The Athletic NBA Daily
Karl-Anthony Towns shines in return to town | Lakers looking for trades?
Fri, 20 Dec 2024
Karl-Anthony Town’s returned to Minnesota with the Knicks had a near perfect night as they demolished the Timberwolves. Dave DuFour, Zena Keita, and Jon Krawczynski discuss Towns’ return to Minnesota, a potential Wolves lineup change, and where the Wolves may look to improve. Then, Dave and Jovan Buha get into LeBron’s comments on the state of the game, the Lakers trade targets, and what happened to their offense.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita, Jon Krawczynski, Jovan BuhaExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodySubmit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened during Karl-Anthony Towns' return to Minnesota?
John Krasinski live from Wolves, Knicks, Carl Anthony Towns, big return to town after being traded away to the Knicks. And man, Zena, this game at times, I just felt like. I was confused by what the wolves were trying to do. I was shocked that Carl Anthony Towns played like this. And the game got a little bit boring after a minute.
Chapter 2: How did the Timberwolves perform against the Knicks?
Yeah, I don't think I I was watching the game started with a solid like, oh, look, Timberwolves got it together. They're showing up. And I think I fell asleep towards the third, woke up at the top of the fourth. So, yeah, it was tough. It was a tough watch.
Well, John, you were there. You've covered this team for a long time. You've covered Carl Anthony Towns for his entire career. I want to ask you just personally, what was it like having him back in Minnesota and then to see him come through with this sort of performance? I mean, just the statistics are pretty incredible. Tom Thibodeau, it was just effusive in the praise that he gave him.
And I do want to put the numbers out there because I do think they're important. 32 points, 20 rebounds, six assists, two steals, five of five from three. Man, that would have looked good on the Wolves tonight.
It sure would have, Dave. I mean, you know, you're right. I've covered him his whole career. I've heard him disparaged, discounted, knocked down his whole career. And some of it has been valid, the criticism that he's gotten, certainly. But I've always felt like a lot of people didn't really look at the full context of who he is as a player, what the Timberwolves did and didn't do around him. And
And to see him kind of return here and absolutely lay waste to the Timberwolves was just a weird feeling. You know, I went to New York for the preseason game with them. And so I've seen him in a Knicks uniform before, but to see him in a Knicks uniform again, at Target Center, it was definitely weird. It's kind of like, this is really happening. And there he was.
I remember when he was a baby-faced 19-year-old kid coming in as a number one overall pick and kind of going through all of the things, both positively and negatively, that he did. And now it does appear that in year 10, coming off of a Western Conference Finals run, with a really good team around him now, that he's just...
really settled into who he is as a player and he looks just incredibly dominant. And it was a glaring thing because everything he did tonight is exactly what the Timberwolves lack right now.
It was so awkward to see the way that Kat showed back up in town. 30 points. I think he was the first player in NBA history to do what he did against the Timberwolves. Like, perfectly fitting. And then on the complete opposite side of the ball, we have to remember there was a trade made. And Julius Randle walks off the court, does not shake hands, does not engage with his old teammates.
Like, the complete opposite experience, right, for the other person on the end of this. The Wolves have to answer to they lost the trade. And today they put it on national television. What is the answer for what we just saw, especially offensively, a.k.a. what we didn't see?
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Chapter 3: What are the potential changes for the Timberwolves lineup?
We're capable of playing enough defense that even if we're not scoring, it still will balance out.
Yeah, Zena, I do think that they have a lot of confidence in their defense. Today was terrible. There's no question about that. But given that it wasn't even just under 100, it was like 92 or below. That's a minuscule number that they were holding teams to. Tonight, they did not have it for whatever reason. Rudy Gobert was terrible tonight.
There just was not the same energy, the same intensity that they had been showing. So I think that they feel like... In general, they can get back to somewhere around, you know, definitely a top five defense in the league. I think that, you know, there are going to be nights like this where the other team hits a lot of shots and you just chalk it up and you shake their hand.
But I think the greater problem for them is that when that defense isn't there, they do not have the offense to win shootouts, at least right now. Everything is too difficult for them. They're not generating easy looks. And when they do generate them, Dante DiVincenzo or Nas Reed or Mike Conley or Jayden McAdams are missing those open shots.
So they have to find a way to be in games and win games when you just don't quite have the same kind of defensive juice that they're normally used to having.
Yeah. I mean, look, it's a it's a little bit of a similar problem to what they had last year, but they didn't they didn't have Towns, who was this just incredible offensive threat. I mean, you know, you replaced him with Julius Randall and Dante DiVincenzo, who both it's been disappointing so far. So any other is there any other lineup shakeup?
that you might see coming here in the next, you know, few weeks or month. I mean, Nikhil Alexander Walker has been so good. I just think that he is one of the best five players, you know, does he get more run?
Yeah. I mean, I think you could look at that, but then I think that the antidote or the, the compensation for that is probably playing Jaden McDaniels a little less. And Jaden has actually played really well of late. Tonight, tonight was up and down, but, and kind of quiet, but, In general, lately, the last two, three weeks, he's been really, really good offensively and defensively.
And so and Mike Conley would be the other guy that you would cut minutes for for Nikhil. But Mike has been so important for any kind of offensive organization. Or structure. He is their only real quarterback. And so you hesitate to do that as well. I do think you did see tonight that Chris Finch did try to play Rob Dillingham a little bit more.
