Timberwolves Must Find Identity With Karl-Anthony Towns Out
When the Minnesota Timberwolves shocked the NBA world this past offseason by trading for All-Star center Rudy Gobert, Minnesota envisioned that they would have the most dominant frontcourt duo and that they would be able to lean on both Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns on both ends of the floor.
Through 21 games this year now, the Timberwolves find themselves 10-11 overall and now, one injury has changed everything for this organization.
On Monday night against the Washington Wizards, All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns was running back on defense and felt something in the back of his right leg that forced him to go down to the court and immediately call for his team's training staff.
Towns left the game and the Timberwolves soon after said that he would not return due to a right calf strain. Tuesday morning, the team gave an update on his injury, stating that an MRI confirmed this right calf strain and that Towns would be reassessed in several weeks.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Timberwolves’ All-Star is expected to miss four-to-six weeks with a potential return some time in January.
Not only is this injury significant because Towns is Minnesota’s leader, but because consistency has been the biggest problem for this team.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards are a very solid “one-two punch” on the offensive-side of things, but D’Angelo Russell has had trouble being a steady producer and the Rudy Gobert experiment has not looked very fierce like the Timberwolves had imagined it would.
With Towns now out, there is pressure on Edwards to carry a lot of the load offensively, but the focus for the Timberwolves as a whole should turn to two things.
The first is their effort on the defensive-end of the floor and the second is getting Gobert integrated into this system to the point where he is confident enough to lead this team on bothens of the floor.
His struggles offensively are well documented and it may sound foolish to say that Gobert needs to be a leader for the Timberwolves offensively, but what other choice do they have with Towns out?
Minnesota, an already middle-of-the-pack offensive team, is now without their best frontcourt scoring option, one of their best rebounders and the guy who has been the heart-and-soul of this team since he was drafted first overall in 2015.
This is not a season-ending injury and Towns will be back at some point in January, but until then, Minnesota must figure out who they are as a team because if they go on a massive losing streak without Karl-Anthony Towns, their playoff hopes will take a massive hit.
Guys like Jaden McDaniels, Taurean Prince, Naz Reid and Kyle Anderson will be very important pieces in terms of depth for this team with Towns out of the lineup, but Rudy Gobert is the key to Minnesota potentially finding success right now.
This team’s identity must be created on the defensive-side of the floor and other than Anthony Edwards taking over games, the Timberwolves must put Gobert in positions to succeed offensively because at the end of the day, they gave up a large chunk of their future to compete for championships with Gobert.
Their only option is to utilize Rudy Gobert and now with Karl-Anthony Towns out of the rotation, there is no better time for Gobert to step up and be the All-Star he has been over the last few seasons than right now.
Should Minnesota be unable to find success without Towns though and if Gobert is unable to step up for this team, then that is all we will need to know in order to say that the Utah Jazz robbed the Timberwolves this past offseason by trading Rudy Gobert.
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