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Five takeaways on Karl-Anthony Towns to New York. Plus, is Derrick Rose a Hall of Famer?

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Five takeaways on Karl-Anthony Towns to New York. Plus, is Derrick Rose a Hall of Famer?

The Bounce Newsletter  | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.

Today marks the rest of the NBA media days, meaning the offseason is officially over! Expect stories about the muscle players added or weight they lost! And, best of all, The Bounce is back to five days a week!

It’s a Knicks Towns

Five biggest things about KAT to Knicks

Late Friday night, Shams Charania and Jon Krawczynski informed us of an agreed-upon trade that brings four-time All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks in exchange for Donte DiVincenzo, Julius Randle and a protected first-round pick from the Pistons. (The deal is still materializing to ensure salary numbers match up for New York and Minnesota.) The Knicks have to juggle some things and roster spots to finalize this deal, but it’s expected to happen pretty quickly, though I wouldn’t expect players to participate in their new teams’ media days.

We have a lot to unpack, but these are my five takeaways:

    1. The Knicks have dramatically transformed their franchise. At the start of the 2022-23 season, the Knicks had a starting lineup of Jalen Brunson, Evan Fournier, RJ Barrett, Randle and Mitchell Robinson. Assuming health, their starting opening night lineup this season will be Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Towns. That’s a massive shift in two years. Now, we’ll see if Towns can make this work.
    2. The Wolves cheaped out earlier than expected. The timing of this trade is a bit surprising to many of us. With the luxury tax second apron appearing like Beetlejuice or Candyman when you say it three times, this feels like a move the Wolves could have made next summer. Instead, they decided to get the flexibility now and sell this as what was needed to extend the Anthony Edwards window. I’ll remind you the Wolves just made the Western Conference finals for the first time in 20 years. And they deserved another shot to advance further before retooling the roster.
    3. The Knicks’ depth will be an issue. Until Robinson gets healthy (January?), the Knicks need some help with their depth. They’ll be down to Deuce McBride, Jericho Sims, Landry Shamet and maybe Precious Achiuwa for a bench rotation. And we know how Thibodeau likes to run those minutes …
    4. The Wolves made it harder and easier on Ant. DiVincenzo is a perfect backcourt mate for Edwards. He defends, is a great shooter and can play-make. So, it won’t be all on Ant to do this stuff every single night. But now Randle and his lack of floor-spacing will be in the way with Rudy Gobert on the court. The driving lanes for Edwards just shrunk a lot, and Chris Finch may need to stagger minutes to have Randle more with the second unit.
    5. Denver wins this trade between the Wolves and Knicks. The Nuggets lost a lot this summer, but they have to be thrilled that the Wolves are going from Towns to Randle. KAT’s size helped throw enough in front of Nikola Jokić to complicate things. I’m not sure Jokić will even see the 6-foot-8 Randle when shooting over him.

Oh, and by the way, I’m unsure if Robinson is a big fan of what’s happening.

Let’s Debate

Does Derrick Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?

If, 12 years ago, you told me I had written for The Athletic that Jrue Holiday is absolutely a Hall of Famer but questioned if Derrick Rose will make the HOF, my first response would’ve been, “What’s The Athletic?” Then, it would have been wild to actually examine if the youngest MVP in league history was going to end up more accomplished than that good defensive guard for the 76ers. After Rose, 35, announced his retirement last week, let’s tackle the question: Is he headed to the Hall?

Rose was on track to do it in the first few years of his career. Then, his body failed him. He also had off-court issues. While he was able to carve out a secondary NBA career as a role player, it didn’t follow nearly the same superstar trajectory he was on originally, so let’s dive in:

  • Does Rose have the numbers? 12,573 points, 3,770 assists and 2,324 rebounds in 723 games. He played in only 52 playoff games. For perspective, Andrew Wiggins (29) has 40 career playoff games.
  • Does Rose have the accolades? He has a Rookie of the Year award, an MVP award, one All-NBA selection (first team) and three All-Star selections. Aside from current players, nobody has ever won NBA MVP and failed to make the HOF. He also has a decorated high school career, one great year in college and two FIBA World Cup gold medals for Team USA.
  • What are the hurdles? For American, non-ABA participating players in the “modern era,” only Bill Walton, Willis Reed, Billy Cunningham and Ralph Sampson managed to make the Hall of Fame with fewer than 750 NBA games played. Maurice Cheeks and Michael Cooper are rare guards who didn’t surpass 13,000 points and made the HOF. But not cracking 13,000 points, 4,000 assists or 2,500 rebounds hasn’t worked out for making the Hall.

Final verdict: I don’t think he’ll get in on the first ballot, but eventually the North American Committee, Contributors Committee or Veterans Committee will vote him in. Ultimately, that MVP will remind everybody of the track he was once on.

WNBA Semifinals

And Liberty for all?

Yesterday saw the first action of the 2024 WNBA playoff semifinals, and the Aces are officially on alert. Their quest for the second three-peat in WNBA history hit a pretty big speed bump with the Liberty making their own statement. Then, in the other series, the Sun stole home-court advantage away from the Lynx. This is where the semifinals stand after the respective Game 1s:

New York 87, Las Vegas 77 | Liberty lead series 1-0

The Liberty won’t get the poetic attempt at revenge on the Aces for last year’s WNBA Finals, with this showdown happening before the championship round, so they’ll have to settle for preventing Las Vegas from even getting there. Breanna Stewart saw A’ja Wilson and the Aces in front of her and chose to light them up. Stewie had 34 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field to go with five rebounds and four assists. Sabrina Ionescu helped with 21 points and five assists. Even though the Liberty were a little sloppy with the ball, they simply had too much firepower for an Aces team that shot just 28 percent from deep.

We also had a moment with director, Knicks fan and now Liberty fan Spike Lee showing up to Barclays Center to heckle Kelsey Plum and the rest of the Aces. After the gaem, Plum mentioned she told Spike to talk louder as he was heckling. We’ll see if the Liberty can back up Spike’s words again on Tuesday when they’re at Barclays Center for Game 2.

Connecticut 73, Minnesota 70 | Sun lead series 1-0

When you have the two best defensive teams in the league facing off, you’re going to see some severe scoring droughts. Fortunately for the Sun, they managed to turn the water off for the Lynx’s offense at the right time in the fourth quarter. Minnesota dominated the second and third quarter 46-34 to take control of the game. But the Sun kept chipping away by moving the ball before completely shutting down the Lynx. They allowed just 4 of 18 shots from the field for eight points by the Lynx in the fourth quarter.

Napheesa Collier, who dropped 80 points in her two first-round games, was slowed down to just 19 points on 7-of-16 from the field, including a desperation 3-point attempt to try to tie it at the end of regulation that wasn’t even close. Alyssa Thomas’ 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists nearly notched her fifth career postseason triple-double – there are only two other combined trip-dubs in WNBA playoff history (Courtney Vandersloot in 2021, Sheryl Swoopes in 2005). Marina Mabrey knocked down more 3-pointers (six) than the Lynx (five). And now Minnesota has to make sure it leaves home with a split when it plays Game 2 on Tuesday night.

Bounce Passes

Zion Williamson is ready to get revenge on everybody.

The Nuggets know exactly how hard winning another title will be.

It’s no surprise Joe Mazzulla has some bizarre practice drills.

Most-clicked in Thursday’s newsletter: People are really excited about the Clippers opening the Inuit Dome.

(Top photo: Elsa / Getty Images )

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