That's it! Almost a week after the announcement of the transfer of Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks, in exchange for Julius Randle And Donte DiVincenzothe exchange was officially validated by the NBA.
In summary:
– new York receives Karl-Anthony Towns and NBA rights to James Nnaji
– Minnesota receives Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Diop and the “first round” of the Pistons’ 2025 Draft (protected Top 13)
– Charlotte receives DaQuan Jeffries, Charlie Brown Jr., Duane Washingtonthree “second round” Drafts and $7.2 million from the Knicks
The transfer of Mikal Bridges, a preamble?
If the formalization of the exchange took so long, it is because the “trade” itself is complex. Tim Connelly, the president of the Wolves, has also admitted that the leaders of the different franchises are still discovering the difficulties that the new collective agreement imposes during exchanges of this scale.
However, on the Knicks side, we already seem to have mastered the new rules and its vague areas quite well. As Keith Smith explains very well, on SpotracNew York has thus very, very intelligently maneuvered since the beginning of the summer to be able to carry out this exchange. Indeed, upon the arrival of Mikal Bridges at the beginning of July, the franchise took care to bring out a total salary higher than that which it had received, notably including Shake Milton, signed and then exchanged immediately. .
The goal of the maneuver? Avoid the “hard cap” of “first apron”, that is to say, maintain flexibility beyond the first punitive limit set by the new collective agreement.
A strategy also repeated during the exchange around Karl-Anthony Towns since, to recover the All-Star interior, the Knicks had to send a total salary greater than that which was going to arrive. Hence the “sign-and-trade” of DaQuan Jeffries, Charlie Brown Jr. and Duane Washington which allows us to reach 49.9 million dollars in output, compared to 49.2 million dollars in input with the salary of “KAT”…
For a dollar more…
New York thus slalomed between the restrictions of the “first apron”, in particular by buying the contract of Duane Washington from Partizan and involving the Hornets in the exchange. But also by circumventing a rule that prohibits teams from stacking minimum salaries to balance salaries. For that, New York simply offered one dollar more than the minimum to DaQuan Jeffries, Charlie Brown Jr. and Duane Washington. In fact, their salaries are not the minimum and are therefore not subject to this rule!
Moreover, by analyzing the arrivals of Mikal Bridges then Karl-Anthony Towns, we can think that the first was made with the second in mind because it was necessary to wait 60 days to be able to use the contract of Keita Bates-Diop in an exchange, and the “trade” for “KAT” had to take place before the start of the season, due to the impossibility of carrying out “sign-and-trade” with free agents as soon as the campaign resumed.
Visibly on the Wolves All-Star track for some time, the Knicks maneuvered perfectly, in the three and a half month window they had, to circumvent all the barriers placed by the NBA, in order to avoid precisely this kind of situation. 'exchanges…
The fact remains that the arrival of Karl-Anthony Towns in the “Big Apple” severely increases James Dolan’s bill. With a payroll (185 million) which increases by 9.4 million dollars, the “luxury tax” increases by 23.8 million dollars. To this must be added the bonus given to Julius Randle during the exchange, of 4.1 million dollars, the 7.2 million dollars sent to the Hornets so that they cut the players received, as well as the 850,000 dollars sent to Partizan to release Duane Washington from his contract. In total, this is therefore an additional 45 million dollars that the Knicks agreed to pay to validate this transfer.