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Chapter 4: What are the Lakers looking for in trades?
Chapter 5: How did LeBron's comments impact the Lakers' strategy?
Chapter 6: What challenges are the Timberwolves facing offensively?
Yeah, Zena, I do think that they have a lot of confidence in their defense. Today was terrible. There's no question about that. But given that it wasn't even just under 100, it was like 92 or below. That's a minuscule number that they were holding teams to. Tonight, they did not have it for whatever reason. Rudy Gobert was terrible tonight.
There just was not the same energy, the same intensity that they had been showing. So I think that they feel like... In general, they can get back to somewhere around, you know, definitely a top five defense in the league. I think that, you know, there are going to be nights like this where the other team hits a lot of shots and you just chalk it up and you shake their hand.
But I think the greater problem for them is that when that defense isn't there, they do not have the offense to win shootouts, at least right now. Everything is too difficult for them. They're not generating easy looks. And when they do generate them, Dante DiVincenzo or Nas Reed or Mike Conley or Jayden McAdams are missing those open shots.
So they have to find a way to be in games and win games when you just don't quite have the same kind of defensive juice that they're normally used to having.
Yeah. I mean, look, it's a it's a little bit of a similar problem to what they had last year, but they didn't they didn't have Towns, who was this just incredible offensive threat. I mean, you know, you replaced him with Julius Randall and Dante DiVincenzo, who both it's been disappointing so far. So any other is there any other lineup shakeup?
that you might see coming here in the next, you know, few weeks or month. I mean, Nikhil Alexander Walker has been so good. I just think that he is one of the best five players, you know, does he get more run?
Yeah. I mean, I think you could look at that, but then I think that the antidote or the, the compensation for that is probably playing Jaden McDaniels a little less. And Jaden has actually played really well of late. Tonight, tonight was up and down, but, and kind of quiet, but, In general, lately, the last two, three weeks, he's been really, really good offensively and defensively.
And so and Mike Conley would be the other guy that you would cut minutes for for Nikhil. But Mike has been so important for any kind of offensive organization. Or structure. He is their only real quarterback. And so you hesitate to do that as well. I do think you did see tonight that Chris Finch did try to play Rob Dillingham a little bit more.
And that is kind of, you know, a spark plug guy who... You know, he's a rookie. He's 19 years old. He's figuring things out, but he has a little more electricity and juice in him offensively and can maybe get the ball into transition opportunities a little bit more.
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Chapter 7: What solutions could improve the Timberwolves' performance?
And so I would think that they might try to continue to put him out there and just you might have to sink or swim with him a little bit until he gets a feel for this game because you're going to need him over, you know, by the playoffs, but certainly over the next couple of years as Mike Conley ages out of this.
So that's one more guy that I think could use a little bit more time, even though tonight it did not go well for him.
Yeah, they had a rough night. I mean, look, it was the Knicks night. They were absolutely fantastic. Perfect. It was a perfect game for the Knicks. Perfect night for John Krasinski. Thank you very much. Go and read him over at The Athletic. Guys, stick around after the break. I sat down with Yovan Buha. Zeno, believe it or not, the Lakers are looking to make some trades.
Would you have guessed that? Shocker. Well, the Lakers were not able to go back to back in the in-season tournament NBA Cup. I, you know, I've been making the distinction between the two because of the branding change. So we were able to get Yovan Buha to stop in and talk to us a little bit. Yovan, how's it been going watching the NBA Cup from home?
Chapter 8: How is the current state of the Lakers affecting their trade targets?
It's been nice. I did enjoy the weekend in Vegas last year, but it's just as nice to watch from home sometimes. Yeah.
Well, OK, so a bunch of stuff happened while we were there. You know, every time the league gets together, something comes out. And usually now it's been all star related. You know, you were talking to LeBron today. It seems like the stars of this league weren't. Totally consulted on the changes to the All-Star format.
And just in case people don't know and you're listening, they've they've switched things up. They're going to have three teams of eight collected of the 24 NBA All-Stars, plus a team from the Rising Stars, the winner of the Rising Stars game in a four team tournament format. And, you know, to 40 points target score with a champion being crowned.
Doesn't seem like the players like that all that much, Yovan.
No. And LeBron stopped at the point of criticizing it to the extent that players like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and his teammate Anthony Davis just criticized over the last couple of days. But LeBron was implying some level of criticism. He acknowledged that something had to change with the game. But he also said that this is part of a bigger issue going on with basketball right now.
And he pointed at the three-point increase in terms of volume and just how the game has changed so dramatically since he's been in the league. So he kept giving us... some kernels. And then when we, we would follow up with a follow-up question, he would stop short and just be like, you know, I don't want to talk about this.
But if you're going to ask, you know, I, I think there's too many F and threes going on right now, but, and then, you know, what's your solution? Well, I don't want to talk about it right now. So he kept kind of teasing us in terms of what his, his fix was for the all-star game, his fix for the three point uptick. But he did, he,
You know, it seemed to indicate that he thinks the NBA needed to change something, but this is not quite what he thought they should have done.
OK, so he also shoots more threes. So is this a little bit of be the change you want to see in the world? Like, should we expect LeBron to now that he's publicly stated there are too many threes being shot? Should we expect to see a downturn in his volume?
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