According to SNY’s Ian Begley, the Wolves were in talks with teams about trading Karl-Anthony Towns ahead of the NBA Draft.
In an appearance on The Lowe Post Podcast, Begley discussed the New York Knicks’ interest in the Wolves big man.
“There were talks between the Timberwolves and other teams before the draft and Towns’ name came up,” said Begley. “I don’t know how aggressive the Timberwolves were with Towns, if at all, but the Knicks could have gone there as well and they clearly have decided not to go there at this point.”
For their part, the Wolves have been steadfast in saying all the right things. At a press conference earlier this month, discussing the extension of Reid, Wolves head coach Chris Finch suggested they could play all three together.
“Naz has such a versatile game and his skill opens up so much lineup flexibility with our team. Whether he backs up at the four or backs up at the five, heck we might even try to play all three together just because there’s so much skill there,” he said.
Towns doubled down on that, saying “Watch us” when asked what he thinks of naysayers who doubt they can pull off playing three bigs at once in the modern NBA.
“I’m not sure, really, how serious Minnesota was, if at all,” said Lowe when discussing what he’s heard about KAT trade rumors. “We can all look at the cap sheet and look at how many big men they have and look at their level of team success last year and understand this is really their only way out of the Gobert trade.”
With Anthony Edwards signed to a max contract, that makes three players on max deals for the Timberwolves, with Towns’s supermax deal kicking in in the 2024-25 season. Minnesota has limited cap space left and still have to get a deal worked out with Jaden McDaniels that won’t come cheap.
“What I had heard was that some people felt the salary was too onerous, at least at this point,” Begley continued. “I do think if they loved the idea of Towns, right now, they could have had him. That’s my read on the landscape in general.”
Nothing has come of the Knicks-Towns rumors and speculation, but it’s something we’ll all continue to monitor because of Minnesota’s difficult salary cap situation.
