New Orleans Pelicans: If Karl-Anthony Towns is available, go get him

The New Orleans Pelicans and Minnesota Timberwolves have both been in the news lately for negative reasons.

The Pelicans dysfunction stems from a report that Zion Williamson and David Griffin don’t get along, which I think is probably overblown and will go away as soon as the team starts winning.

Minnesota is the cream of the crop when it comes to franchise dysfunction, so they essentially said “hold my beer” after hearing about the Pelicans.

Minnesota has fired their President of Basketball Operations, Gersson Rosas, reportedly in part because he had an affair with an employee. This didn’t seem to sit well with their franchise star Karl-Anthony Towns:

Of course, this doesn’t mean he is going to demand a trade or that he is unhappy with the ‘Wolves, but the writing has been on the wall for awhile with Towns, so we are definitely going to start hearing some rumors.

Could the New Orleans Pelicans and Minnesota Timberwolves change the narrative with a trade?

New Orleans Pelicans: Karl-Anthony Towns could be the third star in New Orleans

If the New Orleans Pelicans want to keep Zion Williamson happy, one way to do so would be to bring in a third star and Karl-Anthony Towns would be a nice fit.

There are questions if Jonas Valanciunas is going to create the space Zion needs, and he only has one year left on his contract and may not be part of the long-term plans.

Towns would be a nice complement to Zion, as he is one of the best 3-point shooting bigs in the game and would take some of the scoring pressure off Zion and Brandon Ingram.

The Pelicans are one of the few teams in the NBA with the draft assets and young talent to go after just about any star player, so if KAT does become available, they should be in the mix.

But the cost isn’t going to be cheap, as KAT still has multiple years left on his contract so the Pels would likely have to give up Valanciunas, Tomas Satoransky, Kira Lewis Jr. and a slew of future draft picks to get it done. This is just a package that lines up financially, but the Timberwolves may want more.

But KAT is the type of long-term piece they need to add around Zion, as the two complement each other and fit on the Pelicans’ timeline for contention.

The argument against KAT is that he hasn’t won anything yet nor been able to lead his team to the playoffs, but Minnesota has been a dumpster fire for most of the time he’s been there, and he’d be much better as a third piece than the best player on the team.

If KAT is eventually on the trading block, David Griffin needs to pick up the phone.