Knicks, Timberwolves, Hornets Get Creative In Three-Team Deal

Keith Smith, Resident NBA ExpertOctober 02, 2024

Share

#nba #trade #minnesota timberwolves #new york knicks #charlotte hornets

© USA TODAY Sports

The New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Charlotte Hornets (and KK Partizan of Serbia and the EuroLeague) got creative to make a monster eve-of-the-preseason trade happen.

This trade involves multiple teams (always fun!), multiple players (always fun!), All-Star and All-NBA players (always fun!), multiple draft picks (always fun!) and some incredible CBA, salary cap, tax apron maneuvering (always VERY fun!). And if that wasn’t enough, FIBA and a EuroLeague team had to jump in to help make this deal happen.

Here are the particulars for this three team-trade:

New York Knicks acquire: Karl-Anthony Towns (from Minnesota), draft rights for James Nnaji (from Charlotte)

Minnesota Timberwolves acquire: Julius Randle (from New York), Donte DiVincenzo (from New York), Keita Bates-Diop (from New York), protected Detroit Pistons 2025 first-round pick (from New York)

Charlotte Hornets acquire: Charlie Brown Jr. (from New York via sign-and-trade), DaQuan Jeffries (from New York via sign-and-trade), Duane Washington Jr. (from New York via sign-and-trade), 2025 least favorable of Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia second-round pick (from Minnesota), 2026 Golden State Warriors second-round pick (from New York), 2031 New York Knicks second-pick (from New York), $7.2 million in cash

Let’s dive in!

(Note: We are analyzing this deal as it has been reported. If the trade is adjusted to include additional players or teams, we’ll adjust the analysis.)

New York Knicks

Incoming salary: $49.2 million in 2024-25

• Karl-Anthony Towns (C/PF, four years, $220.4 million)

Outgoing salary: $49.9 million in 2024-25

• Julius Randle (PF, two years, $59.9 million (pre-trade bonus), second year player option), Donte DiVincenzo (SG, three years, $35.9 million), Keita Bates-Diop (SF, one year, $2.6 million), Charlie Brown Jr. (SG, three years, $7.6 million (only Year 1 guaranteed)), DaQuan Jeffries (SG, three years, $8.3 million (only Year 1 guaranteed)), Duane Washington Jr. (SG, three years, $7.2 million (only Year 1 guaranteed))

Before we get too deep into this particular trade, we need to step back to earlier this offseason when the New York Knicks acquired Mikal Bridges. In that deal, the Knicks could have made a fairly simple transaction to acquire Bridges by taking on a bit more salary than they would have sent out. That trade would have been perfectly legal, but it would have hard-capped the Knicks at the first apron.

Because the New York front office was forward thinking, they got creative and added some additional salary to the Brooklyn Nets, partially in the form of a sign-and-trade (keep that in mind for later!). By sending the Nets more money than they took back, the Knicks avoided a first apron hard cap and instead hard-capped themselves at the second apron.

Without that bit of foresight and creativity, the Knicks would not have been able to make this trade for Karl-Anthony Towns. There’s been some reporting that New York was pushing for a Towns trade as far back as the last few years, and really ramped up efforts over the summer. By being smart about how they structured Bridges trade, and their subsequent signings and re-signings as well, the Knicks put themselves in position to make their second seismic move of the offseason.

We’re going to start breaking down the Knicks acquisition of Towns from the CBA/cap/apron perspective, because this deal involved an incredible level of creativity to get it across the finish line.

Because Towns makes about $49.2 million this season, which is his maximum salary, his trade bonus is disregarded. That was the target number for the Knicks to match or beat. By doing so, New York would avoid triggering a first apron hard cap, which would make this deal die somewhere between extremely hard and impossible.

Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and Keita Bates-Diop (Bates-Diop is able to be aggregated in this deal, because the 60-day waiting period has passed since New York acquired him as part of the Bridges trade) got New York to just over $43 million in outgoing salary. That left the Knicks about $6 million shy of the target mark.

This is where New York went to work.

The Knicks got to that $6 million by agreeing to sign-and-trade deals with their three remaining free agents in Charlie Brown Jr., DaQuan Jeffries and Duane Washington Jr. (More on the Washington situation later!) But just adding that $6 million wasn’t going to get it done. Sure, it solves the Knicks hard-cap issues, but it wouldn’t work for the Wolves. Because Minnesota is already over the second apron, they aren’t allowed to take back more money than they send out in a deal.

