Outside of the 17-18 season in which the Minnesota Timberwolves reached the playoffs, the tenure of Karl-Anthony Towns with the franchise has been tumultuous due to no fault of him. Flip Saunders passed away shortly after Towns was drafted, which led to Tom Thibodeau taking over both coaching duties and the front office at the end of his rookie season. Ryan Saunders replaced Thibodeau as head coach in January 2019 and Gersson Rosas was hired to run the front office a few months later. The Wolves have since fired Saunders and replaced him with Chris Finch, while they’re now also searching for a replacement for Finch.
“Karl-Anthony Towns has weathered a lot of drama in his six years here,” said Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “The Jimmy Butler situation. He’s had a bunch of guys who have been president of basketball operations. He’s had a bunch of head coaches. There’s just been so much turmoil and tumult around him. You’ve seen stars ask out in other places and you say ‘Do you really need to go that far? Is that really necessary?’
“I think if he fired that bullet, I don’t think many people would disagree. It’s been a mess here.
“Now so far, there’s no indications that he’s ready to go that route. I know the team has engaged directly with him and his representation over the last 24 hours to really try… They’ve engaged with every player to try to send a new message and get everyone on board and let them know what they’re thinking and doing.”
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