The relationship between the Timberwolves and All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns is “not in a good place internally,” according to ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
Speaking on his podcast, The Lowe Post, along with colleague Brian Windhorst, Lowe alluded to tension between both sides. Windhorst added that it’s possible that Towns’ name comes up in trade talks this summer.
“I don’t think Anthony Davis is going anywhere anytime soon,” Windhorst said (via Bleacher Report). “But Karl Towns…now that might be a different story.”
Towns, 22, is coming off a third consecutive season of averaging a double-double while playing in all 82 games. This season, he made his first All-Star team while averaging 21.3 PPG and 12.3 RPG for Minnesota. He’ll be eligible for an extension this offseason.
While there is no indication that Minnesota is looking to deal Towns, this is not the first time that reports of issues within the organization have surfaced. In mid-March, reports surfaced that Andrew Wiggins had “whispered to teammates” that he was frustrated becoming the third option to Towns and Jimmy Butler.
The Timberwolves snuck into the postseason on the final day of the regular season, ending a 14-year postseason drought. While that progress was a welcome sight, the Timberwolves will have a lot of issues to address this summer.
Come to L.A. kat Love to see you on the lakers
Typical Lakers fan doesn’t understand how these things work.
We finally have the appearance of a team and this shit is happening… thibs messed up. Never should have traded lavine. Letting Rubio go for Teague was a mistake. Thibs killed what Saunders put together. Win now instead of winning for the next decade. Greedy, immediate satisfaction, stupidity. Who cares about making the playoffs if you are going to be booted in the first series. Fire thibs!
I didn’t know you liked ball, The Donald.
The Jimmy butler trade was a good one, but everything else is really dumb
Bulls fan here. Not trying to be a d*c k, but it really wasn’t a good trade.
Butler has a serious ego problem. He thinks he’s a superstar, but he’s not.
He also doesn’t play well with others on the court, is addicted to iso-ball, and his antics get old, quick.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s an excellent two-way player, but I’m extremely happy he’s gone.
He’s not a leader, and with him acting as the “best” player on the team, and the “leader,” you’ll never be better than a first-round-exiting playoff team.
You’ve said that for years, and I still vehemently disagree
How about KAT + Dieng + minny‘s 20th pick for Matthews & Dallas‘ 5th pick.
You must be a Mavs fan because that trade is horrible for the Wolves.
Why is that a horrible deal? Minny can get Bamba / JJJ with the pick, get Matthews at the 2 and get in position for another AllStar FA in 2019. sure, they won’t contend next season but they really don’t anyways. But they put themselves in a better position for 2019/2020.
because Matthews sucks and the 1st rd is not enough compensation for towns. Dallas would need to give many 1st rd picks to even come close.
Get back to work, Mark Cuban
Look at what teams for disgruntled stars like Kyrie, Boogie, George. Usually fans of teams with superstars grossly overestimate their market value. Will be interesting what SA gets for Kawhi, if they ever trade him.
But let’s break it down, which of the deals would you not do?
1) KAT for Dallas’ 5th (keep in mind the above)
2) Dieng & the wolves #20 for Matthews
The whole thing will never work if KAT is not disgruntled, but if he is, Minny doenst habe mich leverage, especially if they want to get rid of Dieng too.
I guarantee another team with a better pick than the Mavericks will offer the pick for KAT. Grizzlies at 4 can trade Marc Gasol away for assets and trade for his replacement in KAT with the 4th pick and some more pieces. Mavs don’t have the assets to make this trade unless they’re giving up Dennis Smith Jr and the pick. I’m sure Minny doesn’t want Matthews, he’s old and has been through an achilles tear, and is getting paid too much for what he has left.
neither of those deals.
What in the f***?!
If Towns were to get traded it would be to the Celtics for Tatum Brown Rozier and the kings pick. He’s a generational talent who WILL BE in the HOF.
Tatum brown and rozier? Lmao the wolves getting 3 players who are basically already on towns level doubt it.
