Karl-Anthony Towns will be out at least two more weeks due to a wrist fracture, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced on Friday.
Towns injured his wrist in January and underwent an MRI earlier this month. He missed one game before the All-Star break and will not be playing on Friday night when Minnesota plays its first game since the break.
The Timberwolves announced the following regarding Towns:
After sustaining a left wrist injury, Towns received a period of treatment and monitoring from the Wolves medical staff. Continued evaluation of the injury confirmed a wrist fracture. While Towns has been diligent in treatment with a goal of return to play, he has been assessed by multiple specialists over the last several days and the team continues to gather information on the optimal management strategies.
Towns has averaged 26.5 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in 35 contests this season. The 24-year-old big man made the All-Star Game the last two years, but not this season. He recently vented about the losing with the franchise.
Karl-Anthony Towns is stirring the social media pot in the wake of his team making some pre-deadline trades.
The Minnesota Timberwolves star posted a series of memes to his Instagram Story on Tuesday indicating that he was confused or otherwise perturbed.
Losers of their last 12 straight games, the Wolves have plummeted to 14th in the West at 15-34. They had been in talks with the Golden State Warriors to land Towns’ good friend D’Angelo Russell, but those reportedly fell through.
The Wolves were also involved in a huge 12-player deal earlier in the night. The trade saw them give up Robert Covington, Keita Bates-Diop, Noah Vonleh, Jordan Bell, and Shabazz Napier and acquire Evan Turner, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, Juan Hernangomez, and two future firsts.
Towns recently had to shoot down rumors that he was unhappy in Minnesota, but that does not sound like a man who is pleased with what appear to be rebuilding moves, even if it resulted in quite the haul for his team.
Karl-Anthony Towns has been the subject of trade rumors over the past few weeks, but the Minnesota Timberwolves insist none of that talk has originated from within the organization. According to president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, rival teams shouldn’t even bother calling the T-Wolves to ask about Towns.
Prior to Minnesota’s game against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night, Rosas told ESPN’s Eric Woodyard that the Timberwolves have zero interest in trading Towns.
“Karl-Anthony Towns is as untouchable as they come,” Rosas said. “He’s the best player on our team and he’s the guy we’re building around. Everything we do is to help him become the best player and to help us become the best team we can be. He’s a special talent that we’re going to do anything possible to help him achieve his highest potential.”
Towns signed a five-year, $158 million max contract extension with Minnesota last offseason. He isn’t eligible to become a free agent until 2024, and Rosas’ comments coincidentally came a few hours before Towns scored 40 points in the loss to Chicago. He’s also just 24, so there is very little incentive for the Timberwolves to trade him.
Of course, players forcing their way to new teams has become commonplace in the modern NBA, and some rumors have indicated Towns is unhappy in Minnesota. The big man recently dismissed them, however, and there is very little chance he will be traded even with the Timberwolves just 15-29 on the season and fading from playoff contention.
Karl-Anthony Towns sounds like he is here for the long haul in Minnesota.
Addressing reporters Friday after his first game in over a month, the Wolves star brushed aside reports of his alleged unhappiness with the team.
“I don’t go for all the s—,” Towns said, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “I just do my job, go home and I know what the real story is. There’s a reason those stories are made, because people need to sell papers, sell links and clicks, whatever the case may be.
“I’m here to be a Minnesota Timberwolf,” he went on. “Very fortunate I have a head coach like Ryan [Saunders], a president and friend like Gerss[on Rosas]. I’m not worried about all that nonsense. Whatever we have to deal with in house, we’ll deal with in house. This ain’t the circus like it used to be. This is something that’s gonna be done as a family. If we have a problem or anything, we’ll deal with it internally. We won’t have external forces adding anything.”
The two-time All-Star Towns missed the previous 15 games due to a knee injury followed by an illness. Minnesota promptly plummeted to ten games below .500 and now sit 13th in the West at 15-26.
Rumors were swirling last month about the 24-year-old’s supposed discontent with one particular heavyweight being linked to him. Towns did sign a five-year supermax extension with the Wolves before the start of last season though, and he still appears committed to the team for at least that long.
Concerns about Karl-Anthony Towns’ future in Minnesota appear to be overstated.
Amid reports that Towns is unhappy with the struggling Timberwolves, sources close to both the organization and Towns himself downplayed that chatter. According to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, both parties see it as inevitable chatter that comes about when a star player is on a losing team, and there is emphasis on the fact that the sources in the original report are not from people close to Towns.
The initial report stated that the Golden State Warriors were monitoring Towns’ situation as talk of his possible unhappiness grew. That report sourced NBA executives, so while the Warriors may be eyeing Towns, that dissatisfaction may be overstated.
Talk about how happy Towns may be isn’t exactly unwarranted. The team is 12-20 and has only made the playoffs once in his career. That said, Towns is in the first year of a five-year extension, making it even more unlikely that he’s departing anytime soon.
