What does KAT’s Return For the Mean for Timberwolves

Tonight against the Atlanta Hawks, Karl Anthony Towns is set to return back from his knee injury that he suffered late November against the Washington Wizards. Karl has been out for quite a while and was starting to raise some concern about possibly being out for the entire rest of the season. The injury was initial thought of to be mild, however after further research team doctors discovered that the injury was much more serious than initially thought. Now after missing a total of 51 games the Star big man is back for the wolves. Now this raises concern for how KAT will fit back in with the rest of the team, Karl has been practicing and scrimmaging with the team for a little over a month now and he says that he, “Doesn’t feel that he’s lost a step”.

During KAT’s absence the team has been around the 500. mark with inconsistencies all year and Ant taking over the reigns as the centerpiece of the team. Ant of course earning All Star honors and flourishing through the offensive and defensive side all season. Jaden McDaniels also has had a nice season while showcasing his elite defensive versatility and offensive ceiling. McDaniels is also looked at to be a key piece of the Timberwolves going forward in the future. Gobert also has gotten more comfortable in the system overtime and has progressed to be a better scorer and rebounder than he was at the beginning of the season. Overall the team has had its moments but for the most part very injury riddled and inconsistent.

What To Look For in KAT’s Return

The last time that KAT was on the court the team as a whole was struggling to find chemistry on offense and defense especially in perimeter defending. At times KAT looked lost chasing around defenders and couldn’t keep up on switches and got taken advantage of in transition. Although we all know KAT loved D’Angelo Russell and they were really close friends, I think this is one of the areas in which new addition point guard Mike Conley could really help him. The team overall needs time to mesh which is questionable if they’ll be able to do because there are only 8 games left in the season.

Anthony Edwards is also coming back from a recent ankle injury that he just recently suffered, which adds to the teams hardships that they have had to overcome this season. But I feel that with a fully healthy lineup the Wolves should be able to at least look cohesive now and not just only rely on Ant. Mike Conley could create a good flow of offense for them and allow more shots and opportunities for KAT in his return, while also having great interior protection and rebounding coming from Rudy. Even though the bulk of scoring will come from Edwards and Towns, watch out for McDaniels who has really taken a leap offensively as of late and could continue his strides down into the playoffs. Him along with Taurean Prince and Nowell could make for great pieces for both stretching the floor and defense to make a decent Playoff run.

In Conclusion, KAT’s return should create better offensive versatility and take some pressure off of Ant whose been the main scorer all year. I think the best hope is for the Wolves to get. all of their guys back and healthy make a run late and win the Play in. Hopefully you can play a team like the Kings or Memphis and try to outmatch them Talent wise. I think either way the wolves should stay competitive down the stretch and maintain some sort of momentum in the Play in. The Timberwolves currently stand at just the ninth seed in the western conference but with every team being so close in wins to each other the Wolves are still alive to make the sixth seed and avoid the Play-in Tournament. I wouldn’t rule out any outcome with this talented core and Any Thing Can Happen!