Trade negotiations that lasted forever somehow came together quickly. The New York Knicks are on the verge of hiring Karl-Anthony Towns — and it only took them a nano-decade to get the deal done.

The Knicks have coveted Towns since team president Leon Rose took over the organization in 2020, when Rose left his former position at CAA, the same agency that represents Towns. Years ago, when New York considered itself ready to pursue a big name, it called the Minnesota Timberwolves to express interest in the sweet-shooting big man, league sources said. Then the Knicks did it again. And again. But the banter never materialized into what anyone might call negotiations.

The Knicks loved Towns. They wanted his team to know that. Conversations often became circular. The Knicks would express their interest in Towns, one of the most versatile scoring seven-footers in league history. The Timberwolves — who didn’t actively buy their starting power forward, a 20-and-10 forward who can shoot like a guard and spin like a Brunson — would respond the same way every time; with something along the lines of, “Okay, then make us an offer.”

Every now and then the Knicks would spit out concepts. Years ago, they even outlined the remnants of what could have turned into a Towns-Immanuel Quickley trade, league sources said. But this rabble did not result in meaningful negotiations. The Knicks and Wolves did not discuss a Towns trade with much enthusiasm. At least not until Friday.

The Knicks spent this week exploring the league’s central market, according to league sources, with their starter, Mitchell Robinson, now out for the first part of the upcoming season. Once they said they were willing to part with not only Julius Randle but Donte DiVincenzo, the Wolves’ traction started to build.

Now they have agreed on a deal.

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The Knicks acquire four-time All-Star Towns, The Athletics reported late Friday evening. Randle, DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Diop and the Detroit Pistons’ protected 2025 first-round pick are headed to the Timberwolves, league sources said. Because both New York and Minnesota are above the first platform, a quirk in the new collective bargaining agreement requires the Knicks to unload another $8.8 million or more. Some of it needs to involve a third team. In short, this simple three-for-one exchange will not be the final version of the deal.

At least some of the dollars will come from signing and trading current free agents from last year’s roster in New York. The Knicks will sign and trade DaQuan Jeffries to the Charlotte Hornets, The Athletics reported, as part of the Towns deal, but his salary alone isn’t enough to make the money work. There will also be other smaller movements.

New York is months removed from a 50-win campaign that left it just one win away from the Eastern Conference finals. It would start this season – which is as close as it gets; Media day is Monday – with depth as a strength. The same players head coach Tom Thibodeau wouldn’t remove from the field during the 2024 postseason, DiVincenzo and Josh Hart, were ready to come off the bench.

What a difference one move and years of desire can make.

For the second time this season, the same time the Knicks traded four unprotected first-round picks for Mikal Bridges, they have revamped their identity.

They will enter training camp with a projected starting five of suffocating size, splashy shooting and facilitators everywhere: Jalen Brunson, Hart, Bridges, OG Anunoby and Towns. The bench is not nearly as intimidating as it was earlier in the day Friday. Miles “Deuce” McBride is the sixth man. Precious Achiuwa will see time, as will Cameron Payne, the former third-string point guard whose veteran presence could push him toward minutes. Maybe Jericho Sims will get a chance. Or the rookie, Tyler Kolek. Or one of the New York veterans who signed training camp deals, Chuma Okeke, Landry Shamet or Marcus Morris Sr.

This won’t look at all like anyone expected it to look a few days ago. It’s a new era.

The Knicks will never know whether that January run, the one that carried them to a 12-2 record after the trade for Anunoby and before Randle’s season ended with a shoulder dislocation, was a mirage or the first sign of greatness. They will never be “the Nova Knicks,” the group that everyone who went to that school just outside of Philadelphia was supposedly indispensable to. So far.

We all thought the Knicks’ star trade was the deal for Bridges, for whom they spent all their top draft picks, which they had been saving for years in hopes of landing that one big name.

Well uh.

They still had a move in them.

