What The Hell Is Going On With Karl-Anthony Towns And The Timberwolves
[Adrian Wojnarowski via the Russillo Show] - “I think their owner would trade management/the coach before he would trade Karl-Anthony Towns. I don’t think they would allow that. I just don’t believe they’d allow that kind of decision. And I don’t know that they’d want to trade him. To answer this first, Minnesota’s bigger issue is not Karl-Anthony Towns, they’re not moving him, Towns is eligible for his extension this summer. You know Jimmy Butler. It’s more of a question of Andrew Wiggins. That to me would be, if someone was going to get moved, and I’m not saying anyone’s going to get moved, I think Andrew Wiggins is the one you’re going to look at first. Because, you don’t have to make a decision on Towns and Jimmy Butler and one of those guys having to take less on an extension, because you can’t have three guys.”
Well, that sort of clears up the situation here, huh? At least for 24 hours, because it seems like we can’t go a day without some new will KAT be traded or not conversation. To me, it’s a no-brainer. You can’t trade KAT unless you get some absurd offer. There were rumors that the Clippers offered Blake Griffin last year for KAT, which was turned down by the Wolves. So if a perennial All-Star is getting turned down, what sort of offer would you have to make in order for the Wolves to say yes? I know people will say the Suns have a chance because they have picks No. 1 and 16, but what else can they throw in there? Plus, can the Wolves be so sure that Ayton/Doncic/whomever goes No. 1 will even be better than Towns? No, you can’t. That’s the thing to remember here. Towns is really fucking good.
Now, is getting rid of Thibs a possibility? Sure. But, again, I don’t see it happening this offseason. The Wolves just got to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years and while there are legit questions about how Thibs operates, they aren’t going to can him just yet. You have to let him and Towns work it out and see if they can smooth the relationship over this offseason.
I’ll admit, I’m confused by the Wolves. They seemed to be building around this core of Towns and Wiggins. They trade for Butler, which is fine because he’s still in his prime. But, then they went out and brought in Jamal Crawford, Taj Gibson and Derrick Rose as if they were ready to compete right this second. That’s not the case as we saw. I even understood moving on from Rubio as the two parties just seemed ready for a split, but then bringing in Teague for him was a decision that many didn’t understand. Now this offseason are they going to bring back Rose? Are they going to try and get younger?
Moving Wiggins is the ‘logical’ move here if they are going to make a big splash. He’s still young enough that you can get a pretty decent haul back for him, it’s just a matter of who would want to trade for Wiggins. Do you just stockpile picks? Are you bringing in another veteran that can help win now, despite not truly being ready to compete with Golden State just yet.
Let’s see what comes out tomorrow.