Extremely late in the NBA off-season last year, Karl-Anthony Towns was traded. He went from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the New York Knicks. The deal included all-star forward Julius Randle of the Knicks. The deal, for most NBA fans, came as a surprise. Certainly, Knicks fans were critical of what we viewed as “ball-stopping” tendencies from Randle. Fans of the Timberwolves often questioned how well Anthony Edwards could play with both Rudy Gobert and Towns on the floor. In hindsight, I believe both fan bases understood the “why” involved. But it remained to be seen whether or not this was going to work.

In a vacuum, one could say that it did

The Timberwolves ended up being one of the final four teams remaining in the NBA playoffs this year. With playoff averages of 21.7 points and 5.9 rebounds, one would say it was solid output. Of course, those numbers were tapered down a bit because of Randle’s struggles in the western conference finals. In the West finals, Randle averaged 17.4 points and 5.8 rebounds. That output is not and was not enough to help the Timberwolves get past the Oklahoma City Thunder.

For a time, the trade seemed to really teeter on who won out

Hell, for the record, both the Knicks and Timberwolves made the playoffs. For that matter, the Knicks are also one of the three teams left in this year’s playoffs. But therein lies the difference: Towns has thrived throughout this year’s playoffs. He is featured in a more prominent way this postseason. And aside from some of his foul woes, he is meeting the moment.

In the 2025 playoffs, Towns has averaged 21.4 points and 11.5 rebounds. Conversely, Towns is averaging 25.4 points and 11.8 rebounds. That’s through five games. It took Randle five games to amass his conference finals stats as well. But Towns has responded as he has needed to.

What is it that I surmise then?

The Knicks won the trade. Not only because they lasted longer in the playoffs, but they also vanquished the defending NBA champion Celtics to get to this point. This is all because Towns has just been a more reliable performer night in and night out. Regardless of how much longer the Knicks remain in the playoffs, they have strong pillars to continue building with. I think they have less shuffling to do in the off-season than the Timberwolves. So, to me, the more stable team at the end of the season would be the one that won the trade. I can happily be on the right side of this history for once.

Julius Randle

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