Timberwolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns expected to return during regular season: Sources

By Shams Charania, Jon Krawczynski and Hunter Patterson

Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns is expected to return from a torn meniscus in his left knee in one of the team’s final three regular-season games, league sources confirmed to The Athletic on Wednesday.

The Timberwolves are on the road against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night before coming home to host the Atlanta Hawks on Friday and the Phoenix Suns on Sunday.

Sources: Minnesota star Karl-Anthony Towns is expected to return in one of team's final regular season games (tonight in Denver, Friday vs. Atlanta or Sunday vs. Phoenix). Towns attacked rehab and impressed T'Wolves teammates/coaches with recovery from early March torn meniscus. pic.twitter.com/9cpxa5jPid

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 10, 2024

Towns tore his meniscus on March 7 and underwent successful surgery on his left knee on March 12. Minnesota (55-24) has gone 12-5 in Towns’ absence and owns the tiebreaker over the Nuggets (55-24) for the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference.

The four-time All-Star is averaging 22.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists on a career-high 42.3 percent shooting from 3-point range in 60 games this season.

This is good news for the Timberwolves. After Towns’ surgery, the team said he would re-evaluated in four weeks. That had everyone bracing for a potentially awkward process of trying to reintroduce him to the lineup in the middle of a playoff series.

But his rehab has gone better than anyone expected, positioning him for a relatively fast return. Getting Towns back for at least a game or two before the end of the regular season will help him work some of the rust off in live game action before the most important games of the season begin. Having Towns return will give Minnesota its best chance to get out of the first round for just the second time in the franchise’s 35 seasons.

“We’re hoping it could be sooner rather than later,” coach Chris Finch said before Minnesota beat the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night. “There’s not much time left, so we’ll take whatever we can get.”

The Timberwolves have done a good job of weathering the storm since their All-Star big man went down.

Anthony Edwards has taken on even more responsibility, culminating with his 51-point, seven-assist performance against the Wizards. Edwards is showing an even greater ability to make the pass and get his teammates involved, which should make Minnesota even more dangerous when Towns returns.

Towns is one of the best perimeter shooters in the league, so giving Edwards another drive-and-kick option should also prevent defenses from packing the paint to make it harder for Edwards to get to the rim. Towns can get his shot, which has been an issue at times when other Wolves have had off shooting nights.

Minnesota struggled to generate offense in a loss to the Suns last week. Having another bucket-getter like Towns to help with the scoring load will be a big help.

Finch said Tuesday that he expected some hiccups in the early going with Towns getting back into the lineup. Naz Reid has flourished in his place at power forward, and the Timberwolves have been moving the ball better and turning it over less over the last four weeks.

They are 10th in offensive rating over the last 15 games after languishing around 20th for much of the regular season. When Towns returns, he will be asked to do a lot of the things the offense has been doing so well in his absence, including making quick decisions and simple passes to keep the defense on its heels.

“He’s extremely talented,” Finch said. “We need him to be a very good version of himself, but there are some things we’ve figured out in the last couple of weeks that we’re going to need him to lean into as well that might be slightly different than the rhythm we were playing with before he left.”

Finch said they have already had discussions with Towns about the keys for him to focus on when he returns. He said Towns has been very open to what will be asked of him.

“He was the first to bring it up, some of the things he’s noticed, which has been great,” Finch said. “That’s one more reason we’re excited and hopeful to have him out there soon so we can get to work on that.”

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(Photo: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)