Less than 24 hours after Karl-Anthony Towns expressed his frustration with the state of the Timberwolves – and the fact that the team can’t seem to buy a win – Minnesota’s front office made arguably the biggest trade-deadline splash, acquiring D’Angelo Russell from Golden State. Speaking to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, Towns sounded pretty happy that the Wolves’ lengthy pursuit of his good friend had finally paid off.
“I’d be lying if I told you I thought it was possible,” Towns said. “I’m shocked like everybody else. We’ve been putting it into the universe since Day 1. We’ve never been shy about saying it in the media or interviews or wherever it may be. If you want something to happen, you have to keep believing and keep saying it to the universe and repeating it and one day the universe will hear it and give you your wish.”
Although Towns is only in the first season of a five-year, maximum-salary contract, the Timberwolves’ lack of forward progress this season has been troubling. The team didn’t want its franchise player to start looking for an exit ramp as its losses continued to pile up. And it appears that the acquisition of Russell should assuage those concerns, at least for now.
“I think with D-Lo here, it’s always going to be a big incentive for me to want to stay,” Towns told Krawczynski. “D-Lo is a big part of everything the vision is. D-Lo always knows he’s going to be wanted because his brother is here with him and he always knows he’s going to have his back covered because I’m always going to be there for him.”
Here’s more on the Wolves:
- Here’s more from Towns, via Krawczynski, on his enthusiasm for teaming up with Russell: “First off we’re not friends, we’re brothers. That’s like blood to me. Why I think we’re going to be great, when you see the great teams in history, they always had a great big man and a great guard. I think we now have those two things set up for success.”
- As Chris Hine of The Star Tribune tweets, and as Krawczynski writes for The Athletic, Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor signed off on going into luxury-tax territory to complete the Russell trade. The team’s 2019/20 salary is currently over the tax line by just $1,324,442, per John Hollinger of The Athletic, so the penalty will be minimal. “We wanted to get going on a better year,” Taylor told Krawczynski. “I told them that if we had to do it, we’ll do it.”
- Taylor told Krawczynski that all of the Timberwolves’ moves this year were made with an eye toward acquiring Russell, which was always the team’s No. 1 priority. He also explained why Minnesota pushed to get a deal with the Warriors done now: “I didn’t anticipate that we would have this rough of a season. I wanted and expected a team that would be vying to get into the playoffs. We started that way and then we just fell apart. That is a part of the evaluation process you go through. (President of basketball operations) Gersson (Rosas) decided, rather than wait, he wanted to try to start to get his team in place now rather than wait for next year.”
- Acquiring Russell is a high-risk, high-reward move for the Wolves, according to Jim Souhan of The Star Tribune, who suggests D-Lo and Towns have the talent to become “the most influential long-term teammates in Wolves history.”
- Pointing to Russell’s and Towns’ defensive limitations, Hollinger notes at The Athletic that the team will have to complement its stars with above-average defenders at the two, three, and four.
- Newly-acquired Wolves shooting guard Malik Beasley is in a good position to squeeze the team for a big contract in restricted free agency this summer, writes ESPN’s Zach Lowe. As Lowe observes, Minnesota will be under pressure to re-sign Beasley after making him one of the key pieces in the Robert Covington trade.
Hopefully the new Wolves players can actually make free throws and play some kind of defense. Wiggins was a joke on defense.
you think Wiggins is a joke on defense. D.Lo while a gifted scorer, doesn’t have defense in his dictionary.
Wolves gonna have to score 150/game to win.
I dont want to see it but another 13 game losing streak would be funny.
It might be high-risk in a sense, but what’s the worst that could happen? They lose a lot of games and KAT gets sick of it? That’s what was happening without this trade. Rosas has to go big or it’s pointless to even try with where the Wolves are at.
I mean, if they continue to lose a lot of games, they could theoretically end up giving up the No. 4 pick in 2021 or the No. 1 pick in 2022. That would probably be the worst-case scenario.
best case scenario for the Dubs, this is what Bob is betting on. D.Lo doesn’t move the needle in terms of wins for the Wolves. They finish somewhere between 4th worst and 10th seed in the Western Conf next year.
The Wolves got good value (and asking) for RoCo, but he’d look good on this team. Bklyn 1st, Beasley, JH vs RoCo – hard to take the former on a team that needs to win next year.
Will they buyout or try to trade Johnson next year is the question.
Writer Hollinger, former nba exec, was bizaare. Maybe he was writing for an in-frequent audience, rambling on about how overpaid Wiggins is– old news.
But he said the Wolves needed to acquire better defenders at the 2,3 &4 positions, ignoring that GM Rosas did NOT do that, indeed the opposite, getting shot-creators for defenders.
I mean you can disagree and say the Wolves needed RoCo more than before, BUT.
That’s not what Rosas did. Where is the awareness? I think Rosas is following the Nuggets model via the Dantoni model. He wants the offense chugging and will address defense later.
I should have gone into sportswriting.
Wiggins & D’Lo cancel each other out, defensively.
Out: Covington, Dieng
In: Beasley, Juancho, Vanderbilt
Plus in: Spellman, Evans. Evans and Vanderbilt may not be NBA-level, at least yet. Spellman is a center who shoots 39% from 3 and blocks 1 per 36′. Juancho & Beasley are both mainly shooters who are not smart on defense.
Jeez I’m not an editor though. In: James Johnson is tough but can handle and move the ball around inside. Should be a good pairing with Towns offensively.
JJ has the ability to be an elite defender and is a perfect fit next to Towns
Russell, Beasley, Culver, JJ, KAT
Okogie, Spellman, Crabbe, Hernangomez, Turner if he stays, Layman when he comes back. That’s at least an interesting group so far