Enter the Charlotte Hornets.

The Hornets are sitting well below the luxury tax line. Charlotte also has their full Room Exception remaining, which can now be used as a Trade Exception under the new CBA.

Those two things will allow the Hornets to pick up three extra second-round picks, plus enough cash to cover the salaries for Brown, Jeffries and Washington, with a little extra to boot. All at the expense of a few roster spots for a short amount of time.

Back to the Knicks creativity for a moment…

When New York made the Bridges trade, the issue of “stacking minimum contracts” came up. To keep it simple, the Knicks couldn’t just pile up a host of players on minimum contracts to get to the salary-matching they needed to avoid a first apron hard cap. That’s part of why Shake Milton was signed-and-traded to Brooklyn in that deal.

This trade had the same issue. In order to get around that, Brown, Jeffries and Washington will each be paid slightly more than the minimum in Year 1 of their new three-year contracts (a sign-and-trade deal has to be for a minimum of three years, but only Year 1 needs to be fully guaranteed). That minor bump in salary will avoid the “stacking minimum contracts” restriction.

As for the future cap sheet, the Knicks are as locked-in to their new core of Towns, Bridges and holdovers Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart as you can be in the current NBA. Brunson and Anunoby are under contract for the next five seasons. Towns and Hart are under contract for the next four seasons. Bridges has only two seasons left on his deal, but is expected to add up to four additional years to his deal in the summer of 2025.

Now, even with Brunson signing an under-market extension, the Knicks are still going to be dealing with the tax aprons for foreseeable future. That’s going to make filling out the rest of the roster a bit of a challenge. New York is going to have to hit on some minimum signings and whatever draft picks they have left. They may have to get creative in future trades. Re-signing a player or two as future tradable salary is also in play, as that’s a tactic that apron teams have begun employing this offseason.

But here’s the kicker: the Knicks front office has shown the ability to get creative to get deals done. If their scouting is solid, and they are able to develop the players they acquire, New York should be just fine to make it work.

Now, let’s go on the court!

The Knicks needed a center in the wake of the Mitchell Robinson injury. Sure, they talked about playing Julius Randle at the five, and they like Precious Achiuwa and Jericho Sims as depth options at center. But with Robinson sidelined to open the season, manning the middle was going to be an issue for the Knicks.

Karl-Anthony Towns solves that. Towns is drastically different from both Randle and Robinson. Those two often get it done via brute force. Towns is one of the best shooting fives the NBA has ever seen, and he’s not afraid to get down on the block to score either. He won’t do it off the bounce like Randle, nor will he play above the rim like Robinson, but Towns is a solid scorer at every level. The Knicks gave up some on-ball creation by trading Randle, and they gave up a really good perimeter shooter in Donte DiVincenzo. But New York’s offense should still be very, very good. The Towns-Jalen Brunson combo is going to be a handful in the two-man game. Towns’ shooting will open the floor for Brunson and Mikal Bridges to attack off the bounce, which should open up the drive-and-kick game to create shots for OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and others.

On the other end of the court, the Knicks defense is going to have some issues. Towns isn’t as bad as he’s sometimes painted as being, but he’s not exactly good either. New York is now small with Brunson and slow with Towns. Those are two attack-points that opponents will go after repeatedly, especially because Bridges, Anunoby and Hart are all good to excellent defenders.

But there’s a fix for that once Robinson is healthy. When that day comes, Towns can slide down a position and play alongside a rim-running, shot-blocking center again, which was a successful alignment in Minnesota. That will see Hart go to the bench, but that will help solve for New York’s lack of depth.

In the short-term, the Knicks have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in. Tom Thibodeau has to get his new-look lineup on the same page. New York has to figure out rotations, with three of last season’s key players out of the mix. The defense probably won’t be as strong, but the offense should eventually be better. The Knicks traded some top-tier offensive rebounding and forcefulness in the paint for better shooting and spacing. That’s a workable swap.

One other short-term consideration: filling out the roster. New York has to eventually get to 14 players on standard contracts. As it stands now, they’ll have just 12 players post-trade. The Knicks are also about $3.6 million under the second apron, at which they are hard-capped. That means for now, New York has enough room to sign one player to a veteran minimum deal, which runs about $2.1 million for this season. Landry Shamet is reportedly the leader to get this spot, as he’s already in camp with the Knicks on a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contract.

