Former Knicks Guard Slams Karl-Anthony Towns Trade

The New York Knicks stunned the basketball world when they acquired Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Donte DiVincenzo, Julius Randle, Keita Bates-Diop and a future first-round pick.

The move was made to give the Knicks the center they needed in order to get a little bit deeper in the playoffs after exiting in the second round in back-to-back seasons.

While the move is expected to elevate their ceiling, former Knicks guard Iman Shumpert shared his concerns of the trade on ESPN’s First Take.

“I love [KAT and Jalen Brunson] on paper,” Shumpert said on First Take. “I don’t love that at the end of the game in the playoffs. It’s not scary enough.”

It remains to be seen how well Brunson and Towns will work together, especially in the playoffs. The fit on paper looks good as the pair of them will have Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges on the wing alongside them, but the success of the trade will be determined based on how far the Knicks go into the playoffs when both of them are on the floor.

Even though the Knicks finished second in the Eastern Conference this past season, they were still 14 games back of the eventual champion Boston Celtics, which means there is a lot of ground that they have to make up.

The Knicks should be commended for improving their team when they felt their current product wasn’t up to par. However, there is no guarantee that their new team is any better than the previous group that they had.

The Knicks will spend all season hoping to get to a place where they can prove Shumpert wrong, but they can only make that point when they are in the thick of things in the postseason next spring.

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