Hoops Tonight - Knicks-Timberwolves Trade Reaction: Karl-Anthony Towns a PERFECT FIT in New York

something simple like a player to score a touchdown. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook app and make your bet today. You can also bet on who's gonna win the Super Bowl right now. DraftKings has the Kansas City Chiefs as the favorite at plus five hundred, followed by the San Francisco forty nine ers at plus six hundred. Ready to do a touchdown dance of your own? New DraftKings customers bet five dollars to get two hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets instantly and get one month of NFL

Plus Premium. Download the Draftking Sportsbook app and use code hoops that's hoops, that's code hoops for new customers to get two hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks and at one month of NFL Plus premium only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours.

Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine and Connecticut help is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets

expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For eligibility terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co slash ft ball. NFL Plus premium offer available only to new and former NFL Plus subscribers. Additional NFL Plus premium terms at NFL dot com slash terms. All right, welcome

to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Friday. Everybody. If all of you guys have had a great week, we got a bonus episode because the New York Knicks are trading Julius Randall and Dante DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl Anthony Towns, a classic instant chaos NBA trade. I'm just gonna give you guys my initial impressions on

this deal in this video. As you know, we're going through a power ranking series that is full season previews for all of these teams, and thankfully we haven't gotten to either of the Knicks or the Timberwolves yet, so now when we hit those teams, we'll be able to get into more detail. So I promise we'll go into much much more detail when we get to those videos. But I wanted to give you guys my initial impression on the deal. You guys owe the job before we

get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss anyhow announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the year. All right, let's

talk some basketball. So I want to focus on the Knicks angle first, and also we're getting this out before we see any additional details, so I'm not sure if there was any draft compensation. I'm not expecting much in the way of draft compensation, if any, just because this seems to be a player for player type of deal, right, But let's focus on the Knicks first. So obviously you lose Dante DiVincenzo. You're a little thin at the two now right. My guess though, is that duce McBride ends

up sliding into that spot in the short term. There's also an opportunity for them to go bigger if they wanted to go with McHale Bridges at the two and og In and Obi at the three. But either way, this could be a precursor to another deal. I'm not sure what the Knicks are going to do about the two spot, but that is a small price to pay for what is an incredible fit at the center position. This is a center position where you're already gonna have

some depth issues. You lose Isaiah Hartenstein. Obviously Mitchell Robinson is dealing with an injury to start the season. So it was a position of specific need and you paid one of you paid the weakest of your starters from last year. And I really like Dante Devincenzo for the record, and we're gonna get into more details on Dante. I think Dante's awesome. He is a great in Minnesota two.

We're going to talk about that. But of all the players that you gave up, you give up Dante DiVincenzo, but you give up this kind of clunky, janky fit in Julius Randall, who when the original version of this team before McHale Bridges, before Ojananobi made some sense as like a secondary shot creator of Ford that you can use to attack matchups, as a kind of like a

guy to spell and give some rest to Jalen Brunson. Right, However, now that Ojan Andobi's in the building, now that Michale Bridges is another shot creator for you, that Julius Randall thing is a little clunky, and you didn't have anybody to play at the center position. Karl Anthony Towns seamlessly slots in at the center position. Now you're going if McHale's at the three, you're going Mkale, Ogan Andobi and Kat at the center position. Just a lot more like

natural basketball fit there. One of the things that I didn't like about Carl Anthony Towns with Minnesota is Minnesota really needed a secondary shot creator, right. Anthony Edwards was creating most of the stuff they needed Cat to like actually create shots, And that, to me, is not my

favorite use of Karl Anthony Towns. To me, I love Carl Anthony Towns more as an off ball score, meaning I want him picking and popping and then catching and shooting, or catching and driving on the closeout or okay, you get a favorable matchup like a switch. I like Carl Anthony Towns attacking mismatches in the post. I don't like him attacking other big forwards in the post. Right, So like, in order to get those mismatches, you run the screening

actions that you like to run. Karl Anthony Towns gives you somebody that can attack a mismatch on the other side. So, like imagine a Jalen Brunson Carl Anthony Town's two man game. A team switches it. Now you've got a small on Karl Anthony Towns. You dump it to him in the post. He can go to work. They run a drop coverage.

Jalen Brunson can get downhill and engage the screen defender, kat can pop the pick and pop is the hardest action to guard with a traditional drop coverage because your center is dropping to the basket and then has to close out to the three point line, or you have to rotate from the weeks, which now your defense is in rotation and you're running around like your hair's on fire. Right,

So like Karl Anthony Town's absolutely seamless offensive fit. Now as far as the off the defensive end goes, obviously, Carl Anthony Towns is not the type of defensive player that Mitchell Robinson is, not even quite as good as Isaiah Hartenstein was or I actually thought it was pretty solid for the Knicks last year. However, if you're going to be weak protecting the rim, you want to be good on the perimeter. And so let's say to start the season it ends up being duced McBride at the two.