That leaves about $1.5 million to fill the 14th spot. That’s not enough for a one- or two-year veteran minimum deal, so the Knicks will have to sign a player to a rookie minimum deal. But that’s not as simple as finding any rookie and plugging them in. A rookie who the Knicks don’t own draft rights for would come with a tax variance of the two-year veteran minimum amount of just over $2.1 million. That won’t fit under the second apron hard cap.

So, look for the Knicks to take one of two actions. They’ll either convert or sign one of their rookies that are currently on two-way contracts (Ariel Hukporti or Kevin McCullar). Or the Knicks could sign any one of the 13 former draft picks that they retain rights for. By signing a player they currently have or had draft rights for, New York will avoid the tax variance issue and can slide the player into that open 14th roster spot.

That leaves the team with one open roster spot, but they won’t have enough room under the second apron hard cap to fill that spot until later in the season. Or if New York makes another trade where they send out more money than they take back, they could create the room to fill that 15th spot sooner.

(There’s a very unlikely situation where New York could sign three rookies who they have or had draft rights for, but that’d be leaving an already thin bench with some very inexperience players.) 

In the longer-term, the Knicks can still play big when Robinson gets healthy. They can go smaller and quicker with Towns surrounded by guards and wings. New York is about out of tradeable draft picks, but they do have a few players they can still offer up in future deal, with Robinson chief among them.

Also thinking long-term, don’t discount the James Nnaji acquisition as just a toss-in to make the deal work. Nnaji is an interesting prospect. The 6-foot-11, 20-year-old big man is extremely raw. Think Mitchell Robinson, but less refined. Starting to get the picture?

At 2023 Summer League, Nnaji blocked 12 shots in about 105 minutes. He also snagged 38 rebounds during that time, with 14 of them coming on the offense glass. Nnaji’s range is measured in inches and everything is being done purely on instinct, but there’s an athleticism and power there that is very Robinson-like.

Sadly, last season with Barcelona was largely a wash. Nnaji barely saw any meaningful run for one of the better teams in Europe. Following last season, he had back surgery, which is also at least somewhat worrisome. All in all, Nnaji isn’t a major addition, but he’s a nice flyer to have around to see if he develops into something.

Are the Knicks better following this trade? That’s unclear. They’re certainly different. It feels like they have a higher ceiling, as Towns is such a special offensive player. But the lack of depth and the injury histories of Towns and Anunoby, along with less on-ball creation, gives the Knicks a lower floor. If nothing else, this is the kind of daring and creative deal that has been in short supply around the NBA in recent years.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Incoming salary: $43.0 million in 2024-25 (pre-trade bonus for Julius Randle)

• Julius Randle (PF, two years, $59.9 million (pre-trade bonus), second year player option), Donte DiVincenzo (SG, three years, $35.9 million), Keita Bates-Diop (SF, one year, $2.6 million)

Outgoing salary: $49.2 million in 2024-25

• Karl-Anthony Towns (C/PF, four years, $220.4 million)

The Minnesota Timberwolves were set to be the NBA’s second-most expensive team this season, behind only the Phoenix Suns. That was tenable for this season and this season only. Something was eventually going to give and some money was going to have to come off the Wolves books as soon as next summer.

Instead of making one more run with largely the same group as the prior season, Minnesota chose to start resetting their books now. However, rather than simply dumping salary, the Timberwolves made a deal that should keep them near the top of the Western Conference, while shoring up a major hole on the roster.

Let’s start with the cap and tax implications. Saving a bit over $6 million this season is nice for Minnesota. But it’s the long-term savings where the Wolves really make out.

Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert both have player options for the 2025-26 season. At this point, it’s far too early to project what either player is going to do. There’s a world where both players could pick up those options and delay free agency until 2026. They could opt out and re-sign with the Timberwolves. They could both come to extension agreements in advance.

The one thing that is certain: Minnesota is in full control as soon as the summer of 2026. Instead of having about $145 million on the books for only six players that summer, the Wolves have just $98 million committed for five players.

Now, it’s fair to suggest that more moves will happen over the next two seasons that will eat into that cap flexibility. But there’s $57 million off the books for that season. There’s a world where even a re-signed Gobert and Randle are only slightly north of that figure combined.

Essentially, by taking Towns contract off the books (it was going to be him, Gobert or the unimaginable exit of Naz Reid happening by next summer), Minnesota saved a little money now and freed up some major long-term flexibility. If Randle and/or Gobert leave as soon as the summer of 2025, that flexibility comes even sooner.

