How the Karl-Anthony Towns trade helps the Sacramento Kings

On Friday, the NBA world was thrown a major curveball, as it was reported that the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks had agreed to a blockbuster trade involving Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle, and Donte DiVincenzo (among other assets).

This is easily the biggest trade of the offseason, with massive consequences for both parties. But this is a website dedicated to the Sacramento Kings. So, what does this trade mean for them?

What the Karl-Anthony Towns trade means for the Sacramento Kings

Let's start with the obvious. The Kings no longer have to face the four-time All-Star three/four times a year (four times this year). Outside of that, it doesn't mean much as far as the Knicks' side of things since they are on the other side of the bracket, and we wouldn't need to see them in the playoffs until the NBA Finals.

What we're really interested in here is in how this affects the Timberwolves. As we've discussed before, prior to this trade, the Timberwolves were one of the four teams in the Western Conference with a definitively more talented roster than the Kings (the others being the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, and Denver Nuggets). So, did this trade make the Timberwolves better or worse?

I think there is definitely a world where the Timberwolves get a little bit better.By adding two starting-caliber players for one, the Timberwolves now have more depth. In theory, Randle could fill Towns' role. And if that happens, that basically means that they got to add an impactful role player in DiVincenzo (who was apparently unhappy in New York) for nothing.

Although, it seems more than likely that they got worse. Randle isn't as efficient of a scorer as Towns (his true shooting percentage is six percent lower), he isn't as good of a spacer (10.5% worse from three), and he's no better (if not worse) on defense.

Adding DiVincenzo will help cure some of the loss in spacing, but you still have concessions you make with the lineups. If you want to play DiVincenzo with Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Rudy Gobert to maximize spacing, you lose out on size. But if you want to swap Randle with Conley to add more size, you lose spacing. No matter how you slice it, it will be hard for the Timberwolves to find a lineup permutation with great balance.

If the Timberwolves got worse, it may mean that the Kings are better than them now. And if that's true, that's one less team stopping us from clinching a top 6 (or even top 4) spot in the West. So, this trade very well could be a huge win for Sacramento.