Kristian Winfield: Knicks are the clear winners of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News on May 12, 2026

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NEW YORK — Two seasons into the blockbuster deal sending Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Karl-Anthony Towns is beginning to look like everything the Knicks front office envisioned.

And more.

The Knicks swept the Philadelphia 76ers to punch their second straight trip to the Eastern Conference finals in a 144-114 victory — their sixth in a row — on Sunday. Their winning streak coincides with the team’s newfound concerted effort to run offense through Towns, who has been the NBA’s best playmaker in these playoffs.

“We found a way to, in a way, stabilize our season and do what was needed to adjust to Atlanta and find ourselves in a better position,” Towns said after the Knicks’ hostile takeover of Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile Arena. “It’s a shout out to the coaching staff for realizing adjustments that needed to be made.

“And also a shout out to me personally that they trusted me.”

Towns leads all playoff performers in assists per possession. He’s recorded 66 assists in 285 minutes, which makes him the league’s playoff assist leader across all timeframes. Cade Cunningham, LeBron James, James Harden, Tyrese Maxey and Jalen Brunson have each dished 61 or more playoff dimes but needed more than 347 minutes to reach the mark.

Towns is averaging 15 points, 9.5 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 1.3 blocks and a steal since the Knicks’ Game 4 victory over the Atlanta Hawks in the first round.

Due to foul trouble — or Knicks blowouts — he has only played 25.8 minutes per game.

It’s the kind of stat line and usage profile seeming virtually impossible as Towns was an afterthought in one of the worst regular seasons of his decorated career. Towns averaged 20 points, 12 rebounds and three assists in his first full year under Brown with dips in field goal and 3-point efficiency, shot attempts and minutes on the floor.

He has since become the lever the first-year Knicks head coach pulled to shift his team into championship-contention mode. In the blink of an eye, the offense runs through Towns as its primary playmaking hub.

“We made a lot of moves throughout the course of the year and throughout the course of the playoffs, and you just keep trying to do what’s best for the team. I don’t care what team I’m with when you’re talking about being in the NBA. Even if you do stuff right, you’re going to get criticized,” Brown said. “So you just embrace whatever’s out there, and you keep trying to do what’s best for the team. And at the end of the day, if it doesn’t work out, the one thing I know is that I can go look in the mirror and say, hey, I try to do the best I could for this group, regardless of anything else. I tried to do the best I could, and that’s what keeps me going.”

The results have been dominant: A 175-point combined margin of victory over their last six games. An 81-point margin of victory in closeout games in the first and second rounds. Sole ownership of the only two 80-point playoff halves since at least 2000.

It’s safe to say the Knicks have come out on the winning side of both deals: the Randle-DiVincenzo-Towns deal — and the Tom Thibodeau for Brown swap.

Because for all the good Thibodeau did for the Knicks — back-to-back 50-win seasons and a conference finals appearance on his resume — his usage of Towns, or lack thereof, put a cap on the team’s potential. Brown changed offenses once in the regular season. He did it again after falling down 1-2 to the Hawks in the first round.

Meanwhile Randle is averaging 17.2 points on 41% shooting from the field and 28.6% shooting from 3-point range (Towns is flirting with 60-50 shooting splits). The Knicks-turned-Wolves star is breaking even with 3.6 assists and 3.5 turnovers a game. DiVincenzo found a strong scoring rhythm and shot 48% from deep before a ruptured Achilles ended his season in Game 4 of the Wolves’ first-round series.

The jury is still out, but the returns are promising.

Thibodeau’s Knicks made it to the Eastern Conference finals and lost to the Indiana Pacers. Brown’s Knicks patiently await the winner of what’s become a competitive second-round series between the 60-win Detroit Pistons and the Donovan Mitchell-James Harden led Cleveland Cavaliers.

Whether or not the Knicks punch a ticket to their first NBA Finals since 1999 could squarely depend on how effectively they run offense through their All-Star big man.

So far, so good for the team that’s come out on the winning side of the Towns-for-Randle deal with the best passer in the playoffs.