GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Karl-Anthony Towns was in the Knicks’ building, though not yet on their team.
The trade bringing the All-Star center to New York and sending out Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo hadn’t been completed Monday by the time the Knicks reported for training camp and met with the media.
So the Knicks tiptoed rather than sprinted into their season of high expectations. No specifics about how Towns would fit into their team, no deep discussions about what Randle meant.
“Extremely, unofficially, excited,” swingman Josh Hart said.
He repeatedly used “unofficially” during his remarks, while Tom Thibodeau declined to comment multiple times about another chance to coach Towns, his former player in Minnesota.
The Knicks won 50 games last season, finishing second in the Eastern Conference during the regular season and falling a game short of reaching the conference finals for the first time since 2000.
They are expected to be one of the top challengers to the NBA champion Boston Celtics but will have a new look after agreeing to trade two of their starters in the pending deal, which they hope will be completed in time to have Towns on the floor when they open practice Tuesday in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Obviously a big move was made,” Hart said. “You have to try to figure out how that fits and you had guys you were very comfortable with are gone.”
Jalen Brunson pretended not to know who Towns was when asked if they had spoken. But his relationship goes back years with DiVincenzo, a teammate at Villanova and later a groomsman in his wedding, and he praised Randle for welcoming him to the team when he signed with the Knicks in 2022.
“It’s tough, but I mean, growing up with a dad who was on nine unguaranteed contracts and played in eight different cities or whatever,” Brunson said, referring to Knicks assistant Rick Brunson, “you quickly know that it’s a business and so it’s not fun at all losing two like that.”
Randle was a three-time All-Star in New York, winner of the NBA’s Most Improved Player award in 2021 after leading the Knicks to their first postseason appearance since 2013. But he dislocated his shoulder last January and was unable to return, and now he won’t get the chance.
The Knicks finished 14-2 that month, tied for the second-most wins in franchise history in a month, after acquiring OG Anunoby at the end of December. Team leadership could have considered trying to keep that team together, believing the Knicks might have been good enough to win with that roster.
But it instead made two big moves since the season ended, sending four first-round picks to Brooklyn in June to acquire Mikal Bridges. Thibodeau said the Knicks used the summer to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the team, along with best possible fits.
“So you want to continue to try to add to it and we know we still have a long way to go,” Thibodeau said. “And so if they complement the players that we have, then we want to look at them and try to add those guys and then try to have them fit in and be who they are.”
The Knicks had to find a center solution after Isaiah Hartenstein signed with Oklahoma City and learning that Mitchell Robinson’s recovery from ankle surgery would keep him off the court until at least December. Towns will step into that spot and provide outside shooting the Knicks weren’t getting from it.
“You always know there’s going to be moves being made and sometimes those moves are sped up by guys being hurt or guys being free agents,” Hart said. “So, figured probably something would happen, but you never know.”
The deal ends his second time playing with Randle, who was also a teammate with the Los Angeles Lakers, and his reunion with DiVincenzo, who like Brunson and Hart also played at Villanova.
“Sometimes the NBA’s a tough business,” Hart said, “and KAT’s an amazing player, someone who will be really good in terms of spacing, knocking down shots, blocking shots, creating attention, creating plays for his teammates. So you love it and hate it.”
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