Some teams figured out how punishing the new CBA was before others, is what this is.

It was a very smart trade.

Love KAT, but that contract is just too massive in the current CBA climate

At the time of the Gobert trade, the conventional wisdom was Rudy was too old for Ant’s timeline. To me, the genius of the tradein retrospect was that Connelly understood you can’t have all your stars in their prime because the money doesnt work. Best to pair a guy on a rookie deal or a rookie max with a star or stars 5-7 years older and hope the young guy’s game matures in time.

I don’t know how Connelly will remake the team once Rudy is gone, but there was always going to be an Ant-led team after Gobert. And in the meantime you showed a young star in a small market he could play on the national stage as a member of your franchise before he got a wandering eye for bigger markets.

Both the Towns & Gobert trades were smart as hell. Timberwolves have a very good future ahead of them

Looked like a win-win under the old rules but clearly a MIN win under the new rules. 

Joan has legit looked like he can hang, idk why he took so long to get playing time. I get he’s still raw, and didn’t start playing basketball until a really late age, but the footage I’ve seen he doesn’t look lost out there. Has some good instincts for rebounding and has managed to at least be a presence. Also shown some flashes of offenses that look better than Rudy

Joan looks more advanced than someone like Khaman Maluach. Unforntunate that Sorber got injured, but Joan looks the most advanced of his peers

Raynaud and Kalkbrenner are more progressed but they should be given they are more than 3 years older. So even tho they are the same draft class, I consider Sorber and Khaman to be more comparable since they are 1st round picks that are still at the end of their teens with more upside and more of a “project” to become a defensive anchor than more seasoned college draft picks like Raynaud and Kalkbrenner

Connelly with yet another great trade.

Honestly if the Knicks are serious about moving him I’d consider something of a similar route

Like if Orlando likes him turn him into Carter/suggs for example

With the current CBA, the supermax has value for the top 15 or 20 or so in the league, but after that, it’s more of a penalty than a benefit. You don’t want to allocate that much of your cap to a guy when he’s the 30th or 35th best player.

The 65 game rule is gonna make it even tougher when you have a bunch of the top players in the league ineligible for a All NBA, so now you got that next level of guys at the tier of Lauri or Bam or Avdija turning into All NBA candidates and getting paid based on a rule that was originally intended as a financial incentive to keep the top franchise players in their market, but instead you just end up with .500 teams rocking a championship team budget.

I’ve heard a lot of people recommend the same solution, and I also think it’s obvious - just don’t count the supermax portion of the contract against the cap. Now you get the true benefit of providing something special and unique to keep the player in town, without the cap punishment.

I remember being killed in the comments for saying I liked the Trade for the T Wolves. I argued the gap between KAT and Randle isn’t huge and he saves them tons of money, and because he is a real PF and not some wonky hybrid like KAT the team should be more functional.

I also noted Donte’ more than makes up for the spacing issues caused by losing KAT. I am usually wrong about trades but I have never gotten more fans speaking in certainties about how wrong I was than with this trade. One of them even looked me up months after the trade to do a little premature victory lap. Suck it T Wolves fans! You won the trade.

Three rotation pieces you say? Hmm how’d yall like Quickley, Poeltl and Ochai for KAT? Break that big salary into three quality rotation pieces

I think it was a very good trade but don’t think the Wolves are contenders without a true playmaker to run the offense.

I think the Wolves had great matchups because the Lakers and Warriors didn’t have a legitimate 7 footer. They had a massive size advantage that carried on until they met OKC.

Randle dominated vs the Warriors and Lakers and shot the ball from deep great vs OKC but struggled inside. His jumper is down this year so I’m not sold on him vs bigger teams.

So the KAT trade kept the window open but think they need to make some moves or itll close

I clowned this trade when it happened. Guess that’s why I’m not a GM

KAT is one of many players with flashy stats who are so deeply flawed that it’s hard to win if you pay them a max. Unlike most of the other guys who fit that description, he seems like a nice dude.