This is a horrible trade. Kat is a 22 year old who is a top 20 overall player in the league right now. Mathews isn’t good so you’d basically be trading Towns straight up for the 5th pick in this situation. Horrible trade.
@ppyxmb – you better hope your sponsor isn’t reading your posts.
KAT alone is FAR more valuable than any assets that Dallas has, including Smith plus 5th plus Dallas’ next 2 tradable first round picks unprotected.
Take him out of it and it might work a decent young player plus 2oth in exchange for toxic waste (Matthews) and 5th.
Kevin Love back to Minnie with the 8th pick for Towns!!
The only guy I’d trade Jaylen Brown for.
Jaylen Brown prob going to be one on an offersheet for nothing…
Towns to knicks for 2 first rd picks.
You mean for KP and the knicks 1st rd pick
As a Knicks fan, I’d do it. Not sure how well KP is going to recover from his injury, and the 9th pick, while good, won’t be as impactful as they need it to be. They could use a Towns to go battle Embiid in the conference.
Trades I would consider for Towns:
Minn Towns to Chi for Lavine, Mirko and a 1st rd pick
Min Towns to NO for Davis
Min Towns to Knicks for KP and 1st rd pick
But that would also mean blowing up the roster and trading Wigggins, teague, Butler, Taj, Dieng, basically everybody and starting from scratch. And Thibs has to go!
Pass that joint bruh, you’ve had enough.
Not really. A proven star for either another proven star or a star coming off a serious injury plus a pick or two potential stars and a pick for an established proven star. Anything less for towns would be an idiotic move for Minny, Towns is a proven player with the potential to be the best big in the league.
KP for KAT in a 1 for 1 maybe…no chance that the Knicks include a 1st too. I could see a deal where KAT goes to the Celts for Brown and the 2019 Sacramento pick.
And as long as AP is playing, the “Best big in the NBA” title is taken.
*AD
Sorry but that would be Kevin Durant. He s 7ft.
Not with the injury to KP.
Yea..even with the injury. If they were both healthy it would be the Wolves who would need to include a pick.
Towns is the better player so far and has the higher ceiling. If you think Minnesota is going to accept anything less than one or multiple draft picks plus kp for towns you are simply smoking crack.
Well when you give me options like that…
Lol no way NO trades AD. Not for anything
Do you know how rare it is to get equal value for star players? You get potential for a proven player. So you want to make a trade up, youd start with someone like Phx and start with #1 pick. The other way would be KAT and and a contract for someone like Kawhi, star that wants or needs a new home.
Tension about what, exactly?
Here’s a thought, deal Wiggins and get someone who will pass, play D, and can shoot. 3 things he doesn’t do as well as he should
Wiggins doesn’t do anything as well as he should. He’s been in the NBA this long, and hasn’t improved tangibly in anything except maybe his jump shot. Which isn’t even good now, it’s just better than how terrible it used to be. Plus he complains about not getting enough touches with KAT and Jimmy on the team, but something tells me if he did get the chance as a #1 on a team, he’d still find a way to blame his teammates on his poor play.
People scoff when I call him OJ Mayo 2.0
Not getting enough touches? He took the most shots on the team. KAT doesn’t get enough touches
He can chose where he wants to go. All he has to do is threaten the trading team that he won’t sign any extension offer, and that he will pursue FA. That will limit the offers. I still say Cleveland has a chance. He can play with bron, and get out the West. Him on the team will be enough to get him to stay. Love + #8 pick could get it done.
Wolves can match his RFA. He’d be stuck.
Derozan and Ibaka for Towns and Wiggins straight up
no way in hell.
That’s funny.
Horrible trade, for both teams
I think KAT and #20 to Phoenix for Bender, Chriss, #1, and #16
Phoenix loves their ex-Kentucky players.
