Will Karl-Anthony Towns find himself with the Timberwolves?

Karl-Anthony Towns is 25, about to enter his sixth NBA season and has a lot in common with Chris Webber at the same age. He’s a less interesting figure, given that Webber was a cultural icon along with the rest of the Fab Five at Michigan, but KAT shares with mid-career C-Webb mold-breaking offensive ability, a mercurial personality, and a creeping fraudulence. The numbers look good, the highlights are spectacular but his team can’t break through, and it’s beginning to read like an indictment of his capabilities as a franchise player. We hold Webber in pretty high esteem these days, but in 1998, he was sent from the Wizards to the Kings in exchange for a 33-year-old Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe. Don Nelson, circa then: “I really don’t know who Chris Webber is. No, I really don’t.”

Towns should probably get a mulligan on last season. The Wolves were in flux with Ryan Saunders in charge for his first (sort of) full year. Andrew Wiggins was obviously on his way out the door, and when Minnesota sent him to Golden State for D’Angelo Russell, D-Lo and KAT only got to play a single game together before Towns went out with a wrist injury. Then the pandemic swept in and washed away the rest of the calendar. Bad luck, bad timing.  

To make matters worse, Towns suffered personal tragedy when his mother died of COVID in mid-April. He recently revealed that he’s lost six other family members to the virus. In a year that’s been tough on everybody, Towns has had an extraordinarily tough time. 

But on the court, the Wolves have a chance to be one of the more interesting squads in the league, and if Towns can find a new level—particularly on defense, where has the ability to do a fine job but often seems uninterested—they can have a lot of fun. This means something because since the Tom Thibodeau era imploded almost as quickly as it came into being, the Wolves have been such a dour, dispiriting franchise. Towns has been a big part of that. He’s not the type to fight his way out of a poor situation. Mostly, he just sulks: puts up his stats and shrugs his shoulders as the losses pile up. 

“It’s disappointing that this year’s All-Star Game won’t have the 24 best players in it,” he smarmed to reporters after failing to qualify for the Western Conference roster last season. “I’ve been disrespected since I came in [the league]. It’s nothing new when I didn’t see my name up there.” 

That quote is from Feb. 3 of this year. At the time, due in part to a monthlong injury layoff, Towns hadn’t played in a Wolves win since Nov. 27.

Thankfully cluelessness is not a permanent state. You don’t have to be what you are at 25 years old forever. Towns needs a fresh outlook. Maybe having his friend D’Angelo around will help. They should make for a great pick-and-roll duo, if nothing else. Where his career is headed, whether he’ll stay tethered to Minnesota or seek pleasure elsewhere, shouldn’t be an immediate concern. He’s entering year two of a five-year contract, which means his near future is with the Wolves. We tend to forget, because the Sacramento Kings went on to become a spectacular team, that Webber didn’t particularly want to be there, nor were they overly successful in his first season. They nosed over .500 and lost in the first round of the playoffs in 1998-99. But they had hope, because something clicked for Webber. He got along well with Rick Adelman, liked playing alongside Jason Williams and Vlade Divac. For the first time since he was playing at Michigan, he felt at home. He didn’t expect to. He merely opened himself up to the possibility.

Minnnesota consists of KAT, D-Lo, Josh Okogie, Malik Beasley, Ricky Rubio, Juancho Hernangomez, Jake Layman, Jaden McDaniels, Anthony “Gridiron” Edwards and Jarrett Culver, who can’t possibly be as bad as he was in his rookie season.

The Wolves aren’t the Miami Heat, but if Karl-Anthony Towns can’t find a way to win some games and enjoy himself a little bit with that collection of talent, that’s on him. He’s plenty gifted enough to take them places, and he has the stature and seniority to control the locker room vibes. It’s up to him what he wants to make of himself and his circumstances, which after five years in Minnesota have become inextricable from one another. 

“I’m not at peace with my career,” Chris Webber said upon being shipped off to Sacramento.

 Towns clearly isn’t either. What’s less clear is if he knows what will satisfy him.