Here are the Timberwolves connected answers in this way to early review:
2. Who’s the biggest winner of the first almost-week of the season?
Verrier: Karl-Anthony Towns. Y’know, maybe asking one of the most talented players in basketball to take a back seat to a War Boy wasn’t the best idea. Towns has been a monster since the Timberwolves cut bait with Jimmy Butler, and he’s been even better now that the new regime in Minnesota is leaning into his inner Steph Curry: Through three games—all Wolves wins—Towns is averaging 32 points and shooting 10 3s a game at a 51.7 percent clip. Perhaps even more impressively, Towns may have gotten Andrew Wiggins to care again.
4. Which take are you already reconsidering?
Gonzalez: That the Wolves will be bad because they’re the Wolves and that’s how things go for them. When Karl-Anthony Towns told everyone to “keep sleeping”on Minnesota, I thought “yeah, man, that’s the plan.” And then I watched him absolutely ruin the Nets—and Kyrie Irving’s monster 50-point debut in Brooklyn—with a ridiculous opening-night performance. Did you see his line from that evening? Here it is, but it’s so hot I advise you to wear eclipse glasses when looking at it to avoid burning your retina: 36 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, three steals, three blocks, 7-for-8 from the free throw line and … someone hold me … seven 3s! As Ringer teammate Zach Kram pointed out, KAT is the first player in NBA history to score 70 or more points and add 10 or more 3s through the first two games of the season. Also, in that same “keep sleeping” interview, KAT said he’s “always been confident” because “I am from Jersey.” Which, as a neighbor from Philadelphia, all the LOLs on that one. I am suddenly in on KAT and the weird, wonderful Wolves.
5. Which new take would you like to get behind?
Devine: Towns will be the first player to average 30 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists per game in about 45 years. Whether that’s enough to lead the Wolves to the playoffs, I don’t know, but holy shit, does he look great.
Verrier: The Wolves are making the playoffs. Their schedule has hardly been a gantlet (at Brooklyn and Charlotte, vs. Miami), and a defense stuck in the league’s basement for a half-decade is always a worry, but MVP candidates don’t miss the playoffs—not even Russell Westbrook—and Towns is playing like Giannis with a 3-pointer.
O’Shaughnessy: Karl-Anthony Towns is an All-Star lock. Some players stay in the “good stats, bad team guy” stage forever. Some get exposed after signing with a better team. But KAT is scoring so much already—96 points in three games, all Wolves wins—that he’s on Change Agent watch.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/10/28/20935658/winners-losers-nba-opening-week
2. Who’s the biggest winner of the first almost-week of the season?
Verrier: Karl-Anthony Towns. Y’know, maybe asking one of the most talented players in basketball to take a back seat to a War Boy wasn’t the best idea. Towns has been a monster since the Timberwolves cut bait with Jimmy Butler, and he’s been even better now that the new regime in Minnesota is leaning into his inner Steph Curry: Through three games—all Wolves wins—Towns is averaging 32 points and shooting 10 3s a game at a 51.7 percent clip. Perhaps even more impressively, Towns may have gotten Andrew Wiggins to care again.
4. Which take are you already reconsidering?
Gonzalez: That the Wolves will be bad because they’re the Wolves and that’s how things go for them. When Karl-Anthony Towns told everyone to “keep sleeping”on Minnesota, I thought “yeah, man, that’s the plan.” And then I watched him absolutely ruin the Nets—and Kyrie Irving’s monster 50-point debut in Brooklyn—with a ridiculous opening-night performance. Did you see his line from that evening? Here it is, but it’s so hot I advise you to wear eclipse glasses when looking at it to avoid burning your retina: 36 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, three steals, three blocks, 7-for-8 from the free throw line and … someone hold me … seven 3s! As Ringer teammate Zach Kram pointed out, KAT is the first player in NBA history to score 70 or more points and add 10 or more 3s through the first two games of the season. Also, in that same “keep sleeping” interview, KAT said he’s “always been confident” because “I am from Jersey.” Which, as a neighbor from Philadelphia, all the LOLs on that one. I am suddenly in on KAT and the weird, wonderful Wolves.
5. Which new take would you like to get behind?
Devine: Towns will be the first player to average 30 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists per game in about 45 years. Whether that’s enough to lead the Wolves to the playoffs, I don’t know, but holy shit, does he look great.
Verrier: The Wolves are making the playoffs. Their schedule has hardly been a gantlet (at Brooklyn and Charlotte, vs. Miami), and a defense stuck in the league’s basement for a half-decade is always a worry, but MVP candidates don’t miss the playoffs—not even Russell Westbrook—and Towns is playing like Giannis with a 3-pointer.
O’Shaughnessy: Karl-Anthony Towns is an All-Star lock. Some players stay in the “good stats, bad team guy” stage forever. Some get exposed after signing with a better team. But KAT is scoring so much already—96 points in three games, all Wolves wins—that he’s on Change Agent watch.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/10/28/20935658/winners-losers-nba-opening-week
