In the era after Adrian Wojnarowski, we have received our first blockbuster trade – we have seen the first big, league altering trade in a while. For those out of the loop, the Minnesota Timberwolves have traded former number 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks. In exchange, they received Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and a protected Detroit Pistons first round pick. This is big news for the entire league, but it can be argued that outside of the three teams involved in the trade (Charlotte was also involved for salary reasons), that it changes the outlook for the Denver Nuggets more significantly than most.
Of course, this is because the Nuggets lost in the second round to the Minnesota Timberwolves last season. A big reason they succeeded in doing so was Karl-Anthony Towns. Not only did he provide great shooting and spacing, but he also provided some very solid defense on Nikola Jokic. He had bought in last season to the defensive identity that the Wolves were trying to establish. He shifted his game to focus more on providing defense, and he did that throughout the postseason. Not only against Jokic, but also Kevin Durant in the Wolves’ first round series.
He has spent his entire career in Minnesota up until this point, and has proven to be a thorn in the Nuggets’ side occasionally. He has put up 24 points per game in the 23 games he has played against the Nuggets on 50/40/85 splits. This two big formula that had seemingly solved the Denver Nuggets’ potent offense has now been broken up. It is just not going to exist anymore, because – sure – Julius Randle is a “big”, but he stands at only6'8". He probably won't be causing the Nuggets any problems defensively, and in the playoffs? Well, he is bad all around in the playoffs.
Over the course of his career, he shoots 34% from the field. KAT shoots 35% from the 3 point line for his playoff career. He also only puts up 17.1 points per game, proving far less potent on a volume that is fairly similar. He takes about 16 shots a game in the playoffs and typically around 18 while he played for the Knicks. Anthony Edwards made comments about the Wolves needing better spacing. They responded by giving him 2000s type of spacing. Outside of KAT, who on the Wolves was a knockdown shooter? Only 2 players besides KAT shot above 40% on the Wolves on any amount of meaningful volume. Mike Conley and Naz Reid. Now, obviously those two players are still there, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker was close to meeting the criteria. However, we’re likely looking at a starting lineup of Mike Conley/Anthony Edwards/Jaden McDaniels/Julius Randle/Rudy Gobert.
That doesn’t strike me as something that is as threatening as the Wolves were last season. It doesn’t have the same defensive, or offensive potential. When Julius Randle waves Anthony Edwards off for the first time and bricks a layup, he’ll be on the block the next day. He is shorter, worse defensively, worse offensively, and is historically bad in the playoffs. Adding Donte DiVincenzo is a great addition for them though. Another great 3 and D player on a roster already full of them. However, I think that we’ll look back at this trade in a year from now and say that it was a mistake for them. It already took a lot of things going their way to beat the Denver Nuggets last season, so I think this makes the two rosters on a more even playing field than it was yesterday.
