If they are struggling again at the deadline they should absolutely look to move Towns and Russell at the deadline. I do think it'd take at least Brown to get Towns. I'd probably do that, but it would be a potential chemistry issue, but the thought of Towns and Tatum together for the next decade does sound nice.
Towns and Russell are friends so maybe you do a big package type deal.
Towns, Russell, Layman for Brown, Horford, R. Williams, Langford, 22 1st, 24 lotto 1st
Something like that makes sense, so post-trade
PG - Russell, Schroder, Pritchard
SG - Smart
SF - Richardson, Nesmith, Layman
PF - Tatum, Parker, G. Williams, Hernangomez
C - Towns, Kanter, Fernando
I like how that team would shape up (richardson would play a lot at SG and tatum would play at SF to balance the actual rotation) and still have Smart and Richardson to use as salary in trades over the summer (or Russell for someone like Beal i.e. Russell, Nesmith, 26 1st for Beal or something like that)