Report: Knicks have “real interest” in a Karl-Anthony Towns trade

Call it speculation, call it facts, call it what you want. Whatever the case, the truth is that the rumors linking the New York Knicks with Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns will seemingly never die.

On the heels of the press conference announcing the arrival of Mikal Bridges in Manhattan, Knicks podcast honcho CP The Franchise shared the nth report about the Knicks having “real interest” in landing Towns via trade sooner rather than later.

On the Knicks Fan TV podcast episode released on July 9, with MMA GOAT Ariel Helwani as his guest, CP told everybody listening what some Knicks fans love to hear and others loath to even find mentioned within the realm of the basketball organization.

“I don’t think they’re done. I think there’s one more move they want to make. I think there’s a big swing that they want to make.” — CP The Franchise.

The podcaster reasoned his claim about the Knicks still thinking about swinging for the fences after already landing Bridges in a mammoth transaction.

And of course, he mentioned the name.

“Think about this. We talked about all the moves that they made this offseason to get themselves some more wiggle room with the cap. They made the Shake Milton trade, they signed him, they put him in the Bridges trade. You have Brunson, who’s considering taking considerably less to sign an extension.

“They didn’t sign Julius Randle to an extension. They didn’t sign Julius to an extension. I’ll tell you this: they’re bigger fans of Karl-Anthony Towns.”

CP believes the Knicks have taken note of the Boston Celtics’ run to the championships this last season and New York wants to replicate what they did—namely adding a bonafide threat in big man Kristaps Porzingis—going forward. That means building a “true five-out system” that could open up the floor for Brunson.

Asking a fan’s question about Towns’ fit in the Knicks later in the episode, CP told the caller and all fans listening to “keep an eye on this” because the Knicks “have interest” in landing Towns, and “the interest is real.”

“Yes, he played for Thibs before. Yes, he’s a Kentucky guy. Yes, he’s a CAA guy. That’s what I can tell you, keep an eye on it now.”

“Contractually, it would have to involve Jilius and probably about like $20-plus million in salary so you’re talking about a big change there. But like I said, keep an eye on it. You know the interest in KAT is real.

According to Fanspo’s trade machine, the Knicks cannot send Randle straight to Minny in a one-for-one trade because the former is earning $28.9 million to KAT’s monster $49.2 million salary.

As CP pointed out, the Knicks must add around $20 million to make the trade work as far as I understand this impossible-to-handle cap stuff. For what’s worth, the Knicks only have a couple of reasonably available players earning big money on their roster on top of Randle:

• Josh Hart at $18.1 million
• Mitchell Robinson at $14.3 million
• Donte DiVincenzo at $11.4 million

With Rudy Gobert already in tow, it’s hard to envision the Wolves being interested in receiving Mitchell Robinson—and Julius, obviously—in any trade. Perhaps sending Hart/DiVo and a bunch of picks as well as Miles McBride/Keita Bates-Diop/Pacome Dadiet/Tyler Kolek works. Who knows…

Only one thing is true here and that’s the fact that unless/until the Knicks make another big-time move (even if that’s re-signing Randle, which is another possible outcome and perhaps the most realistic), we’ll keep hearing about Karl-Anthony Towns getting traded to New York, no matter how much we’d love or hate for that to happen.