Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle swap the rare one that could benefit both Knicks, Timberwolves – The Boston Globe

Minnesota president of basketball operations Tim Connelly realized Towns had to be moved to eventually avoid the second apron, but his return demand was high.

“These guys bring special on-court skills. They bring toughness,” Connelly said. “Depth is increasingly important as the CBA has evolved the past couple of years. We don’t trade a player like KAT lightly. We were very specific on what it would take. And quite frankly, the asking price was very high when you see what these guys accomplished last year. They come from winning environments. Donte is the only one in the building who has won an NBA championship. So the combination of people and player made it too good to pass up.”

Randle was going to be the Knicks’ biggest question mark as camp began. While he is All-Star caliber, Jalen Brunson emerged as the No. 1 scoring option in his absence and it was uncertain how Randle would fit. With the acquisition of OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, Randle would have to play center. In Minnesota, he slides to his natural power forward alongside Rudy Gobert.

“[The trade] was a lot of emotion,” Randle said. “You spend a certain amount of time in a place. New York, going there five years ago and having a goal in mind, I accomplished a lot of great things and there were a lot of blood, sweat, and tears put into that uniform. Initially, it’s always going to be a shock.

“But for me afterward, I woke up the next morning and I was really, really excited. It was a breath of fresh air. I’m excited to bring everything that I’ve earned over the last five years and help these guys out. I want to help [Anthony Edwards]. I want to help Rudy. I want to help Naz [Reid]. I want to help win a championship. That’s the only thing that matters.”

Randle has history with Minnesota coach Chris Finch, who he played for as an assistant during his years with the Pelicans. That’s where Randle produced some of his best seasons.

“That was the easiest my game has ever felt because I just think he’s that good of a coach,” Randle said. “Being around here and being around the environment, that stuff is important. They’ve made me feel more than at home. You want to be somewhere where you feel wanted. Ultimately, I do want to be here.”

DiVincenzo apparently wasn’t thrilled when the Knicks acquired his Villanova teammate Bridges. DiVincenzo played a career-high 29.1 minutes last season, but with Josh Hart getting starter minutes as the sixth man, DiVincenzo may have seen his role reduced. Instead, he is expected to play both guard positions for the Timberwolves.

“My confidence last year continued to grow; my role continued to grow and I just took full advantage of the opportunity,” DiVincenzo said. “The confidence keeps you going when you’re missing shots. The IQ of this team, the versatility of this team just makes anything possible. I think that’s a big part of why I am so excited. You can play with so many different lineups and that’s why I’m excited about this.”

SOPHOMORE HOPE

Lillard, Bucks look toward fresh start

The Bucks were not very active this summer, signing Gary Trent Jr. to a minimum deal along with Taurean Prince and Delon Wright. They’re three role players who could help, but pale in comparison to the moves made by the Knicks and 76ers.

The Bucks will have to rely on their current core to be better.

Giannis Antetokounmpo spent his summer leading Greece in its first Olympic appearance since 2008, a flag bearer for his home country. He’s in his prime and healthy after missing the first-round series against Indiana with a calf injury.

Khris Middleton was once one of the league’s top small forwards, but he’s been limited to 88 games the past two seasons and has yet to be cleared for training camp after undergoing two ankle procedures in the offseason.

As for Damian Lillard, he’s coming off a difficult first season with the Bucks. He requested a trade from the Trail Blazers after 11 seasons and thought he was going to the Heat, but the Blazers wanted no part of any Heat offers. The Bucks made the difficult decision to move Jrue Holiday — I wonder what happened to him? — to the Blazers for Lillard just before training camp began.

Lillard was going through a difficult divorce, then had to leave his children in Portland. On the court, Lillard struggled, shooting 35.4 percent from the 3-point line, his lowest since 2014-15. His impact on the offense wasn’t the same as in Portland, and the Bucks were going through issues with coach Adrian Griffin, who was fired and replaced by Doc Rivers midseason.

Lillard was injured during the Indiana series, missing Games 4 and 5, but scored 28 points in the deciding Game 6 loss. He admitted his first season in Milwaukee was not optimal.

“After we lost to Indiana, the next day I went home and we put a [health and fitness] plan all the way through the offseason, and we executed it,” he said. “[Last season] was just a blur, I felt like everything happened so fast. I came here two days before camp started and it was just a hard time. When I look back to last year, I was just trying to get through the year pretty much, just trying to find something positive, find some momentum and just get myself going.”

Lillard said he is in much better shape, with a much better mental outlook than last preseason. He also gets an opportunity to play a full season under Rivers, who faces pressure to return the Bucks to the Eastern Conference elite despite other contenders ramping up. Lillard said he’s more prepared for the challenge.

“I just feel way, way better coming into this year,” Lillard said. “Leaving home and leaving my kids and coming back to Milwaukee was easier for me this time because I knew what was coming. I know what to expect. I’m familiar with the coaching staff, my teammates with Milwaukee, having experienced being away from my kids and away from my family in a much tougher time. Just being able to prepare for everything to come and knowing I’m right going into it, it was way, way easier. I feel much better coming into it.”

The hope for Lillard is the experience with Rivers and the adversity faced last season will prove beneficial for a team whose clock is ticking. Middleton is 33. Lillard is 34. Brook Lopez is 36. Antetokounmpo will be 30 in December.

“Our time together last year, especially how it was, it was the middle of the season, things weren’t great,” Lillard said. “There was a lot of talk about it and I think we shared that experience, and just a lot of adversity and being up against it and still being able to push through the season. And we get to this point where we have been in something together and we’ve experienced some struggles together and some failure and we come into a new year much more familiar with each other.

