The New York Knicks have found their latest star.
According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, the Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves have finalized an agreement to trade Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks. New York will send a package headlined by Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo back to Minnesota in the deal, Charania reports.
The Knicks will also send the Timberwolves a first-round pick from Detroit, according to reports. Charania reports that the Knicks will also send DaQuan Jefferies and draft compensation to the Charlotte Hornets in order to clear salary for Towns's arrival.
The trade has seismic ramifications for two teams with championship aspirations this upcoming season. Towns, a four-time All-Star who has spent all of his nine seasons in the NBA in Minnesota, gives a defensive-minded Knicks team an elite scorer and shooter. Last season, he averaged 21.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game while shooting 41.6% from beyond the arc.
Towns will join Jalen Brunson and fellow offseason addition Mikal Bridges in the Big Apple, forming a unit that appears more than capable of replicating the success of the last two season. The Knicks have made the Eastern Conference semifinals in each of the last two campaigns, but have been unable to get over the hump and into conference finals.
The Timberwolves will add depth to a roster that burst onto the scene as a major play in a stacked Western Conference last season. Minnesota finished third in the regular season, but knocked off the defending champion Denver Nuggets en route to a trip to the conference finals for the first time in two decades.
Randle, an All-Star this past season, is poised to replace Towns alongside Rudy Gobert in the Timberwolves' frontcourt. Though he only played in 46 games due to injury, he averaged 24.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and five assists when active.
DiVincenzo likely stands to play a similar role to the one he filled in New York. The 27-year-old is coming off a career year with the Knicks in which he averaged 15.5 points per game while shooting 40.1% from three—both career-highs.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Knicks Finalizing Deal to Acquire Karl Anthony-Towns, per Report.
