Where the Minnesota Timberwolves must improve to make the playoffs

No. 2: A healthy Towns and Russell combination that is able to mesh for the Timberwolves

Since trading for D’Angelo Russell during the 2019-20 season, the results have been far from what the Timberwolves anticipated when they made the trade.

This isn’t anyone’s fault, necessarily. Since making this trade, both Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns have struggled to stay on the court due to a combination of injuries and COVID-19 protocols. To put it simply,  If the Wolves want to finally be a legitimate playoff team, they need their two stars to stay healthy and mesh.

As has been well-documented, Towns and Russell have only played 25 of a possible 86 games together in their year-plus together with the Wolves.

Both players were durable over the first four years in the league. Over the past couple of campaigns, however, Towns has been somewhat injury-prone, missing time due to knee and wrist ailments, as well as a positive COVID-19 test last January. It will be important for the Wolves to take all measures necessary to keep him healthy as he is the focal point of this team’s success.

Luckily for Wolves fans, Towns is healthy coming into the season and appears to be more locked in than ever. He should be ready to take another step in the right direction and threaten his second career appearance on an All-NBA team.

Overall, this Timberwolves team has the duo they need to succeed and make a playoff run. All they need to do is stay healthy so the team can rack up much-needed regular-season wins to try and avoid the play-in tournament.