Karl-Anthony Towns Powers Timberwolves to Victory Over Warriors, Fueling Playoff Aspirations Amidst Questions about Future
The Timberwolves' star carried his team to their second-straight win in Golden State and likely gave them a lot to consider about his future.
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It’s difficult not to feel optimistic about the Minnesota Timberwolves right now. The Timberwolves beat the Golden State Warriors 104-101 on Tuesday. With their second win versus the Warriors in three nights, the Wolves clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker against Golden State. These two teams won’t meet again until March 24 at Target Center.
We knew Steph Curry was out for this game. However, that did not stop Jaden McDaniels and Klay Thompson from getting into a scuffle. After Rudy Gobert attempted to break it up, Draymond Green jumped on Gobert’s back to put him in a rear chokehold. While McDaniels was ejected, so were Green and Thompson— two players the Warriors probably wanted with Curry out. Especially since Curry was by far Golden State’s best player on Sunday.
This was a game the Timberwolves had to work to stay in. There were 14 total lead changes and the Warriors led from the 4:02 mark in the second quarter until 7:46 in the fourth. Not only did Golden State keep an extended grip on the lead, the Warriors pushed the lead to as much as 12 before the Timberwolves rallied. Unlike Sunday, Edwards did not singlehandedly lead Minnesota back. With 20 points on 16 shots and four assists and rebounds, Edwards was fine but not the flamethrower we had seen recently.
Towns’ Scoring Lifts Timberwolves, Continues Strong Season
No, the story of this game was Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns finished with 33 points on 12-for-26 shooting while grabbing 11 boards. The big man even grabbed a pair of steals while fouling just one (1) time. In Towns’ last four games, he is averaging 26.5 points on 54.8 percent from the field, including 51.9 percent from deep and 10.0 rebounds per game. There was the perception Towns had a slow start to the season because he was shooting just 37 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from deep in the team’s first four games, plus the 3-for-10 clunker against the Celtics. Really, Towns just missed shots but still averaged 9.5 boards and 3.3 assists per game in those four games.
The Timberwolves are a different team when Towns is making those shots. When Edwards has a baseline performance and Gobert is just 2-for-8 against an undersized Warriors team missing Green, having another star will often offset that. It’s not that Towns is chucking from beyond the arc, it’s that he’s scoring in the flow of the offense and playing well with teammates. Look at these clips from Tuesday.
Finally, while I have no accompanying GIF for this point, the Timberwolves are +8.6 points with Towns and Gobert on the floor. For comparison, Towns-Edwards is +8.7, Towns-Conley is +5.5 and Towns-McDaniels is +15.8. You an look at these numbers or the standings or the games, but no matter what, Towns is working with this team through 10 games.
Questions Loom Over Towns’ Future
My first thought was that the Wolves do not need to trade Towns. They probably should wait if they do at all. Realistically and unfortunately, this team is too expensive long term to keep intact in its current construction. The Timberwolves are set to have over $162 million alone in salaries for Towns, Gobert, Edwards, McDaniels and Naz Reid next season (according to Spotrac). Given the Timberwolves’ history with the luxury tax and new CBA, it feels as though something will give.
Why would Towns be the sacrificial lamb here? Well, he is younger than Gobert but older than Edwards and McDaniels while having more value than Reid. Being in a position to have a franchise player set to be an eventual cap casualty is a downer while the team is rolling, but it’s just not realistic to expect this core to remain.
The timing also matters. Towns’ salary also jumps from $36m this season to $49.7m next season. It would be easier for prospective trade partners to aggregate salaries to trade for Towns now before the NBA’s new calendar year next summer. If the Timberwolves were to hold on to Towns beyond, say, the draft, and eventually hit the second apron twice, the new CBA would prohibit teams from aggregated contracts to trade for Towns later. So, they would be stuck with a trade construction like the John Wall for Russell Westbrook swap a few years ago.
On top of all of this, is Conley is 36 years old and in the last year of his deal. This team will need to find a new starting point guard and finding a viable one on minimum deals would be extremely difficult.
Enjoy the Present
To be clear, I do not like thinking about this in a fun Timberwolves season in which Towns and the team around him is thriving. In an ideal world, this team could have a few seasons together before having to make this decision. Hell, Gobert is 31, too, and may likely have a different role in three years anyway. McDaniels, Edwards and Reid are this team’s long-term pieces in this reality.
The good news is that the Timberwolves have seven months before the optimal trade window for Towns closes. They could still make a move into July 2024, but that would likely be more difficult. In the meantime, the Timberwolves are in second place in the West and playing well while Anthony Edwards is making a leap. These are the days followers and fans of this team have longed for from 2005-2021.
YO! You are 100% right in that something has to give, and Towns is likely the 'something.' You'll extract the most return from him (both in the trade and flexibility with money). I also agree that it needs to happen sooner or later due to the complications in Cap Management that I don't understand. lol
Him lighting the world on fire right now is a good thing if this is the reality of the situation!
You know how I feel about KAT... Don't LOVE him, but don't dispise him either... No offense to him, its just time... Same as it was for Love, Wiggins and all those Franchise Players before him. Hopefully ANT breaks this trend!