Karl-Anthony Towns had something to say after the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Brooklyn Nets 127-126 in overtime to kick off the 2019 season. Kyrie Irving dropped 50 points in his Nets debut, and Caris LeVert had 20. But the Wolves limited Taurean Prince and Jarrett Allen to 15 and six points, respectively. Spencer Dinwiddie had 14 points off the bench. Minnesota did enough to pull off the upset only a few weeks removed from a team trip to the Bahamas.
“You thought it was bullshit. Unity, cohesiveness,” told reporters after the game. “Bahamas was not a joke.”
The Timberwolves started 3-0 but faded fast. Twenty games in, they were 10-10 and at the start of an 11-game losing streak that dropped them to 10-29. They suffered a 13-game losing streak from Jan. 11 to Feb. 5. By the Feb. 6 deadline, Towns and Josh Okogie were the only players who remained from the previous season. Gersson Rosas moved 14 players, and three future draft picks in trades with six different teams.
Rosas dealt Andrew Wiggins and the pick that turned into Jonathan Kuminga to the Golden State Warriors for D’Angelo Russell. He also traded Robert Covington to the Houston Rockets and received Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Juancho Hernangomez from the Denver Nuggets in a four-team trade. Gone were the team’s unity and cohesiveness, but the Wolves were Towns’ team. There was no Tom Thibodeau and no Jimmy Butler, and his best friend had arrived to much fanfare. Rosas was trying to build something around him.
The Timberwolves have hired four general managers since drafting Towns first overall in 2015. Flip Saunders envisioned Towns, Wiggins, and Zach LaVine leading the Wolves out of their doldrums. Thibodeau brought Butler in as his star player, hoping he’d help Towns and Wiggins tap into their potential. The Wolves eventually fired Thibodeau after Butler forced his way out at the start of the 2018-19 season. They hired Gersson Rosas in May 2019 and fired him in September 2022 after he had an affair with a Timberwolves employee. They hired Tim Connelly in May 2022.
Towns has experienced a lot of front-office turnover since the Timberwolves took him first overall in 2015. Flip put a young team around him; Rosas overpaid in trading for Russell, his close friend. Butler was Thibodeau’s star, but Towns was still a significant part of his vision. Milt Newton, Scott Layden, and Sachin Gupta also served as general managers in between the Thibodeau, Rosas, and Connelly hires. All of them except Thibodeau treated Towns as Minnesota’s franchise player.
Connelly prioritized Towns, trading impact players from Minnesota’s 46-win team last season to get Rudy Gobert – the yin to Towns’ yang. And he paid a pretty penny to do so.
- Malik Beasley
- Patrick Beverley
- Leandro Bolmaro
- Walker Kessler (No. 22 pick in the 2022 Draft)
- Jarred Vanderbilt
- 2023 first-round pick
- 2025 first-round pick
- 2026 pick swap
- 2027 first-round pick
- 2029 first-round pick
Towns is a gifted offensive player but poor on defense; Gobert is a three-time Defensive Player Of the Year who’s difficult to integrate into the offense. Connelly’s first big move was to enact a two-big system in a smaller, more perimeter-oriented league. The Utah Jazz won 55-plus games a year with Gobert, but opponents played him off the floor in the playoffs. Unfortunately, Towns has been injured since late November, and the national media have widely panned the Gobert trade.
Perhaps Connelly’s vision for the Wolves was a Towns-Gobert frontcourt duo, but that feels incongruent with modern basketball. Connelly also didn’t use splash moves to build Denver’s roster. Instead, Connelly used the draft and savvy trades to turn the Nuggets into a Western Conference juggernaut. Trading for Gobert feels like a new ownership move. Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez wisely fired Rosas for his affair with a Wolves employee, then pried Connelly away from Denver with a five-year, $40 million contract. Connelly then went all-in on Gobert.
Minnesota has traded water since Towns injured his calf on Nov. 28. It’s no small feat to hover around .500 in the West sans Towns. But it’s also hard for most people to buy into this team after seeing Towns and Gobert play together for 19 games early in the season. Anthony Edwards’ play is the only true positive to come out of this situation. Edwards is averaging 25.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists on 46.6/37.9/77.5 shooting splits since Towns got injured. He also made the All-Star team as a reserve.
Edwards’ play should inspire Connelly to build the team around him. There is no shame in reversing course. Look at how the Brooklyn Nets have changed since the Timberwolves beat them to kick off the 2019 season. Irving was their big get that summer, and he asked out at the trade deadline this year after four years of drama. They tossed Jarrett Allen in the Kevin Durant trade, Prince is Minnesota’s glue guy, and the Dallas Mavericks sent Dinwiddie back to Brooklyn as part of their Irving trade. Ultimately, they’ve adjusted, trading Durant to the Phoenix Suns and focusing on the future after their Big 3 experiment failed.
We don’t really know Connelly’s vision for the Wolves. Trading for Gobert felt like a new ownership splash move, and it’s unlikely to work out. Edwards’ is Minnesota’s star player, but he needs a different team around him. He could work with Towns or Gobert, but together they clog the lane, preventing Edwards from scoring. However, Connelly may feel differently. Therefore, it’s important to know what he believes the winning formula is for the Timberwolves. They made a big commitment to him to, so he could become the first GM in recent history who gets to see his vision through.
Unless Mike Conley is the connective tissue that makes the Edwards-Towns-Gobert trio click, I’d cut my losses with Gobert. Even then, Conley is 35 and hardly part of Minnesota’s long-term future. Edwards is better off with Towns, who can space the floor, and a swath of 3-and-D guys like Jaden McDaniels and Prince surrounding him. Rosas prioritized Towns, but Connelly doesn’t have to. Edwards has blossomed into a star who can turn the Wolves into a contender. But Edwards only can if Connelly commits to building the roster around him.