“I know Giannis’s game better than I did when I got here. I’m more familiar with Doc than when he got here. That should help us.”

ETC.

Curry on the big picture

The city of Oakland has lost three professional sports teams in five years, with the NFL’s Raiders moving to Las Vegas, the NBA’s Warriors moving across the Bay to San Francisco, and MLB’s A’s leaving for Sacramento and, eventually, Las Vegas.

Stephen Curry played his first 10 years in Oakland and became a staple in the community, but Warriors ownership had its sights on a state-of-the-art arena. Oakland, a major sports city decades ago, will have no Big Four team for the first time since before the Raiders were created in 1960.

“I think overall it’s a sad situation because sports franchises in any city are, to borrow a line from a good friend of mine, it’s a sense of hope and inspiration for a community,” Curry said. “Whenever you start the year, it’s a way to galvanize, again, that hope and that unity and that togetherness and having something to look forward to. Not just what it does for the economics of that city.

“And what Oakland has meant to me, to say the least, it’s been huge in the way that I came up in this league, and being able to play in front of that fan base for those 10 years and knowing the history of the A’s, the Raiders, and the Warriors there, it sucks.”

Curry and his wife, Ayesha, were pillars in Oakland, and the Warriors still hold community events in the city.

“It’s a matter of supporting the community that supported us when we were coming up, and making sure we still plant our flag there and have a significant presence there,” Curry said. “It is unfortunate that there aren’t any more professional teams that are representing Oakland, specifically just because of how much history there is around sports and that fandom and that sense of pride of being from Oakland.

“I don’t know how you kind of work around how tough it is, but for me and Ayesha, we want to make sure we continue our work there, especially in the school district, and to create opportunities for the future generations to achieve their full potential. Other than that, you have to admit how sad it is for everybody.”

The Warriors head into Curry’s 16th season as perhaps a play-in candidate because of major changes, among them the departure of Klay Thompson to the Mavericks and Chris Paul signing with the Spurs. The team has reshaped with Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield, and De’Anthony Melton, and also the healthy return of Andrew Wiggins.

“If you’re not the team that’s holding the title at the end of the year — and even, I’m sure, they were thinking about it, Boston was — like you always were trying to get better,” Curry said. “You’ve been around this league long enough from day to day, week to week, month to month, season to season, what that actually means for your team can change pretty quickly.”

The Warriors were trying to catch a big fish in the offseason, making the Clippers a sign-and-trade offer for Paul George and then getting into intense talks with the Jazz about Lauri Markkanen. The Clippers wouldn’t negotiate with their division rivals as George left for the 76ers, while the Jazz signed Markkanen to a long-term deal.

“So you go into free agency, [George] decided whether he wants to opt in or not, OK, we definitely should take that meeting, and I was a part of that process,” Curry said. “The Lauri stuff, the whole league is wondering what’s going to happen there and how real trade talks are, and I don’t ever get caught up in that. The noise around it, when something’s material, I usually know about it. We have conversations. I’m not the ultimate decision-maker, but you give your input, and that’s how the whole process goes.”

The Warriors quickly compensated by signing three relatively young players who can fill roles and could eventually improve the club overall. Thompson, an all-time great, had slipped since missing two full seasons with ACL and Achilles’ tears.

“Even our free agent signing this year, all three guys we brought in all are veterans: Buddy, Kyle, and Melt. Established veterans that know how to play the game that are good pieces that you need to be a championship type team,” Curry said. “Does that mean we’re there? I don’t know.

“You ask all 30 teams last season if [they] have championship aspirations, you probably take eight of them serious, 12 of them maybe, and only one of them gets to say, ‘Yeah, we had championship aspirations.’

“I think we’re in that position where we can be a relevant team early and give ourselves a chance to compete and then assess where we are, because that’s what every team has to go through. We just have the shadow of, to your point, the expectations that we’re supposed to be in that conversation.

“I want to win, and I know everybody in that locker room wants to do their part to help make it happen.”

Layups

The Knicks made some interesting moves to circumvent the CBA and make the Karl-Anthony Towns trade happen, including paying three players $1 over the minimum and involving the Hornets, who picked up some second-round picks, plus three players who are not likely to make the roster. The Knicks also had to waive Marcus Morris Sr., who was signed to a training camp deal and expected to make a contribution, and Chuma Okeke. The Knicks re-signed Okeke, a 2019 first-round pick, to a training camp deal. Okeke missed his first season with a torn ACL and could never break into Orlando’s rotation in his five seasons, playing just 47 games last season. New York also announced it signed former first-round pick TJ Warren to a training camp deal. Warren was a rising player a few years ago before being felled by a series of injuries . . . Perhaps an unexpected element to the Bulls is the return of 2017 second overall pick Lonzo Ball, who has missed the past two years with a knee injury. Ball said at media day he plans on playing in the season opener, but he may not be the eventual starter at point guard. The Bulls acquired Josh Giddey to be a starter, but he hasn’t participated fully in camp because of a sprained ankle sustained in the bronze medal game at the Paris Olympics. The Bulls are in a bizarre position, considered a rebuilding team but with Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic still on the roster. DeMar DeRozan left to sign with the Kings, leaving the Bulls without one of their leading scorers from a year ago . . . The Mavericks will be without Luka Doncic for at least a week with a bruised calf. It’s not considered serious, but could mean Doncic will have a lighter load during the preseason . . . Pelicans forward Trey Murphy will miss at least three weeks with a hamstring injury, which could spill into the regular season. New Orleans is banking on good health to make a deep playoff run after injuries curtailed its chances in recent years. Former No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson has reported to camp in the best shape of his career, and the club added Dejounte Murray from the Hawks in the offseason.

Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.