I am petty confident the Wolves will prioritize Naz over Randle. Randle has a player option for next year so there is flexibility with what to do with him, also makes it easier to trade.
At the end of the day, it was unfortunately a money issue with the Wolves, but they made the most of it by getting deeper at the guard position (very much needed) while also getting a first round pick. I still feel like this is not the final move for Minny depending on how things work out with Randle.
As for the Knicks, I think surrounding KAT with defensive players will help cover his defensive shortcomings. They filled a position of desperate need with a multiple time all star.
What’s strange is that KAT played for Thibs in the past and went though the whole Jimmy Bulter situation. I guess Thibs doesn’t mind KAT’s attitude and approach to the game?
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On top of giving away an M and getting traded.I wish you the best of luck if you think Julius Randle is going to accept a bench role in a contract year
Time to recoup that money
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Why Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle trade may turn ‘best player’ maxim on its head
Towns for Randle. You could hardly draw up a better trade for the worst fears of each team’s fan base.
Did the T’wolves just cheap out on their best team in two decades now that Glen Taylor is back in the owner’s saddle? Did the Knicks needlessly chase an expensive shiny object who happens to be a former Leon Rose client?
Or … did both teams actually do the right thing here?
Let’s take a look.
First, the particulars of the trade. The Minnesota Timberwolves will send Karl-Anthony Towns to New York, where we can look forward to a new batch of announcers calling him “Anthony-Towns” for half a season before figuring out his name. In return, the Knicks will send Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Diop and a protected 2025 first-round pick from Detroit to Minnesota.
As a sidebar to the deal, the Knicks will send $8.8 million in salary flotsam to Charlotte and pay the Hornets with draft picks to absorb it. Cap nerds will enjoy the fact that it appears Charlotte will be the first team to use its nontaxpayer midlevel exception as a trade exception, a new wrinkle of the 2023 CBA.
At the time I’m writing this, the exact players and compensation between New York and Charlotte weren’t totally clear, but New York could sign and trade DeQuan Jeffries and Charlie Brown Jr. to bridge the $8.8 million gap needed to make this a legal trade. The Knicks have a stash of multiple future second-round picks to incentivize the trade.
There may also be a small piece from the Wolves to Charlotte to satisfy NBA trade rules; the Wolves’ roster is now at 16 players, two above the minimum, and with Minnesota still $27 million into the tax, it’s possible a player would go outbound to Charlotte.
At first glance, the maxim in NBA trades is that the team that gets the best player ends up winning. Towns is a year younger than Randle, and most observers would say he’s better, too. Additionally, the Knicks had a glaring need on the roster at center, and Towns is more capable of filling that role than Randle.
Randle, meanwhile, has a player option for $30.9 million in 2025-26; in late March, the Wolves could nuke that final year and sign him to an extension for up to four years and $181 million, though they’d be unlikely to go quite that high. Whatever his next contract pays him in 2025-26, it won’t be $53 million; in fact, DiVincenzo and Randle combined are unlikely to make that much.
The upshot of that particular fact is that the Wolves are likely to land well below the second apron in 2025-26 and not have their 2033 draft pick frozen. If they rework Rudy Gobert’s deal (he has a player option for $46.6 million in 2025-26; he and the Wolves could sign an extension that smoothed out the money) they might even achieve the Glen Taylor fantasy of not owing any tax at all.
More likely, they’ll still be over the tax but will have enough wiggle room to either re-sign Naz Reid or use their nontaxpayer midlevel exception on a replacement. That was unlikely to be the case if Towns stayed on his deal.
The other aspect of this deal is that the gap between Towns and Randle may not be as steep as you think. BORD$ values Towns at $41 million and Randle at $37 million for the coming season. While some of that latter valuation is because Randle is a bit of an innings eater, it’s also because he has more on-ball playmaking juice than Towns and is less likely to throw a hook pass into the seventh row. As long as Randle isn’t damaged goods from a January shoulder injury, this might not be much of a downgrade for Minnesota.
Randle is not Towns’ equal as a shooter or rebounder, and the Wolves are already short on shooting. Enter DiVincenzo. He bombed away from 3 last season (283 makes, 40.1 percent accuracy) and has one of the best contracts in the league. A player BORD$ values at $29 million, he makes only $11.4 million this year and is signed through 2027.
That first-round pick is not nothing either, although it’s a much lesser consideration than these three excellent players headlining the trade. It’s a top-13 protected pick from Detroit that changes to top-11 protection in 2026 and top-nine protection in 2027 before turning into a second. It has a decent chance to be a mid-first-round pick in 2027 especially, but it might end up only conveying as a pick in the 30s in 2027.
