3 ways the NBA hiatus could help the Minnesota Timberwolves

While nobody is happy about the NBA’s current hiatus, there are at least a few ways that the Minnesota Timberwolves can benefit from the layoff.

The NBA is in the midst of a layoff of an undetermined length due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Obviously, the hiatus is necessary, and the return to basketball pales in comparison to virtually everything else that is going on the world. That said, this is a Minnesota Timberwolves blog, and it’s time to look at this break in the action through the lens of the franchise and what it might mean for the on-court product moving forward.

There are plenty of reasons why the layoff is harmful. We’ve already detailed how much more difficult the evaluations of restricted free agents Malik Beasley and Juan Hernangomez, and clearly, potentially entering the offseason with Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell only sharing the floor once isn’t ideal, either.

But there are silver linings in most things, after all, and, at least from a basketball perspective, there are indeed a few of those.

Let’s start with perhaps the obvious one.

1. The opportunity for Towns’ wrist to recover

Karl-Anthony Towns has been out for roughly a month, playing in only two games following the All-Star Break. After initially ruling him out “indefinitely“, the Wolves released a statement saying that he’d be reevaluated in two weeks.

After that evaluation, which was nearly two weeks ago, the team said he’d be reevaluated again in…you guessed it, two weeks.

Joking aside, the Wolves are actually doing a good job of being transparent with this injury. Perhaps it’s even a bit tongue-in-cheek in the wake of the mild backlash they received listing Towns as “questionable” nearly every night during what was ultimately a 15-game absence earlier this season due to a knee injury.

The team now appears to be on-board with giving these non-update updates, as it’s clearly what the people want.

Even if the league were to return to play following the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommendation of no crowds of 50 or more people for eight weeks, that would be mid-May, and Towns would almost surely be healed from what was apparently a fairly mild wrist fracture.

Count me in for watching Towns, Russell and Beasley take the court together, even if it’s only for a handful of games.