The Timberwolves already had a thousand reasons to regret trading Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks before training camp, and the trade deadline added to that. Minnesota stayed quiet after spending the majority of the season in Play-In Tournament range.
The two players the Knicks sent to the Timberwolves in the October trade — Julius Randle (adductor strain) and Donte DiVincenzo (toe) — are sidelined. Minnesota opted to bank on their return rather than make a deadline trade, but that doesn't mean the front office didn't try to do something.
As if last weekend wasn't wild enough with the Luka Doncic-Anthony Edwards trade, the Suns made it known that they were willing to trade Kevin Durant. The Warriors wanted to reunite with KD, but he didn't want to return to the Bay. Other teams, including Minnesota, reached out to Phoenix about Durant.
The Timberwolves tried to pair Durant with his 2024 Olympics pal Anthony Edwards, who idolizes the 36-year-old. Ultimately, a trade was too challenging for Minnesota to pull off (subscription required).
"Nothing came close to fruition, team sources said, though there was a swell of hope as the day wore on. As a second apron team, the Wolves would have had to pull off a series of maneuvers and part with a significant number of players to pull the deal off. In the end, there were too many hoops to jump through for it to be feasible, team sources said."
Timberwolves could've used Karl-Anthony Towns in a trade for Kevin Durant
Trading KAT gave Minnesota some financial flexibility and officially made Edwards the star of the show, but the Timberwolves don't look like a team capable of making another deep playoff run. They miss Towns' spacing and have realized that pairing Randle with Rudy Gobert wasn't a great idea.
Towns is having the best season of his career in New York, which led to him being named an All-Star starter. He's elevated the Knicks' offense in a way that he couldn't do with the Timberwolves.
Minnesota decided to trade Towns too soon, although New York is happy it did. The Timberwolves could've kept KAT for at least the first half of the 2024-25 season, and if they still felt trading him was the right move, he would've helped land KD from the Suns. Durant is six years older than Randle, but he would've been a massive upgrade over the former Knicks forward. More importantly, KD would've helped the Timberwolves in the short term.
Tim Connelly got too aggressive by trading Towns a couple of months after Minnesota made a run to the WCF. It's a deal Timberwolves fans were skeptical about as soon as it happened, and they have yet to be given a real reason to feel optimistic about it.