Knicks Rivals Offer Different Takes on Karl-Anthony Towns Trade

If anyone can sympathize with the New York Knicks’ latest major move, it’s two of their biggest rivals in recent memory.

Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce changed the professional basketball landscape, if only briefly, when the former joined the Boston Celtics prior to the 2008-09 season. That blockbuster deal, together with the additional acquisition of Ray Allen, launched the downtrodden Celtics franchise back to its former glory.

With the rival Knicks looking to make similar progress, the green duo discussed the acquisition of Karl-Anthony Towns, who comes to Manhattan in exchange for a package headlined by Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle. To perhaps no surprise, Pierce, a recurring Knicks critic, was not a fan of the deal from the Knicks’ perspective and gave the early win to Towns’ former employers, the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“The Knicks looked good (last year) and then you didn’t have Randle, I would’ve thought he was the x-factor,” Pierce said on the duo’s web series “The Ticket and The Truth.” “In all honesty, I think Minnesota won that trade because I love DiVincenzo. He is a dog.”

“I walked away last year from watching him like, dog, he is a starter in the league and he’s not going to start on the Knicks, I’m like Minnesota got two starters for one and they lost some depth, I’m like, shoot, that’s just what the doctor ordered: some toughness at the wing to go with (Jaden) McDaniels, man, (DiVincenzo’s) been lights out, he’s been killing it in the preseason, and you’ve got some toughness with Randle.”

Pierce, one of the most renowned and accomplished names in Celtics history, has frequently chided the Knicks, so his pessimism is hardly surprising. Prior to the Towns trade, Pierce actively declared that the Knicks would not win a championship in his lifetime despite legitimate hope around the organization for the first time in at least a decade.

Garnett, himself a former Timberwolf, was a bit more sympathetic, reasoning that both sides got something worthwhile out of the monumental deal.

“I think New York having Karl-Anthony Towns in the East makes it a lot more interesting,” Garnett said. “It gives you that big sine Mitchell Robinson is out. They’re going to need a big that can dominate, that you can throw the ball to and score.”

“Karl-Anthony Towns puts the Knicks in a different conversation now because (Jalen) Brunson has a bona fide five that, actually, in today’s fives, can be on that list,” the Big Ticket continued, further praising the “grit” in Minnesota with Randle playing with Anthony Edwards. “He’s on that list: when you talk about (Joel) Embiid, (Nikola) Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns is on that list.”

The new-look Knicks have a major opportunity to show how they improved on Tuesday night, when they face Garnett and Pierce’s old Beantown employers at TD Garden to open the 2024-25 NBA campaign (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT).

Make sure you bookmark All Knicks for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!