It's Never Dull In Minneapolis
The Timberwolves are on a 3-game losing streak and questions about beginning to emerge about Gobert, Towns and the team's future. Something is clearly amiss.
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This team has become an emotionally volatile one to follow. Last week, things seemed good after navigating a soft stretch of schedule well. This week, three consecutive losses to playoff-to-contending-level teams seems have raised red flags for the team’s present and future. It kind of feels like we reached this point quickly but really, this is where the conversation has been building.
It’s not like the Wolves have played poorly. They lost to the Mavs by three, hung with the Celtics for three quarters before losing by 12 (a few possessions in today’s NBA) and a three-point loss to the Heat.
As always, it’s the process and not necessarily the result. Anthony Edwards had 29 points on 11-for-15 shooting, six rebounds and seven assists, but he and D’Angelo Russell combined for 14 turnovers in the Heat loss.
The starting front court of Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels? 26 combined points and 14 total rebounds. This team does not have the additional rebounding to overcome that without some sort of miracle.
At 16-18, no one is happy with how this season has gone. Certainly, those same people would view a 35-40-win season as a failure. You do not mortgage your future to bring in one player only to finish .500.
While there are many problems with this team, Jon Krawczynski wrote a great piece for the Athletic after the Heat game about Gobert’s poor play and also touched on how his teammates have not consistently set him up for success either. The Heat were down multiple centers, relying on a two-way player and a pair of smaller wings. Gobert only got seven shots and finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
This is reminiscent of the game against the Clippers earlier this month where Gobert was just 3-for-5 from the field in a game where the Wolves were with Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell. Scoring is not Gobert’s game, but when you pay four picks for a player and $40m a year, you should be able to reliably throw him the ball for buckets once in a while when two of your top scorers are out. Scoring is not Gobert’s game but rebounding and defense are, and yet the Wolves underwhelm in both those areas.
These problems are unlikely to be cured by Towns’ return or a reacquisition of Patrick Beverley. The Wolves need to do something. However, the Wolves gave up most of those assets to acquire Gobert. They’re not going to trade Anthony Edwards and as much as we like Jaden McDaniels, he is not going to recoup many assets on the market.
I like McDaniels and him starting to show more of an ability to dribble and create his own shot certainly raises his ceiling. Yet, he is averaging just 11.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. He is efficient and can defend, but he is not there yet as a player who can carry a team for stretches. As much as we all like McDaniels now, the best is likely to come from him. That still leaves the team in a tough spot now alongside Gobert, whose performance has dipped this season.
A Potentially Tough Pill To Swallow
Really, that leaves the team with one option, albeit a fairly unpleasant one and that is considering the possibility of trading Karl-Anthony Towns. This is not an original idea and the national media has already brought it up. Look at this exchange on Monday’s Hoop Collective podcast:
“[Tim MacMahon]: There’s no question KAT is going to score 7,600 points-plus in his NBA career— is he a Minnesota Timberwolf that much longer? Basically, does he have four or five more years in a Timberwolves uniform?
[Tim Bontemps]: “The answer is ‘no.’”
[MacMahon]: “I’ll be straight up. I think Tim Connelly needs to shop Karl-Anthony Towns this summer…I think that you’re obviously all-in on Gobert. You’re not going to be able to recoup the value you gave up to get him.. Anthony Edwards is the future of that franchise. I think KAT has value. Again, I’d call Leon Rose with the Knicks, ‘You want your CAA star, we’ll take that Donovan Mitchell package you had on the table.’ I think KAT has value, I don’t think the Timberwolves are going to be legitimate contenders with KAT on that roster. I would shop him this summer.”
Brian Windhorst added that he thinks the team would be reluctant to breakup Towns and Edwards and would expect them to push through, even if he’s skeptical that it will workout with Gobert. While this is not a report, I do think it is interesting that people who watch games and talk regularly with people in the league do not foresee Towns finishing his extension in Minnesota. A part of that is the fact that few players spend their entire career with one team, but it is not crazy as a last resort because of the Gobert trade.
I do not want to rush Towns off of the Timberwolves but he is still only 27 years old. Towns is likely the player the team has to recoup some of the assets (probably not all) they lost in the Gobert trade. Anthony Edwards, at all of 21 years old, is likely more untouchable and trying to deal Gobert would feel like selling low on him.
There is also the matter of the payroll. Towns and Gobert will cost a combined $77m next season, $92m in 2025 and $98m in 2026. That is a very expensive front court in a more perimeter driven league. With an eventual Edwards extension likely kicking in at the start of the 2024-’25 season, that would be a lot of money for the team to tie up in three players if they are not contenders.
Like I said above, players tend to not stay with one team their entire career. Towns is happier than Kevin Love was, but this is eight seasons with Towns now and Love had six. They may need to ask themselves if this is an opportunity to reposition the roster around Edwards with the pieces they would receive in a potential trade.
This is not intended to be disrespectful to Towns. He may be the second-greatest Timberwolf ever considering he has actually played playoff games for this team without Kevin Garnett and made All-NBA and all-star teams. Yet, this is what happens when a mega trade — like the Gobert trade — does not work out, whenever/if that is eventually decided.
Where Is This Going?
If the trade winds up going down as a bust, it will be easy to say the Wolves would have been better using those assets for DeJounte Murray, dealing Towns to build around Edwards early or do nothing and evaluate the roster up to the deadline. I do think that last year’s team likely maxed its potential out and needed something else. I also did not think it was crazy for Gobert to mesh with this team but it has not happened yet.
For now, this season probably has not met even the most dour of expectations. There are many questions about this team’s present and looking around the local and National media landscape today, many are wondering about their future too.
The Gobert trade was a mistake. If they had just stood pat from last year, they'd be 8-10 games better.
Losing Pat Beverly was a gut punch. That guy was the heart and soul of last year's rising team.
Not rising anymore.
None of this is a surprise, bad trades can easily end in a death spiral, most sane basketball people knew this was going to end badly. Everyone I know shared the same shocked sentiment about this trade, I believe you saw the potential disastrous outcome as well Derek. Thanks for an excellent article!