Well, give Leon Rose this: Once again he shows that he is not content to sit still and let his team move forward through good feelings and happy feelings. We’ve seen enough that he doesn’t believe in magical thinking, he just hopes for the best.

Sometimes you have to shake things up, shake up the comfort zone to take the next step.

He did that last December by sending RJ Barrett and Isaiah Quickley to Toronto and importing OG Anunoby. There was an immediate reaction among a large part of the faithful, a melancholy sadness. They had watched Barrett and Quickley grow up. The Knicks would have won with them. Was that trade really necessary?

As we discovered, it was.

As we discovered last year when Anunoby was healthy, the Knicks were a much deadlier and more efficient team with him than they were with Barrett and Quickley. Anunoby going down during the Pacers series denied what certainly seemed likely: That new lineup probably would have gotten a few swings at the Celtics in the conference finals.

Knicks fans have spent the better part of the weeks and months since counting the days until the opening of training camp next week in Charleston, SC. ​​It’s been a while since the return of professional basketball was greeted with this level of anticipation. The Knicks added Mikal Bridges and signed Isaiah Hartenstein. The college quirk of Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson was an undeniably cute story.

Can cute stories win an NBA title?

Frankly, it’s hard to identify one. And so it will be an immediate shock when we realize that DiVincenzo and Julius Randle are now heading to Minnesota in exchange for Karl-Anthony Towns. It will take a few days to absorb, to get used to it.

KAT has long been viewed as a potential final piece of the puzzle for the Knicks due to a strong relationship with Leon Rose and because he is, at his best, a dynamite player. Lately he has been outmatched in Minneapolis by Anthony Edwards, and during the playoffs he was exposed on both ends of the floor.

He is a flawed All-Star caliber player, just like Randle was flawed. Rose decided to pull the trigger, knowing that it would certainly cause some grief among the Villanova crew and Randle, who, like KAT, is a Kentucky man with an inside-out game and a history of collecting critics and criticism. Randle was an import from the previous Knicks administration, but he immediately switched to Tom Thibodeau’s system and had his best years here. Randle is as responsible as anyone for ending the endless wave of misery that is nearly a quarter century deep.

But could he return from shoulder surgery and take the Knicks to the next level, which means going toe-to-toe against the Celtics?

Well, Rose made the trade, so that tells you what he’s thinking. And Rose has earned the benefit of the doubt with his work here since Day 1. We’ve all said in unison that the Knicks won’t be a real contender until they make one more move. This is the move.

Do you trust Leon?

If you do that, you believe in the deal. You believe Thibodeau wouldn’t have signed this if he didn’t believe he could coach him and who was KAT’s first coach in the league. Furthermore, you have to believe that the Villanova boys, starting with Brunson, were warned before the rest of New York was caught by surprise.

Does this now make the Knicks a real threat to the Celtics?

We’ll find out soon enough. But right now, it certainly seems like the Knicks’ potential ceiling is higher than it was Friday morning. CAT must stay healthy. He needs to embrace Thibodeau’s ways. But his skills fit well with the players he joins.

No trade is easy, especially when it comes to popular players that fans have fallen in love with. But if you trust the man to make these moves – and there’s little reason why you shouldn’t – this will grow with you. It has been smart to rely on Leon so far. Why stop now?