With just a few days until the ball starts bouncing in the NBA preseason, the summer signing arrives. The New York Knicks have reached an agreement to add Karl-Anthony Towns, the Dominican-American center of the Minnesota Timberwolves, a four-time All-Star and in top shape at 28 years of age, to their roster. Together with Anthony Edwards, he was decisive in helping the Minneapolis team reach the Western Conference final, leaving the Denver Nuggets, who arrived with the title of champions, in the gutter. Now, KAT, as the Knicks’ new signing is known—advanced by TheAthletic and pending official confirmation—will aspire to achieve the championship ring with those from New York.
The Knicks desperately needed a big man on par with the rest of the team. Since the end of last season they had lost their center Isaiah Hartenstein, heading to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Additionally, they have Mitchell Robinson injured. Karl-Anthony Towns, number one in the draftof 2015, not only contributes centimeters (he is 2.13 meters tall) and rebounds, but also scoring power. Last season he achieved an average of 21.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, with a success rate of 50% on field goals and 41.6% on three-pointers.
In New York, KAT not only returns very close to his birthplace (New Jersey) but also reunites with Tom Thibodeau, who was his coach in Minnesota between 2016 and 2019. The coach knows what his new signing can contribute and does not He cared about sacrificing two pieces that were very valuable in the New York team’s notable season last year: shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo, 27, and power forward Julius Randle, 29.
The Timberwolves sacrifice one of their stars in exchange for more outside shooting and the versatility they lacked to beat the Dallas Mavericks in last year’s Western Conference final, which they reached for the first time in 20 years. The Timberwolves had budgetary constraints to be able to retain Karl-Anthony Towns and their big star, Anthony Edwards, long-term, and they have moved to try to compensate as best as possible for their departure.
Those from New York, for their part, ended up falling in a disappointing Eastern Conference semifinals against the Indiana Pacers, after a hard-fought victory in the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers. Randle, who had averaged 24.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 5 assists in the first 46 games of the season, injured his shoulder in January, had to have surgery and did not reach the playoffs. If he returns to the field in as good shape as he left them, the Wolves may ultimately gain more than they lose with KAT’s departure. In Minnesota, Randle also reunites with a well-known coach, Chris Finch, with whom he met at the New Orleans Pelicans.
DiVicenzo, for his part, is a great triple shooter who improved his performance in the postseason. The Knicks had signed Mikal Bridges, 28, from the Brooklyn Nets, another of the big moves of the summer, which demonstrates the title ambitions of the New Yorkers. The fans were waiting to see the Villanova Knicks, Well, the team’s star, Jalen Brunson, as well as Josh Hart, Donte Divicenzo and Bridges all come from the small Villanova University (Pennsylvania). In the end, the four will not coincide.
The operation, which makes sense for both parties, is the apparent final act of a transfer market without major movements, perhaps waiting for the winter window. Most teams have worked hard to retain their stars, starting with the champions, the Celtics, who retain the block that allowed them to win the ring.
In that low-speed market, one of the most striking signings has been the signing of Klay Thompson for the Dallas Mavericks, in the first operation in NBA history in which six teams took part simultaneously.
Thompson is a born three-point shooter, the player who least needs to dribble the ball to score, one of the mainstays of the triumphant Golden State Warriors of the past decade, Stephen Curry’s squire. He was elected 11th in the draft2011 and decided to play with number 11. The 1.98 meter tall, 34-year-old shooting guard has spent his entire career with the Golden State Warriors, the team that drafted him. He is a great three-point shooter that not even Curry has been able to completely eclipse. He is sixth on the NBA’s all-time 3-pointers list with 2,481. He has records such as the highest number of triples in a game (14 against the Chicago Bulls in 2018), the highest number of consecutive triples without missing (10 against the Lakers in 2019) or the highest number of triples scored in a quarter (9 against the Sacramento Kings in 2025). The latter was accompanied by the record score in a quarter, with 37 points. He has played in the All-Star five times and has been chosen twice for the best team. That, despite the injuries he has suffered.
Now, however, the weight of age and injuries make him a less solid player, especially in defense, where the Mavericks are already struggling at times with Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. The low percentage of three-point shots that they were able to hit in the five games of last season’s NBA final against the Celtics has surely weighed on the minds of Dallas managers and coaches, despite having the aforementioned Irving and Dončić. We will have to see if the solution works.
