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Contact Mark Ellis at mark.ls at hbi.com. And let's talk about how we can grow your business together! And wow. Mackie here, solo on a Friday night, just enjoying my Friday night, kicking back, hanging out with my lovely wife, our dog, I was actually watching the Mr.
McMahon documentary on Netflix. Really interesting if you're a wrestling fan. I pick up my phone, start scrolling through Twitter, and all of a sudden, holy cow. One of the biggest blockbuster trades in recent Minnesota sports history.
And I'm just going to unpack this as I see things coming across here on Twitter. Carl Anthony Towns traded at, again, 9.20, 9.30 Central Time on a Friday night, just a few days before the Timurroles Report for training camp. Monday is Media Day. Tuesday is the first training camp practice.
I think Thursday is their first preseason game. So this came right down to the end of the offseason. And here's the trade. And I've just been taking notes out the top of my head the last, I don't know, 20 minutes or so, and I'll just run through my notes stream of consciousness here.
But the Knicks receive Carl Anthony Towns. And no, this is, this is not a prank. This is not April Fools. This is a real NBA trade that's happening.
Although Adrian Wojnarowski hasn't reported it nor will he, because, you know, he's now the general manager of St. Bonaventure Basketball. So I don't know if I fully trust it unless it's a Wojubon. But Kat to the Knicks and the Timurroles receive, according to multiple reports, Julius Randall, Dante D'Vincenzo, and a first round pick from the Detroit Pistons.
And I will just say, there's a chance that there could be other tentacles. There could be another move coming at some point between now and maybe the trade deadline. We don't know exactly what, if this is, if this is the completed path for the Timurroles, I've got some theories on this. But again, if you're just jumping on this live stream here on the Scornoth YouTube channel, emergency flagrant howls, Carl Anthony Towns traded to the New York Knicks.
Timurroles get Julius Randall, Dante D'Vincenzo, first round pick from Detroit. Most NBA pundits are jumping on saying, what the hell are the Timurroles doing? They can see this makes sense for the Knicks for different reasons. I'm going to unpack some of this.
Number one, Tim Connolly generally cooks in the two years since he's been here. When he made that Rudy Go Bear trade, 15 minutes into his tenure, people hammered him. They hammered him the day of, they hammered him the day after, they hammered him six months after. Well, he was right about to go bear trade.
It took until the second season for it to really pay off, but the Timurroles became one of the four best teams in the League Western Conference Finals in large part because Rudy Go Bear was the anchor for the number one defensive team in the entire league. So generally, Tim Connolly, the Mike Connolly trade, getting rid of the Angela Russell. He has a great sense for roster building, for chemistry, for X as a nose. So I just, I trust him Connolly first and foremost until he proves otherwise.
So that's sort of my general stance. Number two, I think the Wolves looked at before we even talk about the players they got back. I think they looked at Carl Anthony Towns and had a few different reasons why they might be looking to unload him between now. I thought this was going to happen maybe next summer age.
He's 29. So he's maybe 30 years old going into a $53 million year of that contract, 2025, 26. So 49 million this year, 53 million next year, 57 million, and then a $61 million player option. In 2027, 28, when he would be like 32 or 33 years old, seven footers don't play forever at a super high level.
He's had pretty significant injury issues the last couple years, not nearly as durable as he was earlier in his career. That contract looks more and more like an Albatross when you start to look at where they're at with the second luxury tax, apron, the money that you're now paying to Jade McDaniel's who's six years younger and Anthony Edwards. So I get why they would look at that contract as something to get out from underneath. By the way, Julius Randall, 30 years old, $29 million this year and then a player option for 2025, 26.
So you might just be clearing that money off the books. And then Dante, even change, this is a really team friendly contract. 27 years old, great three point shooter. He ramped up from being a role player in Milwaukee and Golden State to being like a 30 plus 35 minutes, a game guy with the next a really good next team.
He's under contract for three more years, 11, 12 ish million dollars a year. So super bargain on that contract. And then the first round picked from Detroit. So I see why the wolves didn't like the cat contract when you're looking out two, three years down the road.
