KAT’s injury gives Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels huge opportunity
What are the Timberwolves going to do now that Karl-Anthony towns is expected to be out of action until sometime in January?
Expectations were too high before the season – and still high enough despite a 10-11 start – to use the Towns injury as an excuse. The playoffs remain a must and anything less than an extremely competitive playoff series would be a monumental failure.
There are two ways the Timberwolves can turn the Towns injury into a franchise-altering opportunity.
First, there has never been a time as clear as now for Anthony Edwards to don the crown and claim the throne as King of the Wolves. Without KAT, it is Ant’s time to take the reins and dominate. There is no room for off nights or inconsistencies. He needs the Mamba Mentality right now if the Wolves are going to stay afloat while Towns is out.
The ability is there. Is the maturity and killer instinct? We are about to find out.
Second, this is the opportunity for Jaden McDaniels to run with an expanded role on offense. He’s flashed enormous potential but is typically asked to sit in the corner and shoot 3s. He can keep doing that, but now he also has the freedom, and I would argue he has the duty, to put the ball on the floor and use his incredible wingspan to get to the rim and create his own shot.
Towns' 24.5% usage rate is second on the team among starters (Edwards is first at 26.9%). He's averaging 14.4 shot attempts per game. Edwards will surely eat some of those shots, but McDaniels should see his attempts (8.4 per game) and usage rate (15.1%) increase significantly.
Towns has had 8 years to lead the Wolves to a higher level and he has not done it. The injury may be a blessing in disguise because it’s paves the way for the No. 1 and No. 28 picks in the 2020 draft to show some backbone and lead a team that desperately needs an alpha to take control.
What will the starting 5 be?
The first task at hand is finding out who starts in place of Towns. They probably can’t insert Naz Reid into the starting lineup so they have an opportunity to pause the big man experiment and go a little smaller. That could mean Kyle Anderson enters the starting five with D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert.
That leaves Jaylen Nowell and Reid as the top offensive weapons off the bench.
Taurean Prince would be an ideal replacement for Towns, but he remains sidelined with a right shoulder injury.
Another, perhaps long shot possibility, is calling on Luka Garza from the Iowa Wolves. Starting doesn’t make sense but a big body who can hit 3s makes a ton of sense considering Minnesota is now without their second best rebounder and best 3-point shooter.
Remember, this roster is in desperate need of 3-point shooting since Russell has been inconsistent and they lost their best volume deep shooter in Malik Beasley in the Gobert trade.
Nowell has shown in back to back games that his shooting slump is finally over, so another possibility would be playing small with Russell, Nowell, Edwards, McDaniels and Gobert. Minnesota has been a bad defensive team of late, so there’s no harm in putting as many scorers who play with effort on the floor as possible. Nowell can’t defend, but there’s no question that he plays hard.
If Anderson is starts, it's an immediate upgrade defensively over Towns. Paired with McDaniels on the floor, Minnesota might have a better chance to guard the perimeter and maybe, just maybe start to limit the insane number of uncontested 3s opponents are getting.
Minnesota is allowing an NBA worst 11.1 above-the-break-3s per game this season. That's any 3 not taken from the corners. They're also allowing opponents to make an average of three corner 3s per game, according to NBA Stats.
That all sounds nice in theory until you see that the Russell-Edwards-Anderson-McDaniels-Gobert lineup combination has a solid defensive rating (106.9) in 8 games and 29 cumulative minutes together, but also sports a 96.7 offensive rating.
Minnesota has a massive challenge ahead but it's an opportunity for others to grow.
