Nearly two full seasons removed from the blockbuster trade that landed Karl-Anthony Towns with the New York Knicks, it appears Zach Lowe is ready to anoint a victor.
His pick may come as a serious shock to some.
During a recent edition of The Zach Lowe Show, the eponymous host declared the Minnesota Timberwolves as winners of the 2024 Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo-for-KAT swap.
"DiVincenzo is really good and Randle is an All-Star-level player. I think Randle has probably been better than Towns this year at almost half the price. I think the Wolves won the trade," Lowe said.
Needless to say, Towns is currently amid one of his worst seasons in the league since establishing himself as a perennial All-Star back in 2017-18.
Through 41 games played in 2025-26, the pivot is hoisting the fourth-fewest shot attempts of his career (14.5 per game), boasting his lowest usage rate since 2022-23 (26.1), and averaging his worst long-range shooting clip since his rookie season (36.3).
However, even with this in mind, to state the Timberwolves are the ones who came away from the deal as winners with the level of conviction that Lowe did is incredibly premature.
Knicks should by no means regret the Karl-Anthony Towns trade
Let's not overlook the facts at hand here.
As a direct result of this trade, the New York Knicks managed to make it to their first Eastern Conference Finals since the latter days of the Patrick Ewing era in 1999-2000, with Towns earning All-Star and All-NBA nods along the way.
Here in year two of the experiment, even amid their current rut that has them going 3-9 over their last 12 outings, this ball club is still the third-seed in the conference standings at 26-18 and sports the sixth-best odds of winning the 2026 NBA Championship at plus-1800.
Minnesota, meanwhile, ranks in with the ninth-best odds at plus-2700 and, even though they, too, made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2025, they merely replicated their ill-fated run from the season before, when they also were trounced via gentleman's sweep in round three.
Now matter which way you look at the situation, the reality is this Knicks team has only managed to improve since striking of the deal, whereas the Timberwolves have essentially remained about even.
With all this in mind, coupled with the fact that New York currently has one of the best odds to represent the East in the NBA Finals, it's still far-too early to declare a winner of the Towns transaction.