NBA Trade Rumors: Wolves Center Karl-Anthony Towns Linked to Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers should be busy on the trade market this summer in an effort to either improve their team or blow it up by cutting Damian Lillard adrift.

The former is far more likely to happen than the latter, but Heavy contributor Sean Deveney suggests that the Blazers could play a role in the Karl-Anthony Towns sweepstakes this summer with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“Among the teams executives mentioned as potential suitors for Towns: Brooklyn and Miami (two teams that will inevitably come up in any potential superstar trade talks in the next six months, though the Heat’s Jimmy Butler has a rocky history with Towns), Portland (in a Damian Lillard deal?) and Indiana. Should Boston consider dealing away All-Star wing Jaylen Brown, which is a longshot, the Celtics could offer the best single player in return for Towns.”

The Wolves may want to take a big swing for Lillard, but they don’t have much future draft capital after trading five first-round picks this past offseason for Rudy Gobert. However, it leads to a thought of whether the Blazers would be interested in trading for Towns to team up with Lillard.

Towns could use a fresh start after hitting a plateau with the Wolves this season. He averaged 20.8 points per game (his seventh consecutive season of 20+ points per game), but only made 29 appearances due to injury. His trade value may not be at his peak, and it may not be lower than it is this offseason.

Towns has a four-year extension that doesn’t start until the 2024-25 season, where he’s expected to make $224 million over four seasons. It’s a lot of money for Towns, but trading for him would give Lillard his best co-star since LaMarcus Aldridge.

At just 27 years old, there’s still a chance Towns’ best basketball has yet to be played and Portland could swoop in for a trade to alleviate Minnesota’s future and allow the team to start fresh while building around Anthony Edwards.