This is Anthony Edwards’ team now, if it wasn’t already. He’s a superstar and he’s the guy the Wolves will orbit everything around moving forward. Now, they have the flexibility to do that in a way that they didn’t before this trade.

Let’s flip things to on the court now!

In a vacuum, Karl-Anthony Towns is a better offensive player than Julius Randle. Minnesota will miss Towns outside shooting and his all-around offensive excellence.

But basketball isn’t played in a vacuum. One undoing for the Timberwolves in last season’s playoffs was a lack of on-ball creation. Everything fell to Edwards. Now, Minnesota’s star has some help in that area.

For all of Randle’s shortcomings as a shooter and sometimes sloppiness as a playmaker, he’s good with the ball. Randle can bulldoze his way to the rim with regularity. He’s generally a good passer. And sometimes Randle’s jumper is falling. (Randle has had this odd every-other-year thing where he goes back and forth from a passable three-point shooter to an awful one.)

That’s partially where Donte DiVincenzo comes in. The Wolves wing/guard rotation behind Anthony Edwards was a little shaky. Joe Ingles is more of a smaller four now than he is a wing. Terrence Shannon Jr. is a rookie and Nickeil Alexander-Walker is more of a combo guard.

DiVincenzo is primarily a shooting guard, but he can play small forward and he can also swing over to point guard too. No matter the position, he’s an elite off-ball player. The last two seasons DiVincenzo has shot 40% on 7.1 three-point attempts per game. He’s also a better-than-you-think rebounder and passer too.

Randle is a drastically different player from Towns, but he’s not necessarily a step backwards. DiVincenzo is a huge upgrade for a bench that felt one player short. Factor in that Naz Reid will now have more runway as a stretch big, and it doesn’t feel like Minnesota downgraded much at all.

Where this trade stings is emotionally. The Timberwolves invested nine years in Karl-Anthony Towns, and Towns invested nine years in the team and the state of Minnesota. This past season was the highest heights the franchise has hit, possibly ever. This upcoming season looked like a good bet to be another successful one.

It’s hard to pivot from that, especially with a loyal player who meant so much to the franchise. But the best front offices have to be daring and unconventional. The easy thing would have been to run it back, see what this season brought, and then go about cutting costs next summer.

By getting in front of this situation, and coming away with two players who can play and an additional first-round pick (let’s not forget Minnesota is still a bit pick poor after the Gobert trade), is good work. It’s not the way most front offices would do things, but you don’t get anywhere by being the same as everyone else, just more expensive.

Charlotte Hornets

Incoming salary: $6.8 million in 2024-25

• Charlie Brown Jr. (SG, three years, $7.6 million (only Year 1 guaranteed)), DaQuan Jeffries (SG, three years, $8.3 million (only Year 1 guaranteed)), Duane Washington Jr. (SG, three years, $7.2 million (only Year 1 guaranteed))

Outgoing salary: $0.0 million in 2024-25

• None

The Charlotte Hornets are acting as the facilitator here. This deal doesn’t get done without Charlotte’s involvement. And, as a fun little bonus, the Hornets got to make a little history too.

Under the new CBA, teams can use the unused portion of their Room Exception (or the Taxpayer or Non-Taxpayer MLE) as a Trade Exception. The Hornets are the first team to take advantage of that, by using most of their Room Exception as the mechanism to acquire Charlie Brown Jr., DaQuan Jeffries and Duane Washington Jr.

With all due respect to Brown, Jeffries and Washington, none of them are likely to be in Charlotte this season. The Hornets already have a full roster in terms of standard contracts. They’re also acquiring $7.2 million in this deal, which will cover what they are eating in salaries for the Brown, Jeffries and Washington trio for this season, plus a bit more.

As for long-term cap and tax impacts, there are none. While a sign-and-trade deal has to be for a minimum of three seasons, only Year 1 has to be fully guaranteed. Charlotte will very likely waive all three players, who got a nice payday simply for signing their names to a contract, and next summer the dead money will come off the books entirely.

The real win for Charlotte is picking up three extra second-round picks. Given the way teams move second picks these days, having a handful of additional picks in your stash is always a good thing. And who knows, maybe one ends up being a value pick near the top of the second round?

