Chris Finch: Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle swap was not a ‘money deal’

Chris Finch: Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle swap was not a ‘money deal’

Just days before training camp opened this week, the Minnesota Timberwolves traded star forward Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a protected 2025 first-round pick (Detroit).

While the move saved over $5 million in terms of cap for Minnesota, who are second in active cap, Chris Finch told Minnesota sports reporter Jim Krawczynski of The Athletic that the move was not a money-saving move.

“First and foremost, I think it’s extremely important to recognize that this is not a money deal,” Finch said, according to Krawczynski. “[Owner Glen Taylor] and our ownership was and is committed to paying large amounts of tax for this team to be highly competitive. That hasn’t changed. This deal in totality checks a lot of boxes. We think it’s a great basketball trade.”

Towns, who will turn 29-years-old in November, was one of three Timberwolves players (Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert). In fact, he’s entering the first year of his four-year, $220 million max with $49.2 million, $53.1M, $57.1M and $61.0M cap hits, respectively.

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DiVincenzo and Randle will be on the hook for roughly $44.5 this season, but Randle could enter unrestricted free agency after this season while DiVincenzo will be entering the final year of his respective contract, per Spotrac.

At the time of this publishing, the Wolves were projected to be $3.3 million below the projected $207.8 million second apron next year (third-most in payroll), but project to be No. 20 in payroll in 2026-27 with only six players on contract. They would be $50+ million more expensive with Towns there, at least, regardless if they were close to exceeding the aprons/tax or not.

Thus, they built flexibility by flipping Towns when they did, even when they took back 75 cents on the dollar. You can’t tell me there wasn’t some financial incentive there when you examine the cap sheet.

Randle also doesn’t complement the frontcourt as well as Towns. Randle’s a better playmaker, but isn’t as strong as a 3-point shooter and is a worse roll/pop threat relative to Towns. DiVincenzo complements Conley and Edwards on both ends, but that may not be enough.

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