Intel on Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, Naz Reid and possibility of Wolves trades as NBA Draft nears

The NBA Draft is two days away, and the Minnesota Timberwolves remain, essentially, on the outside looking in.

They currently have only the 53rd pick, near the end of the second round, to play with, but have been making calls around the league to gauge the market to see if there is a chance to move back into the first round, league sources told The Athletic. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the team’s draft strategy. To this point, there has been no progress toward a deal that could spice up Thursday night’s draft, sources said.

Things can change quickly on draft week. Conversations that were non-starters last weekend can look more appealing the closer the draft gets. The Wolves do not have a first-round selection this season because they traded it to Utah as part of the package to acquire Rudy Gobert. With a new collective bargaining agreement looming that will make it more difficult for expensive teams to stay together, the Wolves and many other teams are looking at the affordable deals that draft picks get at the beginning of their careers as a way to help control costs.

The Wolves are about to get really expensive. They will extend Anthony Edwards a max contract offer this summer and also hope to extend Jaden McDaniels with a lucrative deal and give Naz Reid a big raise. With Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns already on max contracts, and KAT’s supermax extension set to begin in 2024-25, holding this team together over the long haul is going to be a challenge.

That has led to widespread speculation that Towns could be on the move. He is younger and much more versatile offensively than Gobert, so he figures to have higher value if he were put on the trade market. But president of basketball operations Tim Connelly and coach Chris Finch have said publicly that their plan is to move forward with the existing core, with both believing a full summer and training camp together, and improved health from Towns and Gobert, will be enough to solve some of the offensive problems the team had last season. Owners Glen Taylor, Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez are on board with that approach as well, sources said.

The oft-proposed deal from fans that would send Towns to Portland for the No. 3 pick, Anfernee Simons and other filler has no basis in reality at this point. There has been nothing of substance for Towns, Taurean Prince — whose contract for next season does not become guaranteed until after the draft — or any of the other players on the Wolves roster.

Even if the Wolves did look to move Towns, it is conceivable that his value around the league isn’t what it once was coming off a season in which he missed 52 games with a calf injury and then was underwhelming in the playoffs against Denver. Connelly has spoken glowingly of Towns’ ability to come back from what they feared at the time could have been a season-ending injury. He hit the game-winning shots in their first two wins after his long absence, and he remains an incredibly talented offensive player. But the lack of playoff success in his eight years in Minnesota has, fairly or unfairly, put a target on his back.

And if that wasn’t enough, Towns was roundly criticized last week for comments he made on ex-teammate Patrick Beverley’s podcast. While most pundits fixated on a few of his comments, one answer he gave Beverley was much more relevant to the team at large while not receiving the same amount of attention.

When Beverley remarked about all the trade speculation around Towns, KAT responded by saying, “The rumors are as true or as false as Minnesota makes them to be.” That would seem to indicate that Towns is like many of the fans out there, sitting back and waiting to see what happens.

Towns has a great relationship with Edwards and has spoken about sharing the spotlight with him. He has a deep respect for Finch and his coaching acumen. He also was one of the Wolves players who openly welcomed Gobert into the locker room, changed positions to accommodate him and took pains on the court to get him involved in the offense. He has shown no signs of wanting to move on and spoke after the season ended about how much he looks forward to a more “normal” year in Minnesota next season.

But the sheer volume of criticism he got for his comments on the PatBev Pod, coupled with the incessant trade speculation from fans and media is hard to ignore. His vague answer to the question about his future in Minnesota was an interesting way for him to phrase it. In an appearance on “Bumper to Bumper with Barreiro” on KFAN radio on Monday, Connelly would not eliminate the possibility of a KAT trade, but he said he has never spoken in absolutes with any player in his 10 years leading front offices in Denver and Minnesota.

“I don’t think there’s any real expectations our team is going to be much different,” Connelly said. “We’re pretty fired up to have two elite guys in Karl and Anthony. … I love what the starting five looks like. I’m fortunate to work with those guys, and that’s a pretty strong group to start with.”

Rudy returns

Among the players back in the team’s practice facility this week is Gobert, who said when the season was over that he was planning on “having the best summer I’ve ever had and really come back like I want to have the best year of my career next season.”

Coming back to Minnesota from France is a good step in that direction. Edwards is spending most of his summer working out locally, a departure from previous summers when he spent the bulk of his time back home in Atlanta. Having them together in the gym as much as possible this offseason is critical for the Timberwolves to improve their 23rd-ranked offense.

The pick-and-roll chemistry between Edwards and Gobert was slow to develop in their first season together. Edwards has rarely been a lob thrower at any level of his basketball life, and there were times last season, even in the playoffs against Denver, when he looked reluctant to pass the ball to Gobert near the rim.

Gobert also struggled to catch the ball cleanly at times. More familiarity with how and when Edwards wants to throw those passes could help reduce the number of turnovers and increase the confidence between them. They can help each other, with Gobert setting screens to get Edwards free lanes to the basket and Edwards drawing defensive attention to open up easy buckets for Gobert.

Neither one is going anywhere, so they have to figure out how to work together better than they did in Year 1. Spending time together in the summer should aid that, as it did for Mike Conley when he first teamed up with Gobert in Utah. Familiarity does not guarantee success, but it does give the Wolves a reason to hope for better results in the Year 2 of the partnership.

Gobert still has not made public his plans for the FIBA World Cup, which takes place Aug. 25-Sept. 10 in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. Connelly has said that the decision is up to Gobert. The organization will never intrude on a player’s decision to play for his country, something that is deeply personal to Gobert. But after he showed up to training camp banged up last season from a grueling run with France in the European championships, there is no doubt some hope internally that he chooses to sit out this summer so he can be fresh when he reports to training camp in the fall.

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Naz Reid lingers

When the Timberwolves opened draft workouts to the media this week, including one on Monday with Gabe Kalscheur, Marcus Carr and other prospects who could be around when the Wolves pick late in the second round, a handful of current Timberwolves players were spotted at the facility.

Gobert was getting a lift in. McDaniels, Jordan McLaughlin, Wendell Moore and Josh Minott were there, too. Also sitting courtside and preparing to watch some of the Monday afternoon workout was Reid, who will become an unrestricted free agent in 11 days.

In some ways, it was unsurprising to see Reid in the gym. He has typically remained in Minnesota in the summers to work on his game rather than relocate to an NBA summer hot spot like Los Angeles, Miami or Houston. He has great camaraderie with many of his teammates, particularly with McDaniels, Nate Knight and Jaylen Nowell.

But it was a tad surprising given that he is so close to becoming a free agent, and several suitors figure to line up to challenge the Wolves’ ability to match the paycheck and/or the playing time that they can offer. Often times players who are about to become free agents, especially players who believe they’re on their way out, will not work out in their team’s facility in the summer. And they almost never stay in Minnesota to do that working out.

It all underscores just how much both sides are hoping to find a way to make it work. Reid loves his teammates, respects his coaches and has enjoyed his time in Minnesota, where he has developed from a doughy, undrafted free agent with an injured foot into a lean, mean, key rotational piece with one of the best handles for a big man in the entire league.

The Timberwolves want him back. That is true from the very top of the organization down through the front office and coaching staff. Taylor, Marc and Rodriguez are all on board with trying to get Reid back, sources told The Athletic. The discussions on a contract have gone on all season and will continue. It has gotten to the point where free agency is so close that Reid almost has to dip his toe in the water to see where the market is before he makes a decision. But the Wolves are very much alive in this situation, which was made even clearer by his presence at the practice facility on Monday.

(Top photo of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert: David Berding/Getty Images)