According to league sources, the Knicks are excited about how Towns can complement Brunson, Anunoby and Bridges. Brunson-Towns’ pick-and-rolls will be a nightmare to guard with those two wings in either corner, ready to catch and shoot. Cities can run to the basket and score low. He can jump to the arc and bury 3s. He’s not just a spot-up shooter, either. He hoists jumpers from every angle and at every level. He shot 42 percent from deep a season ago, but also roasts from midrange and around the hoop.

The Knicks can now spread out Brunson and Towns so that at least one is always in the game, allowing an All-Star to sustain the offense for 48 minutes.

Cities can make up for what they’ll lose with Randle’s post-up play and then some. The Wolves didn’t send Towns to the block as often as in recent seasons, when fellow big man Rudy Gobert also hung around the basket. But the aforementioned expected starting lineup would allow him to pulverize the defenders inside. And when double teams arrived, he could kick to capable, open shooters.

He will help with rebounding, a potential weakness as long as Robinson gets hurt. According to a league source, Robinson is targeting a return in December or January, but that league source was also specific about the appropriate language. It’s not definitive that Robinson will be on the field by then; the Knicks will monitor his rehabilitation, and if he needs more time, he’ll get it. Even once he comes back, no one can know what his conditioning will be like.

Once Robinson is back, the Knicks will have options. Is he coming off the bench? Or will they go with a huge starting lineup with both Robinson and Towns, following the strategy that helped Minnesota to the Western Conference finals last spring, along with Bridges and Anunoby?

Of course, pressing questions come first.

What happens to defense if cities start in the middle?

One statistic that influenced the Knicks about Towns was his plus-minus numbers, according to a league source. The Timberwolves were better at times way better, if he is on the field for all nine seasons of his career. But most of that is down to his attacking prowess.

Towns has always struggled with anchoring a defensive line. That’s why the Wolves traded for Gobert. What happens when opponents put Brunson on the front end and Towns on the back end of pick-and-rolls over and over again, leaving the Knicks’ two All-Stars dizzy on their way to the rim? Will elite helpers on the perimeter — and there’s a good argument that Bridges and Anunoby will suffocate opponents like no other perimeter duo in the NBA — along with Hart be enough to keep hopeful infiltrators out of the paint?

Thibodeau has worked with Towns before when the coach was at the helm of the Timberwolves and Towns, now 28, was coming of age. They were an imperfect match then. Before a match at Madison Square Garden last season, Towns asked the question about the two having trouble resting.

“I have no problem with Thibs,” Towns said at the time. “We crushed that. I still consider Thibs one of the best coaches, the best X’s and O’s that I ever had the opportunity to play for. He is a winner.”

A source close to Thibodeau emphasized that the coach feels the same way.

“If a guy can play,” the source said, “Thibs wants him.”

And cities can play.

But will it push the Knicks over the hump? Are the starters talented enough to take them to the conference finals? Can they beat the defending champion Boston Celtics once they get there?

If this team was all in after executing the Bridges trade, it simply turned over the couch cushions and rummaged through old jacket pockets to find enough coins and a $20 bill to add to the pot.

The Knicks have now traded six first-round picks, four of them unprotected: Bojan Bogdanovic, DiVincenzo and Randle for Bridges and Towns. No one, except Brunson, is untouchable.

Just a few days ago, a contingent of Knicks executives traveled to the Bronx to support what was a big day for Randle. The power forward – the same one who chose New York when no one else would, who extended a contract below his market value so he could commit to the organization long-term, who went on to become a three-time All-Star and two-time All-Star -NBA performer under Thibodeau, who has helped revive a once dejected franchise that has now made the playoffs three times in four years and is a contender this season for the first time in decades – was the man of the day at a construction site not far from Yankee Stadium.

Randle had spent years raising money for the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball Charter School. He is now responsible for $1.3 million in donations. On Wednesday, at the groundbreaking of a new building, the school announced it would name the basketball court after him.

The Knicks brass was there, everyone from Rose to executive vice president of basketball operations William Wesley to Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Thibodeau, John Starks and others. From the looks of it, you would think it was a group in complete synergy.

But things change quickly in the NBA – even if it takes years.

(Top image of Karl-Anthony Towns and Tom Thibodeau: Bart Young / NBAE via Getty Images)