{"id":91563,"date":"2024-08-21T14:40:50","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T18:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=91563"},"modified":"2024-08-21T14:40:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T18:40:50","slug":"timberwolves-karl-anthony-towns-insight-relationship-anthony-edwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/21\/timberwolves-karl-anthony-towns-insight-relationship-anthony-edwards\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolves\u2019 No. 1 Pick Offers Insight Into Relationship With Co-Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves big man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/townska01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> has had a roller coaster ride in the Twin Cities.<\/p>\n<p>Upon leaving Kentucky, he was considered to be one of their next great prospects. Eventually selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, he hit the ground running. After winning Rookie of the Year, he averaged what were then career-highs of 25.1 points and 12.3 rebounds per game in his second season. The next two seasons saw him earning his first All-Star selections.<\/p>\n<p>At that time, he was also being viewed as the face of the franchise. In layman\u2019s terms, he was considered to be the best and most popular player on the roster.<\/p>\n<p>These days, Towns is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/15\/espn-analyst-picks-anthony-edwards-and-luka-doncic-as-top-nba-rivalry\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">no longer the face<\/a> of the Timberwolves. That mantle has been passed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edwaran01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Edwards<\/a>, who Minnesota drafted first overall in 2020. Ever since he\u2019s been in town though, there\u2019s been\u00a0a sense that Towns may not be too thrilled about being replaced as the face of the franchise. After all, these aren\u2019t just professional athletes, they\u2019re humans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like it\u2019s weird,\u201d Towns tells <em>Podcast P with Paul George<\/em>. \u201cLike, the media tries to make it seem like I don\u2019t want Ant to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m the biggest Ant cheerleader I can be,\u201d says the nine-year veteran. \u201c(The) biggest fan. I want to see him win\u2026 to see him grow to be the face of the NBA. I want to see him do things that (have) never been done in the NBA before\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">KAT\u2019s support for Anthony Edwards is second to none \ud83d\udcaf <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hyRGi9bxet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/hyRGi9bxet<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PodcastPShow\/status\/1825641234272235709?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 19, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just want to see each other win,\u201d Towns continues. \u201cLike big bro, little bro. I want to see him win more than even me\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Wolves\u2019 Karl-Anthony Towns Offers Insight Into Relationship With Anthony Edwards<\/h2>\n<p>If put in Towns\u2019s shoes, many people would admit to feeling chagrined or cheated in that circumstance. No matter how much they understand the how and why of what transpired, it\u2019s not what they would\u2019ve wanted.<\/p>\n<p>However, another group of people could have a different perspective. Perhaps they grew tired of being in the spotlight and being placed under the microscope. Perhaps they were the type of people who preferred being insulated from the media. They may even just have more maturity or less of an ego than others. Whatever the case, these are individuals who would have a more positive view of the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Towns appears to be one of the people who belong in the second category, at least on the surface.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t wholly unexpected, as Towns is considered to be a relatively mellow star. The only time that he\u2019s spouted venom was in a back-and-forth with Philadelphia 76ers center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/embiijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Embiid<\/a>. So, for him to lash out at his charismatic young co-star simply because fans gravitated to him more isn\u2019t really his character.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/zRl3k4P4Gok?si=GT7xbPZhyEjGAVb6<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t hurt that Edwards has been vocally supportive of Towns in the media. At multiple points last season, he told reporters that Towns was their best offensive player. When the Timberwolves faced the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs, Edwards pointed to Towns as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/11\/timberwolves-anthony-edwards-best-bet-karl-anthony-towns-guarding-nikola-jokic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the best defensive matchup<\/a> for three-time MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, it doesn\u2019t matter if people believe what he\u2019s saying. Those moments help them build camaraderie and fortify their relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns has had a roller coaster ride in the Twin Cities. Upon leaving Kentucky, he was considered to be one of their next great prospects. Eventually selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, he hit the ground running. After winning Rookie of the Year, he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":91684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1608,62,3],"tags":[2109,213],"class_list":["post-91563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-timberwolves","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-karl-anthony-towns"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}