Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns Trade Matter of 'When ... Not If"?

Towns is the latest protégé of Tom Thibodeau and Leon Rose to be connected to the duo's current outfit, the New York Knicks.

This week, Karl-Anthony Towns helped the New York Yankees get their Tuesday contest with the Baltimore Orioles underway. 

While it's the first, it may not be the last metropolitan pitch he's involved in.

According to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com, the New York Knicks are expected to make a strong push to bring Towns to the city. Towns, a New Jersey native, just wrapped up his eighth season in Minnesota, which has hosted his entire NBA career since he entered as the top overall pick in 2015.

"KAT and the Knicks are intertwined," a league source told Deveney. "To some people, it is more a matter of when they go after him, not if.”

Of the many hypothetical star deal already attached to the Knicks as the full-on NBA offseason looms (i.e. Joel Embiid, LeBron James, Damian Lillard), Towns is a bit more realistic considering his prior connections with Knicks management: he's a former client of team president Leon Rose from his days as an agent while head coach Tom Thibodeau oversaw three of his first four NBA seasons while holding the same position in Minnesota. 

Towns' relative youth (set to turn 28 in November) also makes him a viable option to work with and build around, a prime candidate to serve as the sought-after established star to work alongside new franchise face Jalen Brunson.

Next season will be Towns' last on a five-year, $158 million extension granted to him in 2018 before a $224 million, four-year deal kicks in the year after. Minnesota is in relative limbo after the most recent campaign: while they were able to create their first playoff streak since 1997-2004, they needed to prevail in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament to get ousted by the eventual conference champions from Denver in five games. The Timberwolves have not won a playoff round since a Kevin Garnett-led group took them to the conference final in 2004.

Minnesota could look to deal Towns, especially considering his lack of chemistry with expensive newcomer Rudy Gobert, albeit in a small sample size after injuries limited the former to 29 games. Deveney's sources note that the Timberwolves could hang on to Towns and instead try to solve their own point guard situation. But if they do shop him, the Knicks stand as a strong fit.

"You need to have a tougher team around him, and you want him in a comfort zone," an anonymous Eastern Conference exec told Deveney. "That is why the Knicks are always coming up: he is from Jersey, he has a base there. Personnel-wise, it would be a good mix. Everyone knows the connections there, everyone knows there is an interest.”

So what would it take to bring him east? That, of course, requires sacrifice.

The Knicks do have the draft capital to work and Minnesota might be hungry after sending four first-rounders to Utah for Gobert's services. But with Towns due over $36 million next season alone, they'd have to shed some major salary.

"You’d want to start with R.J. Barrett there,” the exec said of a potential tarde. “But you can send (Obi) Toppin, you can send (Quentin) Grimes, (Miles) McBride. They do not want to trade (Immanuel) Quickley but if the target is Towns, maybe they would change that. 

"You’d play Towns at the 5 if you were New York so they’d probably have Mitchell Robinson in the deal, and he could go to a third team. (There are) a lot of possibilities and Minnesota might be a better team by putting it all on Edwards and getting the right pieces from that mix.”

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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