I mean, we've talked about this a million times going back the last couple, two, three playoff runs for the wolves. Cats performance in the playoffs takes a dip, whether it's just emotions or not having enough of an offensive bag. I mean, there's really no way to get around the fact that his performance takes a big dip from regular efficiency, scoring foul trouble ramps up, not in every game, but just like overall snapshot of cat in the playoffs. It's not great compared to his regular season, by the way, same to be said for Julius Randall.
So it's not like they're swapping out cat for a guy that's been gangbusters in the playoffs. Even Chenzo, I think you could make a case that his performance has carried over in some key spots. So I, you know, it's shocking the timing of this. But if you were to have kind of zoomed out and said, hey, even going back to last year, right?
At some point in the next couple of years, are the wolves going to trade Carly Anthony Townes? I don't think that is necessarily a shock, but I think just the timing of it, the fact that it didn't happen, maybe back in July or a year ago. Man, some other just, I've just been writing down thoughts the last 15 or 20 minutes. I'm just going to spew some of these for you guys.
And I can pop maybe some questions and comments on the screen. People asking where's Kyle? I think Kyle just tweeted he's a he's a third martini deep right now out having a good time. Jubb was at the twins game tonight.
So here's me solo just having a low key Friday night seeing this come across. Yeah, the wolves lose some size here. You know, cat's seven foot one of the big reasons why the wolves give the nugget so much trouble. I mean, cat was guarding yolkich in that playoff series.
Cat was making it harder for Kevin Durant in the first time. He made your credit to Carly Anthony Townes in the playoffs defensively, offensively, very much hit or miss. But, you know, Julius Randall is more like six foot eight, six foot nine, even Chenzo is a guard. So the wolves going from being one of the biggest teams in the NBA, they take a little bit of a step back in size, although this does open up potentially more minutes, depending on what they do with Randall.
He's been like a 34, 35 minutes guy for the Knicks. Maybe you get away with decreasing his minutes and give some minutes to Nas Reed. This is open a door for Nas Reed to go from 23, 24 minutes up over 30 minutes. So that could make some sense financially.
The wolves, not only just for financial reasons, in fact, I've been told that the wolves were planning with Glenn Taylor, still as the owner going into the season, we're planning to take potentially up to a nine figure loss on this year's team with the second apron luxury tax payments. You know, they don't have a state of the art arena where they're bringing in as much revenue and the TV situation is kind of up in the air. But so they all they're spending a lot of money on this team and then even competitively, you don't want to sit in that second apron because it really limits what you can do from a roster building standpoint. So at some point, they were going to look to offload some money going into like 2025.
So that part of it makes some sense here. But yeah, man, I'm just looking at the rotation here. Now, again, maybe there's another shoot a drop. I'm refreshing Twitter here just to see if there's something else coming down the pipeline.
I wanted to wait like 30 minutes to see. By the way, John Krasinski from the athletic saying one thing to be clear on tonight, Carl Anthony towns did not request this trade. He never has requested a trade in nine years with the Timmer wolves. Cat did tweet just dot dot dot.
Now he didn't interview with somebody I saw a day or two ago to where he was talking about the upcoming season with the Timmer wolves and how they can take the next step. Here's more from the athletic. The word from the town's camp is stunned nine years with the wolves, impeccable in the community, all star, all NBA, now New York, Nick. So man, there's going to be a lot to talk about at wolves media day on Monday here.
So here's what their rotation looks like right now after the off season moves without another shoe dropping. Maybe there's something else coming down the pipe here. But just what we know right now, 30 minutes after this news drop, you got Rudy go bare. I would guess Julius Randall stepping into the starting rotation in place of cat with Jade McDaniel's Anthony Edwards, Mike Conley.
And then your second unit consists of some combination of Nas Reed, Donte, even Chenzo. I, by the way, I love Donte even Chenzo. One of my favorite role players in the NBA the last couple of years. So I I stand for Donte even Chenzo.
He does help make up for the shooting that you lose. There's been some years where Julius Randall is a lights out three points shooter, but he can be really inconsistent from week to week from month to month from year to year. So you're losing one of the great shooters in the league in Carl Anthony towns, but even Chenzo helps make up for that. Maybe more Nas Reed minutes helps replenish some of that loss shooting, but Nas Reed, even Chenzo off the bench, Nikhil Alexander Walker.