I don’t think Phoenix would need to include both Bender and Chriss. Would Minny even want both? Otherwise, I think that is a pretty fair deal. Minny can take Ayton at 1, plus #16 pick and Chriss or Bender would add depth.
Phoenix gets KAT to team up with Booker. That’s two young high-level players that can grow together with the hopes of attracting a 3rd star. Jackson could become that 3rd star too.
I don’t know if they would want both, but then again why did Phoenix take both in the same draft. The salaries matched up better with both and Minnesota would get a better chance of one of them succeeding if they got both. I don’t think either of them has a future with the Suns.
Chriss and Bender don’t even get on the court more than 10 or 12 mins a game for the Wolves if Patton came come back from his 2nd surgery he and Dieng cover the 5 with Gibson and Bjelica at the 4. Patton had a lot of upside coming out Creighton.
But KAT for the #1 would be a starting point. I think you’d need a 3rd team involved to find a player that they’d want in return.
If they trade KAT, I dont see what they’re trying to do. He is the face of the franchise, or should be. I’d fire Thibs and trade everyone else before doing that. It would take a crazy amount to get him
People are just starting to show a modicum of belief in the Wolves… if they dump KAT for any reason they’re going to be playing to an audience of beer and hot dog vendors.
Um I’ll just say the obvious. Towns for Leonard.
They’d have their next Timmy in SA and Butler and Leonard would be scary as hell on the wings playing defense. I’d hope they get rid of Wiggins in that situation, but I would love to see that if they could work out a deal.
You see, I already have said that a number of occasions you cannot play with the future for a win now mode, Thibs has destroyed the team all started to go wrong when Buckets came to Minny. How on earth can Buckets, Wiggins & in many games Taj &/or Teague &/or Crawford get more shots than KAT!!! This is KAT’s team they can get rid of everybody but not KAT. People say that winning makes all good & all happy… obviously not, Minny is a winning team for first time in 14 years no one is happy. Minny was meant to win in the future not now, where is the point in going to the play-offs. Get rid of Thibs & Buckets & really try to make KAT as happy as possible, because I think he is a generational talent, so far in his first 3 years way better than Garnett was, though I loved Garnett, for me best player in the NBA for 5 years at least at beginning of the oo’s, KAT so far so much better. You must keep him at all costs!!!
Sorry for the rant, but annoys me a lot this changing future for win now, like Milwaukee did this year & I hope Philly doesn’t do next year.
If it came down to trading KAT or Wiggins, I think you’d have to trade Wiggins. KAT is a much more valuable piece to the puzzle. You’d have wing-hungry teams that miss out on Michael Porter Jr. and Mikal Bridges willing to part with a pick + assets. I do think he is OJ Mayo 2.0 but a lot of people in the league and in general like him. Clippers have 12th & 13th pick.
Gallinari + 12 & 13 for Wiggins.
I agree about trading Wiggins not Towns, sinve Wiggins is probably the problem, and with Butler too.
But right now Wiggins is not much of a catch. Wolves should find a team intetested and move fast. One decent draft pick is good enough!
What it would take to trade KAT is, well, a lot of angeldust
Milwaukee should do a sign and trade with Jabari Parker, and offer Jabari Parker (PF), John Henson (C) and the the rookie forward Wilson (F from Michigan) for Towns.
That’s funny.
That would be a good trade for the Bucks but if I’m Minnesota I laugh and hang up.
KAT is still a top 5 or so asset (not player, asset).
Teams don’t trade players like KAT unless they are forced to. Here they’re not. No player in history has turned down an early max extension and I doubt that KAT will be the first.
Have it on good authority that all of you are wasting your time as none of this will happen…KAT not going anywhere…think about the report…noting more than 2 members of the media giving their opinion because that is what they do…report offered nothing more then he was disgruntled? No why? No who and no anything else…Lowe and Windhorst have nothing other KAT maybe being down about his workout coach being fired…everybody calm down…Thibs goes long before KAT
Agree, but it’s a good excuse to trade Wiggins.