Kat out for weeks

[kekgeek]

Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns is expected to miss several weeks with his calf strain, sources tell me and @JonKrawczynski. Great news: Tests showed no structural damage to Towns' Achilles.

[WildWolf2813]

now the team can get their ass kicked small ball style again!

[60WinTim]

Enter Luka Garza!!

[Q-is-here]

Enter Luka Garza!!

"Hello world!"

[Carlos Danger]

now the team can get their ass kicked small ball style again!

HA! Sort of what I was thinking. Towns is far and away our best player based on the advanced stats I trust. I know he has his warts. But dude is pretty consistent with regards to putting up 20 pts/10 rebounds a game. And his assist rate was way up this year, so it will be interesting.

[60WinTim]

now the team can get their ass kicked small ball style again!

HA! Sort of what I was thinking. Towns is far and away our best player based on the advanced stats I trust. I know he has his warts. But dude is pretty consistent with regards to putting up 20 pts/10 rebounds a game. And his assist rate was way up this year, so it will be interesting.

The hope is the team's style changes with getting KAT the ball no longer being a priority. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how the team evolves without him.

[FNG]

Well, I guess this is...good news? It's certainly good that it's not something structural, but KAT is our most complete offensive player, and it's going to be difficult to compete without him I'm afraid. The next 8 games are 5 road games, 2 tough home games against Indy and Memphis, and an easier one against OKC...not an easy task without KAT.

All that said, I have to admit it will be entertaining at least to see how we respond. A lot more Naz, I think, and maybe a little Garza. I'm not too optimistic, but admittedly a little curious.

[Coolbreeze44]

I think we will .500 ball without him.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I hypothesized about this possibility in the GDT last night before we knew the severity of Karl-Anthony Towns' injury. I think Minnesota will obviously be less talented on a nightly basis without Towns, and that will probably hurt them against the elite teams they'll face, but I think there's a chance that the team performs better without him. Not because he's in any way a negative contributor (far from it), but because hopefully now we're forced to have players with defined roles operating in schemes/concepts they've proven to be comfortable and productive in throughout their careers.

This could also be a blessing of sorts for Chris Finch -- in a backwards way -- if he takes advantage of the opportunity. Simply, Finch has been failing to do his job this season by being unable or unwilling to implement the necessary structure for this team. His hands-off, blasé approach has been actively hurting the team for weeks, I feel. Too much "would've" and "should've" coming from his mouth after games, especially as it pertains to the handling of matchups on the defensive side. It's also painfully evident this group needs scripted or predetermined actions or full-blown sets run consistently on offense instead of the rec-league, motionless "flow" he's been doubling down on without any success. Bad coaches have bad systems, good coaches have good systems, and great coaches take the talent they have and develop a great system around it. Finch is an intelligent basketball mind, but he hasn't done the latter even though I think he's capable of it.

As I said last night, I want to see D'Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, and Rudy Gobert start and finish games in Towns' absence. There's plenty of talent there that should mesh well on both ends to remain competitive, if not be quite good. Furthermore, I expect we'll play predominantly drop coverage, which bodes well for Gobert and this team in that they won't be changing their scheme depending on which lineup combinations are on the floor, which I'm hoping leads to less confusion overall and some consistently good defensive play. I also keep beating this drum, but Finch has to go to spread pick-and-roll sets more and more. I don't know how it's possible that this team ranks in the bottom-third in pick-and-roll possessions used given who we have on the roster. It's inexcusable, in my opinion. This franchise traded their war chest for one of the best, if not the best, screeners and divers in basketball and have failed to use him optimally -- instead trying to force him to be more of a post player and duck-in threat. We've essentially made the game harder than it needs to be, and that's without mentioning that all of Minnesota's guards -- except perhaps Edwards -- are legitimately good pick-and-roll ball-handlers. And Edwards stands to get better in that regard with more repetitions. There was no excuse before, but now there's even less reason to not lean into the strengths of the roster. Spread it out and punish teams with high ball screens.

Finch is either going to prove he knows what he's doing over the next month with these sensible changes, or he's going to be at serious risk for early termination, I feel. My hope is that this team figures out what they're good at and leans into what should have made them good to begin the season while Towns is now absent, and then when he returns he's talented enough to not fuck it up, but increase the overall output.

[Q-is-here]

Just an FYI for the Garza fans.....The Iowa team exclusively plays high wall coverage. He'll need to adjust in the event he or any of the other Iowa boys get a chance to play in the upcoming stretch. Come to think of it, seems odd that Iowa hasn't changed their defensive scheme at this point to match what Finch is doing. He's gone almost exclusively to drop.