And then you got Terrence Shannon Jr, Rob Dillingham, Joe Ingalls. And there's probably another tier after that where you got your letter Miller, Josh Minut, TJ Warren, PJ Dozier on the roster. Luke Gars, obviously Jalen Clark coming off missing last year with the injury. So yeah, just a crazy, crazy news drop on this Friday.
You know, I think obviously my stance on Carl Anthony towns throughout the years has been well documented on flagrant howls and Mackie and Judd are other podcasts, but he is despite his frustrating flaws and the things that I would get on him for the last few years. He is one of the two or three best players in franchise history. I mean, not that it's, you know, it's not like the Lakers list that you're going through, but it's Kevin Garnett at the top. I think Carl Anthony towns, probably the second best player in franchise history, almost a decade, you know, going through a bunch of different coaches, front offices, roster, shakeups.
And he's just been a consistent offensive force in this league when it became evident that Anthony Edwards was ascending to really be the number one player. Packing order wise in this franchise and Rudy go bear comes in and sort of bumps cat off the five. Hey, cat, we need you to figure out how to fit yourself in this new machination. And he did a great job last year of just finding his own role and still getting his while fitting into a team that went to the Western Conference Files.
But I will say, man, at the end of the day, if the goal is for the wolves to take the next step and when a championship, I don't think you can have Carl Anthony towns is the second best player on your team. That's been my take for the last couple of years. That being said, I don't know that if Julius Randall is now the second best player, I don't know that you're winning a championship, but Julius Randall as the second best player on the team. So it kind of feels like, you know, if you talk to Nick's fans and I've got a couple friends who are Nick's fans, they've been super frustrated with Julius Randall in certain ways.
So you're sending a guy out that Nick's fans are just, hey, good riddance. Go try somewhere else. They feel like it's a rejuvenation with Carl Anthony towns coming in for the Timberwolves. Maybe they felt like, yeah, we're not with as much money as he's owed over the next few years.
Like we're not. It's too hard to make it work financially, roster wise. He's going to be 30 years old in a year. And so I get why both teams would be looking to make this change.
And if you're the wolves, you just, man, you, this is this is a pretty big haul. I think if you were to have traded cat, maybe at his peak a couple years ago, do you get? Do you get multiple first round picks back instead of just the one first round pick? You know, we can have debates over the value of this trade, but man, this is this is wild.
This is pretty wild. And now you've got to just jump right in here. Okay. Hey, we're shaking up the starting lineup, shaking up the bench.
And we're taking this franchise cog out of the machine. Basically two days before players are reporting for media day and training camp. So wow, we have 2,400 people hanging out with us here at 10 o'clock on a Friday night, central time. And I'll just repeat it.
Maybe you're just jumping in. Maybe you've got your your buzz on on a Friday night. You're wondering why is what's happening? Why is Mackey live?
Why is flagrant house live right now? Carl Anthony towns traded to the New York Knicks for Julius Randall, Dante, even Chenzo. And his first round pick from the via the Detroit Pistons. Crazy, man.
We just see if there's any other news or tentacles here and we'll have plenty more on this. We will. I think John and Kyler both going to be at media day on Monday. Ramona Shelburne from ESPN.com says Carl Anthony towns is still processing this trade.
According to a source close to him, it's worth noting that Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has been publicly very complimentary of him since he left Minnesota, something that's been noted by towns. Towns, of course, is from New Jersey and used to be represented by Knicks presently on Rose. So there's always been that. I mean, do you talked about that connection for a couple of years.
So there's a lot of homecoming to this story, but towns was in the gym today in Minnesota preparing to build off last season's Western Conference finals run. Yeah, man, that's another tentacle of this too. The rekindling of Tom Thibodeau and Carl Anthony towns and then Carl Anthony towns with New York media, you know, a little bit of a different vibe with how aggressive the New York media can be and the demands and you have a bad game or you come up short in a playoff series. Yeah, you're gonna have a few more people lobbing questions and writing critical things about you.
