Knicks outsmart NBA to exploit unknown ‘$3’ loophole and pull off Towns trade

The Knicks are playing chess while everyone else plays checkers.

The Knickerbockers stunned the basketball world this week when it was announced that a blockbuster trade involving Julius Randle and Karl-Anthony Towns was being finalized.

The three-team trade is one of the most complicated deals in recent memory and involves a lot of moving parts.

Essentially, the Timberwolves are receiving three-time All-Star Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo from the Knicks, while reacquiring Keita Bates-Diop and also receiving a first-round pick.

The Knicks, meanwhile, sent Charlie Brown, DaQuan Jeffries and Duane Washington Jr. to the Charlotte Hornets, along with two second-round picks, and acquired the draft rights to center James Nnaji.

And, of course, KAT leaves the T-Wolves for the bright lights of New York City.

It was undoubtedly a complex trade to pull off but one the Knicks were ultimately able to get over the line — largely thanks to a loophole in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The CBA is a Rubik’s cube of a labor contract that basically outlines the terms of employment for NBA players, covering a variety of topics including player contracts, trades, salary caps and revenue distribution.

It makes big deals incredibly challenging to manoeuvre, which is why the Hornets and several other additional pieces had to get involved to legally execute the KAT/Randle transaction.

The Knicks also had to employ some certified CBA trickery.

Per The Athletic’s Fred Katz, the Knicks were not permitted to aggregate multiple minimum salaries as a team over the first ‘apron’ of the tax.

An ‘apron’ essentially refers to a salary cap threshold that imposes additional restrictions on teams that exceed it.

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To get around this, the crafty Knicks front office paid DaQuan Jeffries, Charlie Brown Jr. and Darius Washington — who were all previously making the league minimum — exactly $1 more than the minimum so they could legally add all of their salaries together and complete the trade.

Following his report, Katz revealed that the NBA wasn’t too happy about the Knicks cleverly exploiting the little-known loophole to finalize the deal.

“I have heard from various people that the league isn’t thrilled about this — but such is the way it goes with new CBAs,” he wrote.

“The NBA tries to close up loopholes and then smart people working for teams find new ones.”

Many fans lauded the Knicks for having the wherewithal to outsmart the roughly $74 billion valued NBA and its presumably impressive force of lawyers, all for the measly price of $3.

“Knicks outsmarted the league,” one fan posted on X.

“oh man this is fantastic. you know you’re doing it right when the league hates it but can’t do anything,” added another.

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The Knicks may have lost a fan favorite in Randle, but in KAT they’ve gained a former No. 1 overall pick and legit 7-fter who unquestionably makes them better.

The Timberwolves endured a tough couple of years during Towns’ first few seasons in the league.

But after drafting Anthony Edwards and trading for Rudy Gobert, they’ve made positive strides in more recent times, making the Western Conference finals last season.

The out-of-the-blue trade will likely be bitter blow for KAT, who, perhaps more than anybody else in Minnesota, deserved to see it out to the end.

It wasn’t to be though, and now KAT, who has averaged 22.9 points and 10.8 rebounds while shooting 39.8% from 3-point range, finds himself in the Eastern Conference playing his home games at the Mecca of basketball.

In truth, Towns may have always been destined to play in New York.

He recently sat down with Shannon Sharpe on Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast where the topic of the Knicks came up.

Coincidentally, the podcast was recorded before the trade was announced, and Towns had nothing but positives to say about what would turn out to be his new team.

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Discussing Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, who was at the helm in Minnesota between 2016-2019, Towns said, “He wanted to win and he put the hours in and he put the work in.

“Playing for Thibs was watching someone who truly loves what they do and puts all their passion, and their life mission is being a best coach they can be, and you gotta respect that.

“I appreciate him even more now that I’m older and we’ve been able to talk at a different level, maturity. I got nothing but good things to say about him. He’s been great to talk to, especially now in my life and he’s one hell of a coach.”

Sharpe and Towns also discussed Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson, who signed a contract extension with NY earlier than he needed to and saved the team around $100 million in cap space.

“I mean, Jalen Brunson, shoutout to him,” Towns said.

“You can’t put a value on the fact that he’s at where he wants to be. And I think that’s a big value number that no one’s thinking of. He’s with his father, he’s super comfortable, he has a team that believes in him.

“I think that belief that a team and an organization can give you is something that’s worth a lot a lot a lot of money. They give him that believe and I think that he felt that was the best situation for him and I root him on for that.”