Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Karl-Anthony Towns video, pressure on Rosas

Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns released an emotional video on social media. Plus, pressure is starting to mount on Gersson Rosas.

The Minnesota Timberwolves haven’t played in eight months. Not only that, but their offseason has been filled with tumult.

Back in April, Karl-Anthony Towns’ mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, passed away due to complications of COVID-19 after being placed in a medically-induced coma.

Towns had posted a video to social media weeks earlier announcing that both of his parents had the virus that had recently shutdown the NBA and brought the world to a screeching halt, and even said that his mom was on a ventilator.

Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Karl-Anthony Towns video

In the months that have followed, Towns has kept an exceedingly low profile. The only public appearance made by the two-time All-Star was standing in the background in solidarity with teammate Josh Okogie at a Black Lives Matter rally in early June following the death of George Floyd.

Since then, Towns participated in pre-In-Market Bubble workouts with teammates before heading on a birthday vacation with his girlfriend and missing the bubble itself. Upon his return, he was not allowed to enter the Wolves bubble and instead accompanied teammates and Wolves brass to a get-out-the-vote event in recent weeks.

Now, Towns is ready to open up about the past few months, including tragic details of the decisions that had to be made in the days leading up to his mother’s death and the phone calls that Towns made to family members.

Towns is a tough individual and an extremely caring person who genuinely cares about his family. Hopefully, his posting of this video will impact others in a positive way.

Obviously, our thoughts and prayers at Dunking With Wolves continue to be with Karl-Anthony, his father, Karl Sr., and the rest of their family.

Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Pressure mounting on Gersson Rosas

Elsewhere, the Wolves front office is beginning to feel a bit of pressure, now that we’re nearly a year and a half into Gersson Rosas’ tenure as president of basketball operations.

The Athletic’s Britt Robson penned a piece calling the 2020 NBA Draft the end of Rosas’ “honeymoon phase” (subscription required).

Between the draft capital of the No. 1, No. 17, and No. 33 draft picks and the rest of the assets that Rosas control, the Timberwolves must have a successful draft nith. That means he must either pull off a blockbuster trade to catapulted the Wolves into true playoff contention, or, if they sand pat and draft at No. 1, Rosas best not miss — especially after trading up to No. 6 last year to take Jarrett Culver, who had a disappointing rookie season.

If you have a subscription, go check out Robson’s article. It’s a great and sobering read, and a realistic check-in at where Rosas is at nearly 18 months into the job.

Stay tuned throughout the week as we continue to ramp up our draft coverage with prospect profiles and more…