5 Timberwolves who could fill KAT’s void at 2024 NBA Trade Deadline
By Bret Stuter
III – Kyle Anderson
Forward Kyle Anderson is one of the most versatile players on the Minnesota Timberwolves roster. And it makes sense to give starts to the guy who absorbed so much of Karl-Anthony Towns’ vacated minutes from the 2022-23 NBA season. He has the size and fortitude to compete as a rebounding power forward, but the ball-handling skills to slide down to the point forward/guard role if the game situation so dictates.
When the Minnesota Timberwolves lost Karl-Anthony Towns for 53 games in the heart of last season, the team promoted veteran forward Anderson to help handle that starting role. What the Timberwolves discovered was the fact that Slo-Mo was far more than a standard power forward.
Slo-Mo made a fast first impression
When the team needed a veteran to step up, Kyle Anderson did so. Standing 6-foot-9 and weighing 230 pounds, he is big enough to endure banging bodies under and near the basket. But he is so much more.
Much like rookie Leonard Miller, the truth is that veteran forward Kyle Anderson has a superpower on the basketball court that involves facilitating the basketball much like a point guard. And it was that superpower that pointed the Minnesota Timberwolves at parting ways with veteran point guard D’Angelo Russell, and adding former Utah Jazz point guard Mike Conley Jr.
Could he do so again if the Timberwolves opt to trade Karl-Anthony Towns at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline? He certainly could. And with a sequel, both he and the Timberwolves’ entire roster would be far more prepared to take advantage of the sudden changing of the guard. While Slo-Mo may be the most obvious choice, there are two other choices as well.