There's something strange going on with the Minnesota Timberwolves around Karl-Anthony Towns. According to a recent report from Darren Wolfson of SKOR North, a player who knows Towns told his agent that Towns is “as good as gone” from Minnesota.. It's an interesting rumor, but then it got more interesting when Towns did not show up to the second week of the Timberwolves' in-market bubble training camp.
On the daily Locked On Wolves Podcast, host Ben Beecken explains why even though Karl-Anthony Towns was not with the Timberwolves, this that doesn't necessarily mean he's ‘as good as gone.'
Article Continues BelowBen Beecken: If you're keeping track of this, this is a player who told an agent, who told Darren Wolfson unsolicited, that Towns is as good as gone. Somewhere in there, there's at least one agenda. We're many steps removed here. This rumor is, by definition, about as gossipy as it gets.
KAT was not in any of the videos or pictures put out by the Timberwolves related to the in-market bubble. It was reported previously that everybody would be there, including Malik Beasley, including D'Angelo Russell; we already knew there were a couple of guys that weren't going to be there.
Towns was supposed to be there. He's on the roster for the in-market bubble. We know he was in the facility last week, Malik Beasley posted about it on his Instagram stories. Darren Wolfson even tweeted a screenshot that had Towns in it that had other guys in the photo. Ryan Saunders said that Towns was the 6 a.m. guy, D'Angelo Russell was coming in at 7 a.m. for his workouts. He was there all of last week.
This week, he hasn't been in any of the content from the Wolves. The Wolves have not said anything about him not being there. He was on the roster. There was also a TMZ report–I hate that I'm talking about TMZ on this podcast–with photos of Towns on a boat celebrating his apparent girlfriend Jordyn Woods' birthday wearing a Bulls jersey because she's turning 23-years-old. So, there is a direct correlation between these two stories, and you cannot tell me that it's a coincidence that within 24 hours there's this report of Towns on TMZ wearing a Bulls jersey, and I understand that there's a reason why he's wearing a number 23 jersey. Just look at it this way, so Towns is on TMZ wearing a Bulls jersey on a boat while his teammates have been in a hard quarantine for 48 hours and are working out in the Twin Cities.
Now, I'm going to tread a little bit into dangerous waters here, but there's this vibe amongst players in the NBA who have either said things about Karl-Anthony Towns and how he affects winning. Obviously, Jimmy Butler and Towns didn't see eye-to-eye, and there's this narrative that he's not going to impact winning.
You can't tell me that there's not a correlation between Towns not being in town with the Wolves and all the things I said earlier. This rumor coming out of nowhere, fourth hand being fed to Darren Wolfson by an agent who has a prospect in the draft, that there's not an agenda from the player or from the agent. There's way too much at play here for this to make any sense.