Ready or Not, the “Ant Window” is Fully Upon Us

The Karl-Anthony Towns trade made even clearer that anything this franchise will have one person in mind.

A gigantic move that will change the way an entire franchise operates over the next five years (at least) was made less than 96 hours before the start of the 2024-25 season officially tips off in the form of training camp. 72 hours before media day, if we’re keeping track.

Not at the trade deadline. Not during the peak of the offseason or during free agency. RIGHT when the season is about to tip off.

It’s the most Minnesota Timberwolves thing that the Minnesota Timberwolves could do during the least Minnesota Timberwolves offseason of all time.

But Karl-Anthony Towns, while unexpected this offseason, becoming a member of a different team always carried a pretty high likelihood of happening from the moment he signed his supermax contract extension at the conclusion of his 2021-22 all-NBA season.

I want to caveat this article because it’s going to sound a lot like “man, thank GOD we got rid of that guy”.

It’s the total opposite. Towns holds a special place in this franchise’s history and is first team all-good person. He treats everyone with respect and will always be somebody I root for.

The reality is that if not this year, the Wolves were going to have to make the call next season. The advantage now was hanging onto the leverage that remained, and now opening up the floodgates and flexibility to build around its young superstar.

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Photo by C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images

A Rock and a Hard Place

While Towns was clearly considered a franchise player, it was clear that his career his career was on a slightly different timeline than perhaps the franchise player. In most cases, there’s not a real issue with that as Ant flourished loudly pretty early on in his career which introduced early team success.

But as time went on and supermax contracts were signed, max players were traded for, and young players close to Edwards’ age were developed and molded into elite role players and given contracts of their own, it became a more logical thought that the long-term viability of the Edwards and Towns pairing is just downright not affordable or reasonable to keep intact long-term given the balance sheet.

Not only that, but let’s run the thought exercise that perhaps the Wolves don’t win the NBA Championship this coming year.

They quickly become a team that still needs to trade Towns due to a massive incoming repeater tax, lose leverage in any trade discussions as every team in the league knows the availability of Towns and need to move him, and his three years remaining with a 61-million dollar player option at the end of the contract are staring you right in the face.

That’s given all things equal. It assumes another all-star season from KAT, close to 82 games played, and a playoff run that builds off the momentum generated last year that shook his “playoff choker” narrative. Likely, but not all guaranteed.

As The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski reported, it would have come to either keeping Towns, or moving multiple valuable role players including a fan favorite whose beach towel you may have.

It’s all to say that next offseason you’re looking at a diminished return and potentially having to attach assets to a big contract to get out of a sizable tab.

This now also gives you flexibility to unmitigatedly build around Anthony Edwards.

The fantasies Wolves fans have had about Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels, and Edwards getting older together and forming a nucleus for years to come with no worries of interference are here.

It likely comes with a year of Julius Randle. If he plays well, he’s out of here. He will look for something long term and turn down his player option. That’s 30 million dollars off the books after a fear of having 55+ earmarked for four more years.

It comes with three more years of Donte DiVincenzo at 10-12 million dollars a year. There’s a chance it’s the best contract in the NBA. He’s a baller. And he’s going to be the second or third guy off the bench.

It’s all in the name of keeping a championship-caliber team together while looking towards the next few years.

I keep going back to Tim Connelly’s quote at exit interviews after last season. Every decision this franchise makes moving forward will have one thing in mind.

This is now Anthony Edwards’ team, plain and simple. If you have a heartbeat, while an abrupt page turn, that’s something that should get you excited while appreciating what the Wolves had in Karl-Anthony Towns, a player who stuck with a team that didn’t deserve it.

I’ll forever be grateful. But in a more disgusting fashion, we learned firsthand that contractually, two timelines is incredibly hard to workout when Towns himself was the young, promising anchor of a team off the playoffs when Minnesota paid him and Andrew Wiggins before offering Jimmy Butler his max extension (which allegedly sent him off the deep end).

It wasn’t that this time around. But similar to the aftermath, let’s sit back and enjoy the heights that a young player can take this franchise to with the sole focus being on them.

As if it wasn’t before, the Anthony Edwards era is officially upon us.