The Hornets did give up the draft rights to James Nnaji in this deal. As we covered in the Knicks section, he’s an interesting but very raw prospect. Nnaji wasn’t drafted by the current Charlotte front office, so they don’t have any real attachment to him.

Lastly, the NBA is all about relationships. Jeff Peterson is just getting started with running the Hornets front office. Charlotte’s ownership is still relatively new too. Helping to facilitate deals like this is a good way to build cache around the league. Don’t be surprised if Peterson hooks up with the Knicks and/or Timberwolves on future trades.

The Duane Washington Jr. Situation

We have one more thing to cover as part of this trade, because it’s endlessly fascinating.

At the start of the offseason, Duane Washington Jr. became an unrestricted free agent. He had finished a second two-way contract with the New York Knicks, who elected not to tender him a qualifying offer to make Washington a restricted free agent.

Despite a solid Summer League stint for the Knicks, Washington didn’t sign an NBA contract. In late-July, Washington signed a deal with KK Partizan in Serbia.

Wait…if Washington was signed to a deal, how in the world are the Knicks sign-and-trading him to the Charlotte Hornets to make this three-team deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves happen?

The answer is both fairly simple, while the process is fairly complex.

The simple answer is the NBA does not regard non-NBA contracts when considering a player’s NBA free agent status. So, despite Washington having a deal with Partizan, he’s still considered an NBA unrestricted free agent and the Knicks still hold his free agent rights.

Here’s where things start to get a little complicated…

After a couple of silly situations where NBA teams signed-and-traded players who had retired from the league in order to make trade math work (Hi Keith Van Horn!), the CBA was changed. In order to sign-and-trade a player now, that player has to have completed the previous season as a member of your roster.

Because Washington finished last season with the Knicks on a two-way contract, he’s eligible to be a part of a sign-and-trade.

But we still have the fact that Washington is signed with Partizan. And that’s where things get really complicated.

The Knicks did not want to have amend this trade to include a rostered player like Miles McBride simply to make the math work. New York is already thin on depth after this trade, so they really didn’t want to move a rotation player for salary-matching purposes.

This is where creativity and partnerships take over. Signing-and-trading Washington was clearly the best option to get this trade across the finish line. To make that happen, New York had to convince Partizan to play ball.

On one hand, Partizan loses nothing by releasing Washington to be a part of this deal, then re-signing him after he clears waivers from the Hornets. But, alas, things aren’t so simple!

The first issue is that it takes time for a player to receive what is called a Letter of Clearance (LOC) from FIBA. You may remember this from the Sasha Vezenkov situation this summer. FIBA has to clear players to sign contracts when coming to or from leagues under their jurisdiction.

So, in order to be signed-and-traded by the Knicks to the Hornets, Washington had to get a LOC from FIBA that says he’s free and clear from his contract with Partizan. Then, to re-sign with Partizan after clearing waivers from Charlotte, Washington has to get another LOC from FIBA.

All of that takes time. No matter how much the Hornets and Washington might want to set him free, there’s still a 48-hour waiver period in the NBA. And that’s if the FIBA LOC process is expedited very quickly.

And that’s where it gets even more complicated.

Partizan’s season has already started. Not only did Washington play in each of Partizan’s first two games, he started those games. In the first game of the season, the 6-foot-2 guard scored 13 points in 14 minutes. So, it’s safe to say that Washington is a key member of the team.

Making the timing tricky to pull all of this off, Partizan has a string of important EuroLeague contests over the next two weeks. While there wasn’t any reason financially for Partizan to not be good partners in terms of this trade, they aren’t going to want to be down an important player for some key upcoming games.

As it stands, Washington will miss Partizan’s EuroLeague game against Baskonia on October 3. It’s possible that he could be back in the lineup for an Adriatic League game against KK Cibona on October 6. A more likely scenario is that Washington is back for a EuroLeague game against Real Madrid on October 10.

It’s unknown at this point what Partizan is getting paid in terms of a buyout for Washington in this whole process. What is known is that Washington is going to get roughly $2.3 million in NBA salary for this season, while taking a short amount of time off from Partizan, for essentially signing his name a few times on various documents.

All around, this might be the first time we saw a multi-team, multi-league, multi-continent trade in NBA history. This entire process also proves that while it may be hard, make that VERY hard, for teams dealing with apron issues and hard caps to make big trades, it can be done. It just takes some creativity, partnerships and relationships to make it happen. Oh, and a handful of second-round picks too. Don’t ever forget the second-round picks.