Ex-Timberwolves guard breaks down why Minnesota is runaway winner of Karl-Anthony Towns-Julius Randle swap

At this point, it’s still difficult to fully determine if the Minnesota Timberwolves or the New York Knicks won the Karl-Anthony Towns-Julius Randle trade. Both teams walked away with All-Star big men and are legitimate contenders. Additionally, they are both still in contention for the 2025 championship.

While the true winner of this trade remains up for debate, Patrick Beverley offered his two cents on why Minnesota got the better end of the deal. Beverley, who played for Minnesota in 2021-22, shared his thoughts on his podcast on Wednesday.

Beverley said the Wolves might have won by referencing Randle’s performance in the conference semifinal against the Golden State Warriors.

"If you look before the season, people were saying, 'Knicks won this trade,'" Beverley said (Timestamp: 4:40). "If you look at it now and you're seeing what Julius Randle did to Draymond Green, right? When you talk about someone winning their matchup, Randle won that matchup when it came to him versus Draymond Green. You got to respect that."

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In the Western Conference semifinals against the Warriors, Randle averaged 25.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists while hitting on 53.3% of his shots, all while dealing with defensive stalwart Draymond Green.

Statistically, Randle's best performance came in Game 3 when he logged a triple-double consisting of 24 points, 10 boards and 12 dimes. However, that was not his best scoring output. That occurred in Game 4 when he dropped 31 to go along with five boards and three assists.

Patrick Beverley praises Karl-Anthony Towns for back-to-back conference finals with Timberwolves and Knicks

This time around last year, Karl-Anthony Towns was also in the conference finals. The only difference was that he was with the Minnesota Timberwolves. This year, he's in a similar position with the New York Knicks.

Towns' contributions to these two consecutive deep playoff runs earned praise from Patrick Beverley.

"For a person to take the Minnesota Timberwolves to the conference finals last year. Then the next year, to go to the Eastern Conference and represent at team as well, it has to show his ability," Beverley said (Timestamp: 5:50).

Towns saw an increase in production across the board since joining the Knicks. Last year in Minnesota, he averaged 21.8 ppg, 8.3 rpg and 3.0 apg. This season in New York, he increased that to 24.4 ppg, 12.8 rpg and 3.1 apg.

Meanwhile, Julius Randle trended in the opposite direction. Pre-trade, he averaged 24.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg and 5.0 apg. This season, he put up 18.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg and 4.7 apg.

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About the author

Miguel de Guzman

Miguel is a basketball writer at Sportskeeda with an overall experience of 7 years. A lover of the sport owing to its mental aspect, he has played it throughout high school and college as a power forward and small forward, and has also coached high school and college basketball teams. These experiences have given him a unique perspective on the game, which translates into insightful content.

For Miguel, the San Antonio Spurs, especially during the Tim Duncan era, were the embodiment of team basketball. He respects Gregg Popovich's empathy toward his players and his understanding of the game. The Spurs' titles, Kobe Bryant's poignant "Dear Basketball" tribute, Derrick Rose's remarkable 50-point game with Minnesota and Magic Johnson's remarkable comeback are among Miguel's top basketball moments.

For his articles, he conducts thorough research, cross verifies information with at least three sources, and sometimes sacrifices speed for accuracy. Content simplification and maintaining a neutral view on topics are his strengths.

Miguel follows other sports, particularly the NFL, and when not working he enjoys hobbies like cooking and playing video games.

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