That said, I’ve never seen a player put up such impressive numbers on offense while being so fucking bad at it. He is possibly the best shooting big of all time but also the least effective starting stretch ⁴⁄₅ in the NBA, and that’s not even getting into his defense (it’s BAD). I like the dude but he’s just bad at basketball. He’s a tall guy in good shape with an excellent jumper- everything else about his game is tragic.

edit: I just wanna emphasize this again- he’s 7 feet tall, athletic, durable, and one of the best big man shooters of all time, and yet the rest of game is so brutally worthless that he probably shouldn’t start for a team that’s actually trying to contend

“Donte age 27 season on a super deal around 35% of max performing like a super role player who can start or come off bench, fits seamless with with Ant as two off guards”

Lol what are we watching the same games? Run him off the line in the playoffs and he’s cooked

https://media1.tenor.com/m/Oc4nf8N08jIAAAAd/mind-blow-galaxy.gif

As a knicks fan, I had a feeling this was gonna be one of the biggest fleeces in franchise history.

Just hoped the front office knew something about KAT that didnt show up on the court in minnesotas system the past 8 seasons.

Still can’t believe we gave up 2 of my favorite players in franchise history for this bum on a max contract with a player option. Just absolute stupidity by Leon Rose.

It’s the ridiculous deal he made for Gobert that got this labeled as bad initially 

Was the plan to keep Kat when they traded for Gobert?

Why not just keep building around kat and Edwards and use those picks.  And Beasley was solid for the wolves right so similar to donte

Why does Joan count as part of the kat trade? Did they get that pick as part of the trade? 

Mavs offer Hardy, Gafford

did the opposite for the knicks, amigo

Trade KAT for Jimmy. Straight up.

Who says no?

The key was locking in Randle into really friendly contract. Idk if it will become a trend to simply not max your 2nd tier star or if Julius just needs a better agent.

Good. Great even.

HAHAHAHAHA. Said that at the time and was ridiculed for it

Maybe the wolves are more functional than the knicks

I loved the trade even at the time. Kat could be making a vet min and id still do that trade in a heartbeat

For the Wolves - I thought at the time that it had to be done for salary cap purposes, but I didn’t like it from a basketball perspective, particularly coming off a great playoff run. Their regular season last year wasn’t great (7 wins down), but they played well in the playoffs, so so far it seems at least neutral from a basketball perspective - and it did clean up their contract situation going forward. Unfortunately, they still need a PG - Dillingham has so far been a miss.

KAT is still an excellent player, I’d argue he’s one of the better #2s in the league. It makes roster construction much harder paying him at 60m+ when he’s not a #1. But I’d argue the Knicks have bigger issues, including:

- Mikal and OG both underperforming. I’d argue Mikal in particular is vastly overpaid now, and should be traded first (but may now not have much trade value). They also traded away way too much for him, but that’s sunk cost now - those draft picks would have helped bench depth (below point).

- Firing Thibs for Brown has been a massive negative.

- Knicks not getting a 5 to play next to Kat (I’d rather have this than Mikal). Kat just can’t play 5 on defence, but he did great in the playoffs with Gobert in a twin tower format, and plays well with MRob whenever he plays.

- Knicks have gotten nothing out of recent draft picks, besides Miles McBride (technically a trade). They traded away Kobe Sanders this year (who’s been decent on LAC), and Kyshawn George and Ajay Mitchell last year (the latter in particular has been a great find). Dadiet on the other hand has been no good. A look at their recent draft history - looks pretty terrible.

- Their bench still looks terrible. PJ Tucker is still on the payroll?! Clarkson and Yabusele have both been misses so far unfortunately.

Also - the Knicks won the NBA cup just last month! Feels like a lot of overreactions, and any blame for their current situation starts elsewhere other than KAT.

The limiting factor for the Knicks is Brunson. You can only go as far as your best player takes you and Brunson is not that guy.

While trading KAT was a good idea people are forgetting how Randle is a regular season player and has trouble in the playoffs. 

Wolves clearly should have traded for a playmaker instead of another big. 

future of being eliminated by sga ig