Karl-Anthony Towns may be latest ex-Wolves player to flourish elsewhere

Will he walk in Garnett, Love, and Wiggins’ footsteps as former Minnesota stars who win championships in greener pastures?

The Minnesota Timberwolves be hosting media day tomorrow for the first time in almost a decade without Karl-Anthony Towns. The 28-year old big man is a franchise anchor and All-Star center who was the face of the organization for Minnesota since 2015, when he was drafted #1 overall.

Per Stat Muse: Big KAT has played 9 seasons for the Timberwolves. He has averaged 22.9 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 573 regular-season games. He was selected to play in 4 All-Star games, and has won the Rookie of the Year award.

And that’s why they traded him to the New York Knicks?!?

I have to admit there’s definitely been a strong narrative around his career as a player with the skillset and physical attributes to dominate the league who hasn’t met his potential, instead chasing stats and losing games per NBC Sports:

Jimmy Butler, while on the Timberwolves but sidelined due to injury in 2018, was still Jimmy Butler. As a suit-wearing Butler danced on the bench during a game, someone handed him a stat sheet. Without checking the box score, Butler crumpled the paper, threw it into the air and continued grooving.

Amin Elhassan on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz,” produced by Mike Ryan:

Allegedly, that was directed at Karl-Anthony Towns, who, whenever he’d come to the bench, “Where’s the stat sheet? Let me stat sheet.” Looks at how he does. There have been stories about, he comes out of a game, they’re up 20, sits down, looks at his stat sheet, realizes he had 20 and nine that night. He’s like “Argh” and is visibly disgusted and frustrated because I didn’t hit my marks.

Warriors legend and podcasting king Draymond Green has hilariously chimed on KAT’s penchant for stuffing box scores in defeats:

Per the Star Tribune:

Some Wolves fans didn’t like the comment, seeing at as a form of disrespect. I thought it was hilarious — and completely true, as Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

In KAT’s highest-scoring full season, 2016-17 when he averaged 25.1 points per game, he scored at least 40 points three times. The Wolves went 0-3 in those games. He scored at least 30 points in 21 games. The Wolves went 8-13 in those.

In his highest-scoring season overall — 2019-20, when he averaged 26.5 points but injuries limited him to just 35 games — the Wolves went 2-9 in games when Towns scored at least 30 points.

Green kept the heat up on KAT in last year’s Western Conference Finals when the Wolves struggled against the Dallas Mavericks and flamed out:

I wonder how Warriors fans will remember him. I think he was a great trampoline for former teammate Andrew Wiggins:

Lmao. But seriously, with all that said, I still didn’t expect Big KAT to end up in another jersey right after helping the franchise that drafted him make it to the doorstep of the NBA Finals after knocking off last year’s champion Denver Nuggets in shocking fashion. It also takes away one of the league’s most tenured franchise players, as he ranked only behind Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokoumpo, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Dwight Powell in terms of years spent with the same team.

Then again, this might just be the best thing for Big KAT. He could very well join the list of Timberwolves greats who were traded and won championships for the next franchise they joined. You know, like Kevin Garnett, Kevin Love….AND ANDREW WIGGINS!