The New York Knicks are looking forward to next season after reestablishing themselves as a playoff contender.<\/p>\n
However, it\u2019s fair to say that the Knicks are wary of believing<\/a> their status to be cemented. Jalen Brunson<\/a> looks like he\u2019s worth every penny he\u2019s been given and more. Yet, he\u2019ll be 28 years old when the season begins. Co-star Julius Randle<\/a> is the black sheep of Villanova-heavy rotation. Their center corps has been turned on its head by Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n With that being said, trades don\u2019t always solve a team\u2019s problems, but there\u2019s at least one deal the Knicks need to be considering.<\/p>\n Knicks receive: Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a><\/p>\n Timberwolves receive: Julius Randle, Jalen Duren<\/a><\/p>\n Pistons receive: Mitchell Robinson<\/a><\/p>\n If the Knicks acquire Towns, millions of fans would line up in the street, telling anyone that\u2019ll listen that it\u2019s a big mistake. Towns is injury-prone, an inconsistent defender, and has one of the largest contracts in the league.<\/p>\n Yet, he\u2019s also a four-time All-Star with career averages of 22.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.3 blocks per game. At 7-foot-0 and 248 pounds, he\u2019s a true stretch big, shooting 39.8 percent from 3 for his career. As he demonstrated in the 2024 NBA Playoffs, he\u2019s also an underrated defender; when he\u2019s focused, he has great footwork, anticipation, and activity.<\/p>\n Knicks fans who are bullish on Towns may proclaim their favorite team to be future champions. The truth is always somewhere in the middle though. In Towns\u2019s case, it lies between his reputation and his numbers.<\/p>\n On the Knicks, Towns\u2019 interior gravity opens up space for spot-up shooters like Mikal Bridges<\/a> and OG Anunoby<\/a>. His passing ability and touch would allow him to find cutters like Josh Hart<\/a> out of mid- and high-post. His outside gravity creates crevices for players like Brunson to slice into. Whether they switch, play drop, or run a zone, Towns\u2019 length will be a difference-maker. With Tom Thibodeau\u2019s tutelage, he may even fully unlock his defensive potential.<\/p>\n By trading for Towns, they don\u2019t have to place Randle in an awkward position where their playing time might be crunched either. Essentially, Towns will be playing the role of both Randle and Robinson. This allows New York to start either Hart or Donte DiVincenzo<\/a> alongside Brunson, Towns, Bridges, and Anunoby, maximizing their chemistry and defense.<\/p>\n With Randle and Duren heading to the Minnesota Timberwolves, two problems have been solved: Anthony Edwards<\/a> now has a more assertive scorer beside him and the Timberwolves now have a fleet-footed pivot playing behind Rudy Gobert<\/a>. Last postseason, those issues were the greatest obstacles to Minnesota making a run to the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n Over the past two seasons, Randle has averaged 24.7 points per game on 46.4 percent shooting from the field. For comparison, Towns has averaged 18.9 points per game in the last two postseasons.<\/p>\n Like Towns, Randle constantly attacks the teeth of the defense; he and Edwards\u2019s blitzkrieg would deal a lot of a damage to defenses. He isn\u2019t a knockdown 3-point threat like Towns is, which is a drawback of this move. However, Randle can still make teams pay from beyond the arc, as he\u2019s hit 37.4 percent of his career corner 3s.<\/p>\n Duren could learn a lot about rim-protection from Gobert. However, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year doesn\u2019t have Duren\u2019s physical gifts, as the youngster switches onto smaller players with ease.<\/p>\n The best part of this acquisition though is that he and Gobert\u2019s timelines complement each other\u2019s. Gobert is 32 years old with a player option on his contract for next season. Duren is 20 years old with a team option on his contract for next season; if the Timberwolves extend a qualifying offer, he\u2019ll be a restricted free agent.<\/p>\n The Pistons still have their young core of Duren, Cade Cunningham<\/a>, Jaden Ivey<\/a>, Ausar Thompson<\/a>, and Ron Holland<\/a> together. In theory, if two or three of those players can consistently knock down their 3s, they can start together<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, Pistons president Trajan Langdon has shown a willingness to accelerate their rebuild. He\u2019s done this by adding veterans like Tobias Harris<\/a>, Tim Hardaway Jr.<\/a>, and Malik Beasley<\/a>, whose strengths complement their core\u2019s weaknesses. With that being said, if Detroit can flip Duren for Robinson, they\u2019ll have attained a rim-protector they desperately need. It doesn\u2019t hurt that Robinson just turned 26 in April and is young enough to grow with their core.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll be hitting his prime while they\u2019re hitting their stride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The New York Knicks are looking forward to next season after reestablishing themselves as a playoff contender. However, it\u2019s fair to say that the Knicks are wary of believing their status to be cemented. Jalen Brunson looks like he\u2019s worth every penny he\u2019s been given and more. Yet, he\u2019ll be 28 years old when the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":85517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1608,10,21,62],"tags":[4432,510,213,1616],"class_list":["post-85474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knicks","category-basketball","category-pistons","category-timberwolves","category-nba","tag-jalen-duren","tag-julius-randle","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-mitchell-robinson"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Knicks, Timberwolves Should Make Splash Offseason Trade<\/h2>\n
Big KAT in the Big Apple<\/h3>\n
Randle\u2019s Rack Attack, Dauphin Duren<\/h3>\n
Pistons\u2019 Accelerated Rebuild<\/h3>\n