So yeah, man, crazy stuff here on a Friday night, crazy, crazy stuff. I just wanted to jump on quick and give you guys the update. Plenty more to come here in the next few days as we get more information. At some point, we're going to hear from Tim Connolly and Chris Finch.
I know those guys were scheduled to speak on Monday at media day. I'm guessing they probably will just keep that slot. I don't know that they're going to jump in and do something on Saturday Sunday. If they do, we can jump on and react here on flag and howls, but man.
Yeah, I think I think I agree with Robbie B here in the comment section in in Tim Connolly, we trust. No. And then obscure manifestos as Julius Randall solves what I don't think it's about Julius Randall. I think a couple of things here.
And then I'm going to say goodbye and continue on my Friday night here. But Julius Randall is only under contract for one more year. I think even again, who knows? Maybe there's another shoe drop, but I think even Chenzo, 27 years old, he kind of fits the timeline three years left on his deal.
Super team friendly. Julius Randall is 30 years old. So he's older than Kat. He's like a lesser version of cat.
Like I think I think cat is a better player than Julius Randall. And to me, Randall comes in here to help essentially fill the salary slot for a year and then he can opt out. There's a player option. Maybe maybe he looks at it.
Going to turn 31 years old. Maybe I think it's player options like $30 million. If he feels like he's got some juice left, does he go get like a $100 million three year contract or something from somebody? It might just be one year of Julius Randall.
Maybe you even flip him trade down line or something. I don't think Tim Connolly is looking at this puzzle saying if we can just get Julius Randall to replace Carl Anthony Town. I think it's about leveraging the asset, the basketball asset that is Carl and selling high while you can, selling high while he's pretty healthy. Coming up a pretty damn good year.
They make a deep playoff run. I mean, there's no guarantees that Carl Stock at age 29 is going to be this high again. And if you're trying to freshen this up and clear a runway for a longer period of contention with Anthony Edwards, you know, I think the biggest question, short term, long term, I get it, totally get it. Cat is not going to be part of this thing in three, four, five years as he gets older.
Short term, are you getting worse in 2024, 25 when your window is open to make a run in the Western Conference? We could have that debate. And then some of this is going to depend too on like is Rob Dillingham going to be good as a rookie, Terence Shannon Jr. Does Jay McDaniel's take a step forward offensively?
So I don't think it's about it's Julius Randall is like the, maybe the fourth most important piece to this cat out is a piece, Stephen Chenzo, interesting value piece, a first round picks, you get an asset and maybe there's something else. And I see this from ghost state Minnesota or ghost skate, Minnesota. Naz is better than Julius Randall. I agree, by the way, Julius Randall has played more bulk minutes.
We haven't really, that's one thing about Naz is we've never seen like a 35 minute, like a consistent 35 minutes and night version of Naz. What does that look like? That's a different workload. Just a, that's a different beast.
Um, I don't know if they would flip the script and have Naz come into the starting rotation because not, Naz and Rudy go bear actually pair really well together. The first year they played together, you'll get some of the lineup, like plus minuses and combos and it was a disaster. But last year, those guys played off each other really well. We did try to bring Randall off the bench.
A lot of interesting conversations to be had here. And Chris Finch, man, this is, this is now the second time in three years where Tim Conley has said, I'm going to throw you a gigantic curve ball. Here comes a Rudy go bear curve ball, figure it out in the next three months and put a team together. And then this one, the runway is even shorter.
So a bunch of you guys are asking about KD. And I'll tell you, man, that was my reckless speculation from a few months ago. Could you imagine if this was all part of a flip, essentially of cat for Kevin Durant, like a year, maybe two years of pull up his contract with me, I think, Anthony Edwards. And if there's even like a year of juice left in Kevin Durant, oh, man, that would be fun.
So all right. I think I'm going to wrap this thing up here. But wow, what a news break on a Friday night here. Carl Anthony towns nine years, probably the second best Tim Rolf in franchise history.
And Tim Conley decides to send him to the Knicks for Julius Randall, Dante, even Chenzo and a first round pick. So we'll keep an eye on anything else off this trade. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Friday night. I'm going to go maybe pour myself a cocktail here, continue to process what just happened.
That's a wrap on this episode of Flagren Howls, your favorite Tim Rolf's lifestyle podcast.