The important aspect of his pick is the future trade flexibility for the Wolves, who had no assets of their own left to use in any trades. But a pick like this could grease a mid-sized deal in-season or, more probably, in the 2025 offseason.
So, it’s hard for me to be critical of this deal for Minnesota. Randle arguably fits better next to Gobert and has a much better contract than Towns did, and the Wolves got an awesome sixth man and a tradable pick in the process. My projection system has Minnesota adding three wins as a result of this deal, and the Wolves also got more future cap flexibility and received a draft pick.
And for the Knicks? I’m worried this makes their roster too top-heavy and hollows out the wing depth. New York’s remaining group now leans a little too heavily into the Thibodeauian fantasy of using only six players the entire night for all 82 games and hoping they don’t collapse in a heap in the playoffs. (Yes, I just made up a word with five consecutive vowels. Heat-checks aren’t just for players, y’all.)
Here’s the scary part for New York: This is a win-now trade, and the Knicks’ projection in my system didn’t get better after I input the changes. In fact, they got significantly worse, dropping by 2.5 wins. One can argue that the playoff version of the Knicks would get a different grade, when it is more dependent on the top six players, but that would depend on Thibodeau not killing them all before April. Additionally, New York has little draft capital left to trade and is mere pennies from the second apron cap. It’s likely stuck with this roster until next offseason.
Yes, New York will likely backfill the roster to make the endgame of the trade look a bit better than it does right now. This is one of the league’s most creative front offices, and it has mined the NBA scrap heap pretty effectively in the past.
Nonetheless, this may be a trade where that “get the best player” maxim is turned on its head. The problem of how to eventually dispose of Towns’ mammoth contract was an issue that had loomed over the Wolves’ future almost from the day he signed his extension. Somehow, Minnesota’s front office artfully handled it with two pieces that really fit and made the cap situation more tenable.
As for New York? Yes, the Knicks solved their starting center problem … but in doing so, they created enough other issues that the cure may be worse than the disease.
Towns for Randle. You could hardly draw up a better trade for the worst fears of each team’s fan base.
Did the T’wolves just cheap out on their best team in two decades now that Glen Taylor is back in the owner’s saddle? Did the Knicks needlessly chase an expensive shiny object who happens to be a former Leon Rose client?
Or … did both teams actually do the right thing here?
Let’s take a look.
First, the particulars of the trade. The Minnesota Timberwolves will send Karl-Anthony Towns to New York, where we can look forward to a new batch of announcers calling him “Anthony-Towns” for half a season before figuring out his name. In return, the Knicks will send Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Diop and a protected 2025 first-round pick from Detroit to Minnesota.
As a sidebar to the deal, the Knicks will send $8.8 million in salary flotsam to Charlotte and pay the Hornets with draft picks to absorb it. Cap nerds will enjoy the fact that it appears Charlotte will be the first team to use its nontaxpayer midlevel exception as a trade exception, a new wrinkle of the 2023 CBA.
At the time I’m writing this, the exact players and compensation between New York and Charlotte weren’t totally clear, but New York could sign and trade DeQuan Jeffries and Charlie Brown Jr. to bridge the $8.8 million gap needed to make this a legal trade. The Knicks have a stash of multiple future second-round picks to incentivize the trade.
There may also be a small piece from the Wolves to Charlotte to satisfy NBA trade rules; the Wolves’ roster is now at 16 players, two above the minimum, and with Minnesota still $27 million into the tax, it’s possible a player would go outbound to Charlotte.
At first glance, the maxim in NBA trades is that the team that gets the best player ends up winning. Towns is a year younger than Randle, and most observers would say he’s better, too. Additionally, the Knicks had a glaring need on the roster at center, and Towns is more capable of filling that role than Randle.
Randle, meanwhile, has a player option for $30.9 million in 2025-26; in late March, the Wolves could nuke that final year and sign him to an extension for up to four years and $181 million, though they’d be unlikely to go quite that high. Whatever his next contract pays him in 2025-26, it won’t be $53 million; in fact, DiVincenzo and Randle combined are unlikely to make that much.
The upshot of that particular fact is that the Wolves are likely to land well below the second apron in 2025-26 and not have their 2033 draft pick frozen. If they rework Rudy Gobert’s deal (he has a player option for $46.6 million in 2025-26; he and the Wolves could sign an extension that smoothed out the money) they might even achieve the Glen Taylor fantasy of not owing any tax at all.
