NY Knicks: Should NY trade for Karl-Anthony Towns if available?

The NY Knicks are primed to make a trade for a Superstar in the not-too-distant future, but the 2 most important questions are when’s the right time and who’s the right guy?

One name that’s been brought up recently is Karl-Anthony Towns.

The reason being, Gersson Rosas, Minnesota’s former General Manager was just fired for having a romantic relationship with another employee amongst other reasons.

Here’s a statement from ESPN:

"President of basketball operations Gersson Rosas was fired by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, with sources telling ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that the team came to the decision after learning more about his relationships within the organization.Team owner Glen Taylor announced Rosas’ firing on Wednesday, replacing him with Sachin Gupta, the Timberwolves’ executive vice president of basketball operations.Sources close to the situation told Shelburne that incoming owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez had been evaluating Rosas’ performance this summer and had planned to relieve him of his duties at some point. According to sources, that process sped up the more they learned about the deterioration of his relationship with Gupta and after evidence was brought to them about a consensual romantic relationship between Rosas and another team employee."

Now, what does this mean for the Knicks?

Should the NY Knicks trade for Karl-Anthony Towns?

It feels like I’ve written trade pieces about pretty much any player in the league who could have been made available over the past year.

So in the past, of course, I’ve written about the Knicks trading for KAT.

Considering that the moves Rosas has made during his tenure with the T-Wolves have amounted to not very much success in the league, whoever takes the role next might consider an overhaul of the roster and rebuilding it in his image.

Minnesota has done pretty much anything they could have to make KAT happy while he’s still under contract with them but the clock is ticking and they don’t seem to be getting any closer to becoming a competitive roster.

Even with the additions of D’Angelo Russell and first-overall pick, Anthony Edwards, they’re still a bottom-of-the-barrel team.

Towns may ask out sooner rather than later because of the inner turmoil within the organization.
He played at Kentucky, was a former client of Leon Rose’s, and also spent some time playing for Tom Thibodeau.

Now, for those who don’t know, Towns was very vocal about his distaste for Thibs’ coaching style and essentially ran him out of town.

But since he was drafted in 2015, Towns has made the postseason just one time and it was one of the seasons he was coached by Thibs.

As long as the two of them can put their differences aside, a trade for KAT could make some sense.

That said, frankly, this isn’t a conversation I want to be having right now, most notably due to the fact that the Knicks can’t trade for KAT until after December 15th anyway.

But that’s not the only reason.

I can’t deny that KAT has the potential to be a top 10 player in the league one day as he’s just 25-years-old and can develop into something even greater than he is today.

But regardless, I just don’t think he’s the guy the Knicks need to push all of their chips in for.

He’s got 3 years left on his contract which makes dealing for him extremely difficult for anyone looking to bring him in over the next two years.

And while he’s a generational, 3-level scorer at the 5 who also brings some decent playmaking as far as the Center position is concerned, he’s an awful defender and may not work with this current Knicks’ team.

It’s pretty evident that Thibs enjoys his rim-protecting bigs in the low post, so perhaps if Julius Randle wasn’t on this team, maybe moving KAT over to the 4 and having a plus defender down low could work.

But Randle isn’t going anywhere as he’ll likely be with the team for at least the next 5 years after his recent contract extension.

My last point here is that I’m just not sold on the idea of KAT being the guy for this Knicks team because he’s not much of a needle-mover for me.

I view him as more of a 2nd best player on a championship-contending team, so if the Knicks were to make a trade consolidating their young assets and picks, I’d like it to be for more of a ‘Man A’ rather than whatever KAT is.

I did just recently touch on when the Knicks should make a move for a Superstar in an article, and while I know that’s what the team is going to do in the near future, the last thing I want them to do is to make the wrong move…at the wrong time…for the wrong player.

In my opinion, KAT isn’t the guy. What are your thoughts?