Timberwolves guard Jaylen Nowell had a rough time coming back from a right tibia contusion suffered on April 3, Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune details. He tried to come back 10 days later and shot 1-for-14 from the field in two games. After taking some time off, Nowell returned on Friday and saw 25 minutes of action on Sunday against Orlando.
“It affected my shot the most,” he said. “I was really shooting off one leg and trying to come back, I came back a little too early; I came back when I was still hurting.”
Nowell, the team’s 2019 second-round pick, has a non-guaranteed $1.78MM contract for next season.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- Karl-Anthony Towns will remain with the Timberwolves long term if the franchise continues to add quality pieces, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic speculates in an interview with Hoops Hype’s Michael Scotto. ‘Ultimately, what it comes down to is will the Timberwolves put a winning team around Towns? If they don’t, eventually, he will go. If they do, I think he’ll stay for a long time,” Krawczynski said. “I don’t think that this summer is the be-all and end-all for it. I think he’s got one more year at least of seeing how this is all going to work out.”
- Rookie Theo Maledon finds himself in a much different role with the Thunder than when he began the season, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman notes. With many players injured or sitting out, Maledon has become more of a scoring guard. “The injuries and the new guys on the roster forced me to be that kind of guy, be more aggressive and have more opportunity to create for me and my teammates,” he said. The early second-round pick has averaged 12.4 PPG since the All-Star break.
- Austin Rivers has learned to become more of a team player, Mike Singer of the Denver Post writes. Rivers, who signed a rest-of-the-season contract with the Nuggets late last month after completing a 10-day deal, has scored 55 points over the last three games while receiving extensive playing time. “When you have a fresh start like (in Denver) … and then you just stop trying to put so much emphasis on yourself,” he said. “I think that’s the biggest difference in my game right now and just my approach as a player. I’ve given myself to the team. Whether I play 35 minutes or five minutes, I’m going to be positive as hell.”
My guess is KAT is the next big name player put on the trade market. I don’t see what MINN can do to become even a consistent playoff team never mind contend.
Edwards is a ways away and Russell has proven at this point that he’s a 3rd option at best. Not a lot of depth either.
Agree with you about the depth for sure, doesn’t help that we wiffed on Culver and likely won’t have our pick this year (though we did hit on Naz and to a lesser degree Nowell). But Ant is averaging 23/6/4 and a steal a game with an above average TS of 59% since DLo came back 18 games ago. We’ve gone 500 in that time, which is only good if you consider our shit show off a year, but my point is our top three is actually good together if we get another piece. Ant isn’t as far away as you think. Already far better than Wiggins was for us.
Maybe you’re right about Edwards but I’m a little skeptical—sometimes these late season stats for guys on lotto teams can be misleading.
Agree though the kid has a lot of talent and between him and KAT they have a good thing if they can get the timelines to match up.
I’m kinda with you, not totally sold on MN or Edwards. They’re another team I’d like to see healthy from jump because I’m sure their plans changed with injuries and covid. We’ll see. Wish em the best.
It sucks that there is always valid skepticism whenever we *might* have something good going for us. We always find a way to screw it up, so definitely valid to doubt it. At least there’s no Kevin McHale or David Kahn or Tom Thibodeau to hold us back now! Gerson Rosas is the savior, I just know it (skepticism palpable).
I feel like you could say the same about most teams though. It’s hard to be the best and only one team can do it every year. Even Steph Curry’s team isn’t a lock this season.
I do like AE and Nowell a lot more than Beasley… and AE seems to pair well with D’Lo which is a mystery solved positively (unlike the mystery of Culver).
I see good talent in a problem environment. Apparently fits were a problem but they look better. Smarts will always be a problem given Rosas drafting more for talent.
Mcdaniel may improve Towns if he makes Towns more of a workhouse b/c JM is not, making Towns compensate. Towns gets scattered with too much freedom.
Edwards is a ways away.. D’ohkay, so you haven’t been paying attention the last few months.
Say something. I said he was better than Beasley, that does not make him allNBA. See problems in the backcourt with Russell?
He’s been better post All Star break, but again this happens every season—where guys on teams with nothing at stake end up putting up inflated numbers at the end of the season.
Example: Kelly Olynyk has been putting up legit All-NBA numbers since he got traded to Houston. Yet I doubt anyone is going to be rolling out a max contract for him this summer.
IMO a good stat to look at for a guy like Edwards who has high usage and high counting stats is +/-. For the year he’s -2.9.
So I still think he’s a few years away, which is fine because he’s 19. It just might not line up with KAT’s timeline, that’s all—which goes back to my initial point.
Olynyk like Dario Saric needs to ramble widely to use his full game, full court. But most teams will not be able to offer that. I hope Houston does.
Now. Are you a fan of Beasley, who put up great numbers when supposedly players were trying hard?
Towns’ timeline still has a ways to go, b/c he can always be a plodding center and still make the deep shots. It is too early to worry about that.
In May
Winning games over Rockets, Thunder, Magic, Cavs and Pistons don’t count.
Valid point, but they’re still NBA teams (also your list isn’t accurate). Ant has revamped his shot after the all-star break, drives more, and draws more fouls. He looks more fluid than than he did immediately. And he’s done so at 19 years old. Again, my point is just that he isn’t a year away from being a year away from helping the team, as was previously thought.
KAT is a nice player. As a Latino I support him 100%. But as a team guy. He seems more interested in hype than substance. There are stars who play to get paid. And there are stars who get payed cause they play. You feel me. I love Jimmy and think he was right about TimberPuppies .
Maledon should relax more at the 3-line. He keeps looking like he saw a ghost. He find find it hard, not being in control like a PG.
Austin Rivers either got more team-oriented, or he’s trying to impress his critics… who would that be…