Karl-Anthony Towns ready to give the Knicks some center stability

Karl-Anthony Towns’ reunion with his former team certainly was more warm and fuzzy than watching Donte DiVincenzo chirp at the Knicks bench from the free-throw line and then have heated words with Rick Brunson following Sunday’s preseason game at the Garden. Towns, facing the Timberwolves for the first time since the September blockbuster swap that sent DiVincenzo and Julius Randle to Minnesota, traded jerseys with former teammate Anthony Edwards and smiling hugs with others after posting a double-double to help the Knicks to a 115-110 victory. “It was a lot of emotion, some amazing moments and times and nine years of my life in Minnesota, and a place that I’ve called home,” Towns said after the game.“So guys who are not just teammates to me, but brothers, real-life brothers. “So it definitely was a wild, wild day, definitely coming to work.” The wildness of the game mostly was provided by DiVincenzo, but the 28-year-old Towns simply took it as another opportunity to acclimate to his new teammates and surroundings at the Garden as the center within the Knicks system — a role he played for three seasons early in his career when Tom Thibodeau coached the Timberwolves. The four-time All-Star finished Sunday’s game with 16 points, 16 rebounds and three steals in 29 effective minutes, while Randle did not play for Minnesota. “I think they’re different players in some ways, but similar in others,” Thibodeau said.

“I think Julius is more of a power forward, but a terrific player.When you look at what he did for us, the scoring, the passing, rebounding, but it’s at the power forward position. “We had a great need obviously with Mitchell Robinson [injured] and Isaiah [Hartenstein] losing [him] in free agency.

We needed a center.That was a big part of it, so I think the center position … when I look at Karl, I like his versatility and his size is important to us.” The 7-footer provides the Knicks an added dimension as a 39.8 perc...