Before the 2024 NBA Media Day, the Minnesota Timberwolves traded away their longtime star, Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle. This changed the landscape of the league, as both teams wanted to improve from how they performed last season.
However, only one team has improved since the trade took place. Towns and the Knicks have a 24-12, which puts them in the third seed of the Eastern Conference standings. Nevertheless, the Wolves have had a difficult season and are now in 10th place in the Western Conference standings with a record of 17–17.
According to two-time All-NBA DeMarcus Cousins, trading away KAT wasn’t the best move the Wolves did during the offseason. Boogie called the shooting big man the “heartbeat” of Minnesota’s squad in his Monday appearance at “Run It Back.”
“I think it was a horrible decision to trade KAT this offseason. That took the life out of the team,” Cousins said. “Obviously, Anthony Edwards is the top dog, the franchise guy, but I felt like KAT was the heartbeat of that team and they took their heartbeat once they made that move.”
"I think it was a horrible decision to trade KAT this offseason. That took the life out of the (Timberwolves). Obviously Anthony Edwards is the top dog, the franchise guy, but I felt like KAT was the heartbeat of that team." – @BoogieCousins
📺 https://t.co/scN6pI2dPF pic.twitter.com/0Dw62H7z8a
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) January 6, 2025
Aside from the team success Towns has experienced this season, he’s also having one of the best seasons of his career. KAT is averaging 25.3 points, 14.0 rebounds (most in the league) and 3.4 assists on 44% shooting from beyond the arc.
Karl-Anthony Towns says Knicks head coach is a different man now
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has experienced coaching Karl-Anthony Towns in 2016. At that time, Towns was still a developing star in the league. However, their partnership was fruitful as the Wolves reached the playoffs for the first time since 2004 during the 2017-18 season.
Now an established star, KAT and Thibodeau have reunited. In their second stint together, the star player addressed his relationship with his former head coach.
“You’ve seen him smile. I’ll keep it at that,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “I think that we all in life, we grow. I’ve grown since the time when we were together in Minnesota. He’s grown. I think that we’re just, in this game of life, we’re just finding ourselves and getting better all the time.”
Karl-Anthony Towns talks about Tom Thibodeau:
"He's a different man. I like this version going into 2025. You see him smile" 😂
"I've grown since the time when we were together in Minnesota, he's grown. This game of life, we're just finding ourselves getting better with time" pic.twitter.com/mjtl8nAY3x
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) January 2, 2025
In December, KAT was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month. During that stretch, he averaged 23.2 points, 14.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks for the month. With his production, he helped the team capture a 12-2 record.
Credit: Getty Images
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
