The Minnesota Timberwolves enter the 2024-25 season without Karl-Anthony Towns. It will be the first season they begin without KAT on the roster since 2014-15, when their lottery originally brought the big sharpshooter to the Twin Cities.

It’s certainly disappointing to lose a player who many would consider to be the heart and soul of the Timberwolves. Towns endured the most difficult times and remained one of the team’s leaders throughout until last season when they had one of the best years in franchise history. KAT has seen it all during his time in Minnesota.

Now that he’s gone, the Timberwolves’ players and coaches will be given the difficult task of replacing him. Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo will obviously provide a big boost to this squad’s performance on the court, but it will be difficult to fill the large void left by KAT overall.

In the meantime, many are speculating about the trade and why the Timberwolves decided to do it. Some have understood the context and concluded that finances probably played a role. Jon Krawczynski, Minnesota insider and senior writer for The Athletic, recently confirmed this, with an even more significant caveat: The Timberwolves would be forced to choose between KAT or Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

According to Krawczynski, the financial impact of Towns’ new contract would have resulted in the team being forced to move on from Reid and Alexander-Walker if they had chosen to retain KAT. While keeping Towns on the roster would have meant retaining a larger core of the Western Conference Finals team, that ultimately would have clearly had negative long-term consequences.

Yes, keeping KAT keeps the starting lineup intact as well as the Gobert Towns frontcourt, but losing Reid and NAW would arguably have been even more damaging. These two provide much-needed depth as well as defensive and perimeter shooting power. It seems that keeping KAT and having to pay out his large contract while looking for smaller contracts to fill the void wouldn’t have been an ideal situation.

This new information gives us a little more insight into why Minnesota management decided to pull the trigger on such a massive, team-changing move. The loss of KAT is still a huge disappointment for many fans, but perhaps this can soften the blow somehow.