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Minnesota Timberwolves who need to step up in Towns’ absence

By Andrew Ites

PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 30: Andrew Wiggins #22 of the Minnesota Timberwolves handles the ball against Ben Simmons #25 of the Philadelphia 76ers on October 30, 2019 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 30: Andrew Wiggins #22 of the Minnesota Timberwolves handles the ball against Ben Simmons #25 of the Philadelphia 76ers on October 30, 2019 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Minnesota Timberwolves will be without their best player and MVP candidate for the next two games as Karl-Anthony Towns serves a two-game suspension. Here are three players who need to carry a larger load in his absence.

The Minnesota Timberwolves suffered a devastating blow both figuratively and literally when Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid got into an all-out brawl last Wednesday night.

The league gave Towns and Embiid equal two-game suspensions following the fight leaving each team without their superstar big men for the next couple of matchups.

The Timberwolves’ depth of talent isn’t as great as Philadelphia’s, so they’ll definitely miss Towns more during his suspension as they take on Washington and Milwaukee.

Washington has been a plucky team so far this season even though they don’t have a lot of talent surrounding Bradley Beal, and Milwaukee is obviously one of the best teams in the league.

Minnesota came into this season knowing they’d be in deep trouble if something happened to Towns considering they don’t have much depth behind KAT in the frontcourt rotation.

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Noah Vonleh and Jordan Bell will gobble up most of the minutes at center during this two-game stretch while we could see Naz Reid called up from the G League to add another big body to the rotation.

Vonleh has been solid as a backup center this season averaging 4.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per game while shooting 61.5% from the floor. He’ll see that minutes total increase dramatically in the coming games as Ryan Saunders has put more trust in him than Jordan Bell thus far.

Bell is a superior talent to Vonleh in my opinion, but he’s already received two DNP’s as a result of coach’s decisions so far this year.

The former Warriors big man missed most of training camp with a calf injury, so he may still be getting up to speed with his conditioning and learning a whole new system.

Saunders will be forced to play Bell more during this stint without Towns and hopefully Bell performs well enough to earn a bigger role when KAT does return to the lineup.

Without KAT’s 27.3 points per game in the lineup, much of the scoring load will fall on Andrew Wiggins‘ shoulders.

Wiggins has put up two incredible performances in crunch time in Minnesota’s wins over the Nets and Heat, but his overall numbers remain unspectacular as his true shooting percentage is hovering under 50%.

Wiggins will need to score more efficiently while Towns is out if this offense is going to survive without one of the most dynamic players in the NBA.

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This suspension could be a blessing in disguise for the Wolves as they get to learn more about some of their players who have been forced into smaller roles with KAT in the lineup.

However, the going will get real tough for this team without Towns. Going 1-1 and seeing some of these players step up during this two-game stretch would be a great outcome for the Wolves.

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