Who will be the next NBA star to try and force a trade?

3. Karl-Anthony Towns

Now we’re talking.

Like the next entrant on our list, Towns’ five-year contract extension hasn’t even kicked in yet. The Wolves just hired Gersson Rosas as their President of Basketball Operations, and he’s highly respected around the league, having spent most of the 16 years with the Houston Rockets, and several as Daryl Morey’s right-hand man. If anyone can figure out a way to unload Andrew Wiggins’ mammoth contract, it might be him.

All of this is true. They’ll also have cap space next year, brought in promising rookie Jarrett Culver, and figure to get another lottery pick in June. These are good things.

The reason that they’ll have another high pick, however, isn’t so great. The Wolves will once again be bad and should enter next season pegged as the third or fourth worst team in the conference. It will be Towns’ fifth year in the NBA, and he has made the postseason just once — a gentleman’s sweep vs Houston in 2018.

Minnesota tried desperately to get D’Angelo Russell in the fold to help rectify this, only to have Golden State swoop in at the last minute to steal him from their grasp. It’s not hard to see KAT getting antsy sooner rather than later, new contract be damned.

Speaking of which…