New CBA scared Timberwolves into trading Karl-Anthony Towns while they still could |Max Sporty|

The canary in Minnesota’s coal mine was Brandon Ingram. In June, the New Orleans Pelicans traded one of their centers (Larry Nance Jr.) for Dejounte Murray, a player who replicates a significant piece of what Ingram does offensively, and allowed the other (Jonas Valanciunas) to walk in free agency. They could not have telegraphed their intent more clearly with that decision. Murray was introduced to replace Ingram’s shot creation. Herb Jones and Trey Murphy are set to play his position. The central position was left completely vacant. The goal after acquiring Murray was to flip Ingram in a deal that included a replacement center. The Pelicans were more than justified in assuming that such a deal would be out there. It’s not usually hard to trade 27-year-old wings who made an All-Star team.

It’s September and Brandon Ingram is still a Pelican, and money is the simplest reason. Ingram is an impending 2025 free agent who is eligible for an extension. It doesn’t make sense for New Orleans to pay him, but neither does the rest of the market. Before the 2023 CBA, it was the kind of contract you offered out of the blue. It was the Zach LaVine or Bradley Beal max, a decision to retain an asset regardless of price. But in the new world? No way. Ingram is too flawed. His defense and playmaking are too inconsistent. His choice of shot is completely wrong. The injuries come too often. You can’t pay a $35 million player $50 million. It’s a non-starter, no matter how excited most teams would be just to have a $35 million player. Thus a 27-year-old All-Star became virtually untradeable overnight.

Karl-Anthony Towns is a 28-year-old former All-Star. He got there several times more than Ingram and ranked 12 places above him on the CBS Sports top 100 rankings. But unlike Ingram, he doesn’t want the hefty contract. He already has it. He is owed an additional $220 million over the next four seasons. He’s a better player at a less valuable position, and he’s a year older. He is coming off an inconsistent playoff run in which he had more games under 20 points (nine) than over (seven). He was never a good defender. He makes too many mistakes. He is, in short, a risk. He wasn’t a risk the Timberwolves could afford to keep taking. They couldn’t afford to get Ingram’d.

If push comes to shove, the Pelicans can let Ingram walk. They don’t have to pay him, as wasteful as sacrificing such an asset would be. The Timberwolves didn’t have that option. They had a four-year supermax contract on the balance that just couldn’t keep up with it. Anthony Edwards is about to start a Rose Rule max contract that opens at 30% of the salary cap. Rudy Gobert is at the end of the supermax deal he signed in Utah, and before the Towns trade, he had Minnesota over a barrel. With a 2025-26 player option, he has the power to significantly lower their luxury tax bill and potentially knock them off the apron … if they want to make him whole long term. Jaden McDaniels is underpaid relative to his market value, but he’s still making starter money. Naz Reid is now earning high-level bench money, but when he opts out next summer, he’ll get starter money as well. The Timberwolves have grown so prohibitively expensive over the past few years that this balance sheet could only really be justified by a championship.

Maybe Minnesota would have won the 2025 championship with Cities. The odds were against that, no matter how much faith you had in their roster. There is an inherent chance of winning everything. Players get hurt. Matchups work against you. Shots you normally take don’t go in. Towns knows that well. He shot 3-of-22 from 3-point range in the first three games of the Western Conference Finals, all single-digit losses. Minnesota’s most likely outcome in 2025 was to lose after a round or two in the postseason. Another 3-of-22 stretch might have made Towns completely untradeable at this price.

So what happens to Minnesota? They are suddenly allowed one more second apron season in the next four before their frozen draft picks begin to move toward the bottom of the first round. Do they let the younger Reid go? Are they dumping McDaniels? The two of them together won’t be doing what Towns is doing for the next few years. Edwards is the face of the franchise. He is obviously bulletproof. Gobert is the foundation of the team’s defensive identity, and that draft pick at least allows the Timberwolves some control over how they handle their balance sheet over the next few years. It would amount to trading Towns, who might not have been tradeable, or trading the role players that would deprive the younger Edwards of long-term voting parts and the team of the depth and versatility it will need. to argue No result there is favorable.

So Minnesota swallowed hard and moved proactively. They exchanged Cities of relative strength. Did he net the monstrous package he might have moved a year or two earlier? No, but Minnesota made him a cheaper power forward of a similar archetype and a very valuable role player for a needed niche. Donte DiVincenzo could be a core player in Minnesota for years. Julius Randle could be a free agent in 2025. If he works out? The Timberwolves can re-sign him knowing the consequences. If he doesn’t? Let him walk for tax savings, or trade his salary slot into something that makes more sense. The protected 2025 Pistons pick the Timberwolves earned in the deal would help in that regard. Even if it’s never traded, it’s a much-needed source of cheap labor for Minnesota for the next few years.

The Knicks had the benefit of common sense here. They didn’t inherit the Towns contract, they carefully crafted their books to absorb it. The Knicks are not paying Jalen Brunson’s market rate. This is what his generous discount subsidizes. They traded for Mikal Bridges in June and likely know what it will cost to extend him down the line. The Knicks will not be a second apron team this season. They literally can’t be, thanks to the hard cap imposed by the Bridges acquisition. They’ll have ways to kick the can down the road long enough to squeeze four or five years out of this group. Minnesota realistically had two.

For all we know, it might not even have one. We don’t know who will own this team at the end of the season. There was credible reporting suggesting that the Alex Rodriguez-Marc Lore group planned to completely lower the luxury tax after taking control of the team. That would have been operationally impossible if Towns got the Ingram treatment. With Randle and Gobert on player options, it’s a little more doable. The alternative is Glen Taylor, among the NBA’s most thrifty owners over the past several decades. Minnesota’s 2025-26 luxury tax bill is currently projected at about $66 million. The Timberwolves could foot that bill because they have no other choice. Nothing about the decision-makers here suggests that they are very likely to pay it for a long time. One of those key decision makers, President Tim Connelly, reportedly has an option on his contract after next season. He did not comment on the matter publicly. It’s not unreasonable to speculate that Minnesota’s head of basketball operations wants to know who will own the team before making a long-term commitment and what resources will be available if he stays.

This is by far the most expensive Timberwolves team ever. Maybe ownership, whoever it ends up being, is willing to pay for a consistent winner. But retaining a consistent winner has never been more difficult. We are in the apron world where one bad contract can bring your entire operation down. In the old world, Minnesota knows it could trade Towns at any point down the line because there will always be someone eager to pay for the talent. Remember, Russell Westbrook played a five-year supermax contract in which he played for five different teams. No contract was ever non-negotiable. In the new world, though? An expiring deal on a 27-year-old All-Star may be. The risk of getting Ingram’d in a year outweighed the reward of slightly higher championship odds now.

This is not exclusively a financial matter. It’s also basketball. The Timberwolves have more flexibility to retool around Edwards when he hits his peak in a few years. They sacrificed a wider window now for a longer one as time progresses. Those just weren’t sacrifices that teams consciously made a few years ago. It’s one that teams will have to do every summer now.

It’s not hard to envision Denver struggling with similar questions about Michael Porter Jr. The Bulls would trade LaVine for a song if they could. Rumors suggested the Hawks traded Murray over Trae Young because Young couldn’t generate strong enough offers. This is the new normal, and those teams are still holding onto their deficient max players. The Timberwolves decided to make a move of their own before it was too late.