More likely, they’ll still be over the tax but will have enough wiggle room to either re-sign Naz Reid or use their nontaxpayer midlevel exception on a replacement. That was unlikely to be the case if Towns stayed on his deal.
The other aspect of this deal is that the gap between Towns and Randle may not be as steep as you think. BORD$ values Towns at $41 million and Randle at $37 million for the coming season. While some of that latter valuation is because Randle is a bit of an innings eater, it’s also because he has more on-ball playmaking juice than Towns and is less likely to throw a hook pass into the seventh row. As long as Randle isn’t damaged goods from a January shoulder injury, this might not be much of a downgrade for Minnesota.
Randle is not Towns’ equal as a shooter or rebounder, and the Wolves are already short on shooting. Enter DiVincenzo. He bombed away from 3 last season (283 makes, 40.1 percent accuracy) and has one of the best contracts in the league. A player BORD$ values at $29 million, he makes only $11.4 million this year and is signed through 2027.
That first-round pick is not nothing either, although it’s a much lesser consideration than these three excellent players headlining the trade. It’s a top-13 protected pick from Detroit that changes to top-11 protection in 2026 and top-nine protection in 2027 before turning into a second. It has a decent chance to be a mid-first-round pick in 2027 especially, but it might end up only conveying as a pick in the 30s in 2027.
The important aspect of his pick is the future trade flexibility for the Wolves, who had no assets of their own left to use in any trades. But a pick like this could grease a mid-sized deal in-season or, more probably, in the 2025 offseason.
So, it’s hard for me to be critical of this deal for Minnesota. Randle arguably fits better next to Gobert and has a much better contract than Towns did, and the Wolves got an awesome sixth man and a tradable pick in the process. My projection system has Minnesota adding three wins as a result of this deal, and the Wolves also got more future cap flexibility and received a draft pick.
And for the Knicks? I’m worried this makes their roster too top-heavy and hollows out the wing depth. New York’s remaining group now leans a little too heavily into the Thibodeauian fantasy of using only six players the entire night for all 82 games and hoping they don’t collapse in a heap in the playoffs. (Yes, I just made up a word with five consecutive vowels. Heat-checks aren’t just for players, y’all.)
Here’s the scary part for New York: This is a win-now trade, and the Knicks’ projection in my system didn’t get better after I input the changes. In fact, they got significantly worse, dropping by 2.5 wins. One can argue that the playoff version of the Knicks would get a different grade, when it is more dependent on the top six players, but that would depend on Thibodeau not killing them all before April. Additionally, New York has little draft capital left to trade and is mere pennies from the second apron cap. It’s likely stuck with this roster until next offseason.
Yes, New York will likely backfill the roster to make the endgame of the trade look a bit better than it does right now. This is one of the league’s most creative front offices, and it has mined the NBA scrap heap pretty effectively in the past.
Nonetheless, this may be a trade where that “get the best player” maxim is turned on its head. The problem of how to eventually dispose of Towns’ mammoth contract was an issue that had loomed over the Wolves’ future almost from the day he signed his extension. Somehow, Minnesota’s front office artfully handled it with two pieces that really fit and made the cap situation more tenable.
As for New York? Yes, the Knicks solved their starting center problem … but in doing so, they created enough other issues that the cure may be worse than the disease.
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Played pickup against djax back in college often….. let’s just say, he’s fast. (Duh)
Teague is embarrassing homie
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Wuuut
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ESPN doesnt give a damn about the NBA 
Thats like getting Woj to replace Adam Schefter with the NFL
Thats like getting Woj to replace Adam Schefter with the NFL
akajae
formerly akajaedeuce
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That pivot gonna be crazy
elpablo21
Supporter
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PassanBomb?
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As a casual baseball fan, I like Passan's work. He newsbreaks, but writes pretty scorching columns like Woj used to do.
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Hes the best in the game for sure, just would be wild to swap sports mid career
All the built in relationships and more importantly, the deep rooted knowledge of the sport and it's dynamics within the league and with players would seem something necessary to have to fill in that role for Woj...
I'd think it'd be a bad/weird idea vice versa to ask Woj to become the new Passan just the same
He's a real smart and capable guy though so maybe he can pull it off
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From 2020 season til current…
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Passan was always going to be a candidate. ESPN finally realized it's easier to teach an old dog new tricks.
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If GP2 a C Steve a SG
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Ah, this is where we’re missing each other.
If you have plans of limiting his minutes at any point this season, then you need to trade him
I mean they may. They really just wanted to get off Kat’s contractAh, this is where we’re missing each other.
If you have plans of limiting his minutes at any point this season, then you need to trade him
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