The Golden State Warriors may be doing some serious plotting in the midst of their first down season in nearly a decade.
The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss reported Sunday that the Dubs are monitoring the situation of All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns. Multiple NBA executives are said to have relayed word at the recent G League showcase that Towns is unhappy with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Strauss does note though that the Wolves and Warriors currently have differing visions of how a trade between the two of them could look.
The 24-year-old Towns is in the middle of a career year, averaging 26.5 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game on 51.4 percent from the field and 41.8 percent from deep. He has gotten little support from his teammates however, as the Wolves are currently 11-20 and have only had one winning season since Towns was drafted in 2015.
While the Warriors do lack quality young assets asides from perhaps rookie forward Eric Paschall, they badly need a center and figure to be right back in title contention when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson return from injury. Towns is also very good friends with guard D’Angelo Russell, such that Russell almost signed with the Wolves last summer.
Karl-Anthony Towns got frustrated with teammate Jeff Teague at one point during Monday’s 125-109 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
The game was tied at 52 in the second quarter and Teague had the ball. Towns signaled to Teague that he wanted the ball, but Teague decided to take it to the basket himself. That left Towns pretty frustrated. Take a look:
Of course Teague ended up missing his layup, giving even more credibility to Towns’ frustration.
Teague had 16 points on 6/14 shooting in 28 minutes and is dealing with an ankle injury. Towns had 33 points and 15 rebounds. He made 12/18 shots.
Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl-Anthony Towns were both called for flagrant fouls on Wednesday night for landing under the feet of shooters while attempting blocks on closeouts.
Towns was called for the flagrant foul for landing under Dillon Brooks during the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 137-121 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. He seemed confused about the call.
Then in the Golden State Warriors’ 129-112 loss to the Houston Rockets, Cauley-Stein was also called for a flagrant foul for landing under the feet of James Harden.
The rule was created and implemented in September 2017 for the purpose of encouraging player safety. It was informally named the “Zaza Rule” because Pachulia had injured Kawhi Leonard in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals that year with a similar move.
When the rule was implemented, officials were given the ability to call fouls for such plays. They could then upgrade to flagrant fouls or technicals depending on whether they viewed the moves as intentional. On Wednesday, the officials immediately called flagrant fouls. It seems the league and refs are trying to make a point about these plays.
Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns gave us one of the most exciting moments of the NBA season so far. The NBA gave them suspensions in return.
Embiid and Towns both are being suspended two games for their fight. The Athletic’s Shams Charania notes that Ben Simmons avoided a suspension despite tapping out Towns. The league apparently viewed Simmons as playing the role of a peacemaker.
Embiid and Towns, who have a lengthy social media history, were ejected in the third quarter of Philadelphia’s win over Minnesota on Wednesday night for scrapping in the paint. No actual punches appeared to be thrown, but the two got into a wrestling-like clinch and disrupted the game with their fight.
Embiid joked about it afterwards and was seen doing some shadowboxing. He later bragged on social media about getting the best of Towns, while Towns issued a response.
The two-game suspension seems somewhat light, and that is probably reflective of the fact that no punches were thrown, nobody was in real physical danger, and the skirmish seemed to be more of two guys wrestling with each other.
Both players will begin serving their suspension on Saturday.
Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns became the talk of the NBA on Wednesday night when they were ejected for their on-court scuffle, but many people were more interested in the social media fight that followed. While the two big men traded a lot of standard trash talk, Embiid may have also gotten very personal with Towns.
If you followed all the drama that went on with the Minnesota Timberwolves early last season, you may recall some rumors about Towns not wanting to sign an extension with the team unless Butler were gone. Black Sports Online had a summary of it at the time, but the gist of it was that Butler had an intimate relationship with a woman who was dating Towns. Around the time the alleged hookup took place, Towns and his girlfriend stopped posting about each other on social media.
Here’s what one Instagram user claimed he was told from “someone in the organization.”
Of course, there’s no way to confirm any of that. However, the rumors picked up enough steam that Towns felt the need to shoot them down.
Fast-forward to Wednesday night. As you know, Butler was traded from Minnesota to the Philadelphia 76ers last season. When Embiid was unloading on Towns on Instagram, one of the things he said was, “That’s why you were treated like a b—- by you know who. I ain’t gonna put your business out (but) I got the facts about you.”
It seemed like Embiid was saying Butler told him all about Towns, and most would agree he was alluding to the girlfriend rumors.
Embiid and Towns have long had problems with each other, largely owing to their status as top big men in the game. In December 2017, Embiid rubbed it in on social media after getting a win over Towns’ Timberwolves, which led to a response from Towns. Then when the teams met again in March last year, Embiid took another shot at Towns. If Embiid was alluding to the girlfriend rumors, the rivalry just got a little more personal.
