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The Knicks are making a pattern of pulling off surprise blockbuster deals, stunning the basketball world late Friday night by trading Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, a protected Detroit first-round pick and salary filler for Karl-Anthony Towns.
The seven-foot knockdown shooter is a bold acquisition at a position of need for New York, but cost them the pillar of their rebuild under Leon Rose and Tom Thibodeau, along with one of the most valuable shooters in the league.
We won’t know the full ramifications of this trade for months, or maybe years, but can do our best to objectively grade it at this point in time. Did the Knicks just set themselves up for a championship run, or fumble a contender via the second coming of the Andrea Bargnani trade?
The pros of trading for Towns
Avoids the Randle contract situation
2024-25 was the last guaranteed year on Randle’s contract, and despite landing extensions with Jalen Brunson and Thibodeau, the Knicks couldn’t make headway with the big power forward.
This was a quiet but large question mark going into this pivotal season – was New York ready to go all-in with a number two they weren’t fully invested in, and would Randle make the sacrifices necessary with a potential free agency coming up?
Instead of worrying about Randle’s individual trade value, the need for midseason trade, a new injury popping up, possibly losing him for nothing or any other creeping complications, New York nipped this entire situation in the bud by dealing him ahead of the season. Towns, for good or bad, is locked in on his contract for the next three years.
The basketball argument
Towns is a historically great shooter out of the front-court, playing both positions with lots of postseason reps under his belt. He’s undoubtedly the best player in this deal to most national NBA insiders, though, at their respective peaks Randle has a case.
Adding Towns allows for a definitive five-out, extremely well-spaced offense that Knicks fans only hoped Randle at the center could bring out. Towns is a career 39.8 percent three-point shooter on nearly 2,500 attempts in the regular season, and hit 41.6 percent…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/grading-knicks-trade-karl-anthony-151519388.html
Author : SNY
Publish date : 2024-09-28 15:15:19
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