Karl-Anthony Towns tried to help Timberwolves avoid colossal mistake

The Minnesota Timberwolves are in the middle of an ongoing experiment with Rudy Gobert. The team’s trade to acquire him last summer has been heavily scrutinized, with some calling it a failure and others believing that pairing him with Karl-Anthony Towns could actually be a winning move in the long-term.

No matter which side of the debate you may fall on, one thing is for certain: it is too early to make a definitive statement about it yet. Minnesota still has yet to go through a full season with Towns healthy, and much can change in the 2023-24 season.

But there is another scenario in the Timberwolves’ recent history that is definitely far enough in the past for fans to pass judgment on, and that is their infamous passing on Jamal Murray in the 2016 NBA Draft in favor of Kris Dunn.

The Minnesota Timberwolves made an all-time gaffe passing up on Jamal Murray.

Wolves fans are painfully aware that their team decided not to draft the mega-talented point guard now starting for the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals. Instead, they took Kris Dunn who lasted just one year with the franchise.

Recently, it was revealed that Karl-Anthony Towns tried to get Minnesota to draft Jamal Murray with the fifth pick in 2016, but the front office still opted for Dunn. A downright painful revelation for Timberwolves fans, seeing the kind of star Murray has been for a team on the cusp of a championship.

It makes sense that Towns pushed for the team to select Murray. The two both played their lone collegiate seasons at the University of Kentucky under Head Coach John Calipari. At the end of Towns’ rookie season in 2016, he would have no doubt been excited to play with a fellow Kentucky Wildcat in Minnesota.

The front office did not grant Karl-Anthony Towns’ request for Murray.

With the Timberwolves’ selection of Kris Dunn instead, they got a player that they would end up trading a year later in order to bring Jimmy Butler to town. Had Butler remained in Minnesota for the long haul, missing out on Murray may not have felt so consequential.

But if management had heeded Karl-Anthony Towns’ advice and selected Jamal Murray, he likely would have been traded to Chicago for Butler just like Dunn was. So while this was still a massive miss for Minnesota, it is not very likely they would have seen Murray as their franchise co-star from the get-go.

One of the biggest takeaways we can draw from this report is that Karl-Anthony Towns is a good evaluator of talent. If he saw Murray’s star potential seven years ago, perhaps Timberwolves management should be listening to his suggestions in the future.