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John Shipley: If Wolves don’t get better when Towns returns, it’s time to move on

john shipley, pioneer press
·4 min read
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When the Timberwolves scheduled this bobblehead night at Target Center for Thursday, the organization no doubt expected their star centers would be together on the court and moving more than just their heads.

Instead, the Timberwolves played host to the Washington Wizards without Karl-Anthony Towns, who missed his 40th consecutive game since suffering a severe calf strain on Nov. 28, and with Rudy Gobert playing on as half of the two-headed monster frontcourt the organization sold the farm for on July 6.

Last month, Charles Barkley famously called it “the worst trade in NBA history,” It took only 15 games for Yahoo! NBA reporter Ben Rohrbach to determine the deal was “an abject failure.” At this point, hyperbole aside, it’s difficult to argue with them.

Timberwolves personnel chief Tim Connelly sent veteran rotation players Patrick Beverly, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt, 2022 first-round pick Walker Kessler and four future first-round picks to the Jazz. That’s a ton for a center known mostly for his defense. But context is important.

Since using the No. 1 overall pick on Towns in 2015, the Timberwolves have been trying to surround him with the right players, including Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler, D’Angelo Russell and now Gobert and 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick Anthony Edwards. So far, Minnesota has made the postseason twice with Towns and each time lost in the first round.

Connelly might be new here, but last summer’s trade seems like the organization’s last, desperate attempt to make Towns part of a championship-caliber team.

The Timberwolves expect Towns back sometime after the team’s seven-game all-star break. Exactly when remains unclear.

“We’ll evaluate him after the break,” coach Chris Finch said before Thursday night’s game. “He’s closer than he was yesterday, let’s put it that way.”

In 21 games this season, Towns averaged 20.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists. Any team trying to make a playoff push would welcome a player like that, but with Towns it’s never that easy. He’s a unique talent — a 7-footer who can score in traffic, drive to the rim and shoot 40 percent from beyond the arc — and has proven a difficult fit no matter who surrounds him. He has always gotten his points and rebounds, but he’s an often reluctant defender, which is an issue when you guard the NBA’s best bigs.

One assumes that was a major reason for adding Gobert, whose inside presence on offense also would presumably allow Towns to play outside more. As Plan Z’s go, it’s a bad one — expensive, but maybe it still works. He and Towns have only played 19 games together. In the meantime, Minnesota has traded Russell and acquired Mike Conley, a playmaker who doesn’t need to score to feel valuable. Conley played with Gobert in Utah.

Finch said Thursday he and his staff haven’t spent a ton of time talking about how Towns will fit into the team when he gets back, which makes sense, but said the addition of Conley “will help us kind of rebalance things quicker.”

“He’s used to playing with bigs. He can throw the ball into the post, kind of being a setup guy,” Finch said of the veteran point guard. “He can score if you need him to, but … That was one of the things that we were trying to accomplish, trying to rebalance our usage a little bit.”

The Timberwolves were 10-11 before Towns got hurt, but it’s a different and better team since he left — although it inexplicably lost to Washington on Friday after blowing a 20-point lead. Gobert finished with 17 points and 19 boards, and theoretically, adding Towns’ production makes the team better. If it doesn’t, then you have to wonder why Towns is still here.

For whatever reason, after almost eight seasons, it’s not working with KAT.

Just before the team traded for Gobert, they signed Towns — only 27 years old — to a four-year, supermax deal worth a potential $224 million. It doesn’t kick in until 2024-25. NBA rules all but set that price, and Minnesota made the deal in part so Towns can’t walk away as a free agent.

It might feel as if Connelly left the Timberwolves without a net, but the reality is NBA teams can always get draft picks from elsewhere, especially from a team that likes what it sees in a player such as Towns.

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