If I have Duce McBride on the other team's best guard, or McKale bridges on the other team's best guard, in Duce McBride on the second best guard, and I have og on the other team's best forward, I've got three like outstanding, very very good perimeter defenders, all of different archetypes. Deuce McBride is like a small, super quick footed player that can really pressure the ball. Mckaal Bridges has length and can apply back pressure as good screen navigator, a

guy that's more using his long arms. And then No g Nanobe has the strength. He's this big tank of a And so you can kind of pick and choose how you match up with those guys and give yourself a chance to contain the ball. If you contain the ball, rim protection is nowhere near as big of a deal. And so like again, if you're gonna have Karl Anthony Towns anchoring your defense, you'd prefer to have the defensive

personnel that the Knicks have. And like, quite frankly, right now, if you imagine a lineup with Jalen Brunson and let's call it Duce McBride for now, Michale Bridges, og Ananobi and Karl Anthony Towns, that is just a shit ton of talent and that it just gives that team another dynamic that they didn't even have after the McHale Bridges trade.

So I'm super super excited to see what the Knicks look like with this group onto the Timberwolf side, I'm a little bit confused as to where they're going here. I like the Dante DiVincenzo fit. That to me is like if you remember last year how spotty the Nakille Alexander Walker minutes were. If Dante DiVincenzo slots into the starting lineup and then you put Mike Conley at the two or whatever you decide to or Mike Conley, I should say, off the bench, whatever you decide to do.

I just like that core better, like if I like a three guard core of Anthony Edwards, Mike Conley and Dante DiVincenzo more than I like it Anthony Edwards, Mike Conley and the kil Alexander Walker right, Like, Dante's just a way more reliable and is a way more reliable

shooter than Nikil Alexander Walker. But he also has a lightning quick release and he can shoot it from deep and like you guys saw in the playoff run like he had some stretches where he shot the seams off the basketball, and like I even like it because you guys know, I've been critical of Anthony Edwards navigating ball screens and just as it just has a tendency to run into him and die unless he's trying really hard,

which he just doesn't do all the time. On defense, right, well, you can imagine a scenario where Dante DiVincenzo is next to Aunt. He is an excellent ball pressure guard. Dante Devincenzo is like a scrappy pain in the ass point of attack defender, and so like him next to Aunt can slot him into an easier defensive role as well. That I like, here's the problem. What has been my

issue with Minnesota over the last couple of years. It's been about their ability to create space for Ant, who is one of the best drivers of the basketball in the league right now, arguably the best driver of the basketball in the league right now, right and so if Ant needs space to work, and it was already clunky with Jaden McDaniels, Karl Anthony Towns is one of the

best shooting bigs in the league, and Rudy Gobert. If you shoot in Julius Randall there, it's going to be really weird when Ant has the ball that's a three four five, that there's not a single guy in there that you're really scared about burning you from the perimeter consistently. Now, Julius Randall, when he's healthy and in rhythm, has had stretches where he shot the basketball well, but it's been inconsistent.

And he's very much a rhythm player. So when he gets out of the lineup and then comes back in, he usually doesn't shoot the ball well for a little while. And so again it's it's a bet on Julius Randall shooting the ball well when he gets over there. But even as we've talked about, it doesn't really matter how well you shoot the ball. They don't guard you, okay. So I like the Julius Randall fit when he has

the ball. I think Julius Randall, when he's healthy and in rhythm, is better at creating his own shot and creating shots for others than Karl Anthony Towns. He's nowhere near the off ball threat that cat is, But on the ball, I think when healthy, that's how Julius Randall made all NBA teams. He's a big, bullying forward that can pick on matchups, has a good mid range game.

When he's in shape and in rhythm, can be a scary player there, But whenever Ant has the ball, the fit makes absolutely no sense to me, and so, like, I don't really know what Minnesota's ultimate goal is here. We want to try to kind of wait and see if they end up making another deal or if there's a larger plan here in place, Like where does nas Reed fit in all of this? Is he still just the bench big? Like, I'm curious to see where Minnesota

goes from here. It's in a very simple sense, you turned one player Carl Anthony Towns into two players and Dante DiVincenzo and Julius Randalls. So you could argue it's an increase in depth, but I just worry about Ant on the ball, not having the space to get to the rim. This to me, I think Ant is the next truly great superstar in this league, and he is

a downhill for so space to work. And even though Julius Randa will help him to be able to take over the offense at times, I'm not sure that fit makes much sense when Ant has when Ant has the ball. So again, that's just kind of my initial impression on it. I'm gonna sit on this, sleep on this, get into it in way more detail. I want to say, I'm hitting. I can't remember how I have my rankings, but I'm

hitting at least one of these two teams. Next week in the season preview segment, we're going to get into much more detail. But that's my initial thoughts. Knicks fans, Timberwolves fans, drop your comments in the YouTube comments underneath this video. If you have any questions or thoughts Basketball takes about this particular move, let me know. We might shout out in our mail bag later next week. All right,

As always, I appreciate you, guys. I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll see you on Monday the volume What's up? Guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.