Karl-Anthony Towns: Fouled Out | Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Playoffs 2022 Play-in

And elusively, Jackson goes in, but it's the bottom of the backboard

Of course, Ty Lue. He'll melt into the defense and take it up and off

And a foul! Subac has the ball, knocked away. Ramming his way into the two or threes

Missing there. Big-time rebound by the tumbling. Towns is fouled out. Fouls out at the 7.34 mark of the fourth

That won't go. and that'll do it the Grizzlies do it again

when Gobert and Towns play together it's a borderland catastrophe it's panic time house

Towns and Gobert through a dozen games can't play together who could have guessed that

51 games since these Timberwolves fans have seen you and they missed you

finally gets it to them Edwards launches no and Denver survived we got everything we need

we just gotta continue to work with each other it's time for the Minnesota Timberwolves to move on from Carl Anthony Towns. The issue with Cat is this

he is a losing personality. For anyone that says in the modern game, three bigs can't work

what's your message? Watch us. Carl Anthony Towns is one of the most polarizing players

in the entire NBA. On one hand, he's one of the greatest shooting big men of all time

and an all-world offensive talent. But on the other hand, sometimes the moment seems to be too big for him

and some have even called him not a winning player. The past two years have been especially rough in the Cat discourse

especially with the addition of Rudy Gobert and the disappointing results that came thereafter

But after a fully healthy offseason for Cat and Minnesota, the Timberwolves are now sitting atop the Western Conference at 39-16

and Towns is having himself a phenomenal year. As we approach the 2024 NBA playoffs, I believe this is Carl Anthony Towns' moment

Will he show us that he has changed and he is the player we all hoped he could be, or

will he again struggle? This is the potential redemption of Carl Anthony Towns

On June 25th, 2015, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Carl Anthony Towns with the number

one overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft, which marked the Timberwolves' first number one

overall pick in their franchise history. And with that first pick was a lot of pressure coming with

it. The Wolves had not had a winning season in a decade and had had little success in their 26-year

history as a franchise outside of Kevin Garnett. Could Carl Anthony Towns be the player they needed

do what even Kevin Love couldn't do, bring the Timberwolves back to some sort of relevance

But outside of the 2017-2018 Jimmy Butler season, Carl Anthony Towns' first six seasons

wouldn't include a winning record either. It was more of the same old, same old for the Timberwolves

But midway through the 2020-2021 season, coach Ryan Saunders, a good friend of Carl Anthony

Towns, was fired and replaced by Toronto Raptors assistant coach Chris Finch

The Timberwolves had just drafted first overall pick Anthony Edwards as well

and finally the following season in 2021-2022 they started to experience some success while

we can't really fault carl anthony towns for the first six seasons of his career he went through

three different coaches five different general managers and just absolutely zero continuity it was the 2021 season where his reputation and legacy started being questioned Minnesota would go 46 finishing 7th in the Western Conference

and entering the Newfound Play-In Tournament, largely on the back of Carl Anthony Towns

who would be an all-star that season, get third-team All-NBA, an average 24.6 points per game

9.8 rebounds and shot 53% from the field. But in that first play-in game versus the Los Angeles

Clippers, Carl Anthony Towns would be a complete non-factor. As a matter of fact, he was a detriment

to his team, scoring 8 points, going 3-4-11 from the field, and fouling out with 7 minutes and

change to go in the fourth quarter. As you saw in the intro and now, these fouls were pretty

ridiculous for the most part. They were boneheaded plays, they were out of control, and there was a

lot of immaturity that seemed to be centered around them. The Timberwolves would go on to

win that game 109 to 104, largely on the backs of 20-year-old second-year player Anthony Edwards

and D'Angelo Russell, who had 30 and 29 points respectively. As embarrassing of a performance as

it was for the Timberwolves' so-called leader, he had a whole playoff series ahead of him to redeem

himself, matching up with the second seeded Memphis Grizzlies. And in game one of this series

he would do just that, scoring 29 points with 13 rebounds, defeating the Memphis Grizzlies 130 to

117 on their home floor. Unfortunately, games two and three wouldn't go as well, with game three

blowing two 25-plus point leads in both halves. No thanks to Kat, who only took four field goal

attempts in that game, scoring eight points and having five fouls. But in game four, in Cat-like

fashion, he would bounce back, scoring 33 points, staying out of foul trouble, and shooting 14 for

17 from the free throw line, willing his team to a game four win, evening up the series 2-2

In game five, Minnesota would blow another double-digit lead in the second half, and although

Cat would score 28 points and have 12 rebounds. He also had seven turnovers and five fouls again

And in game six, he would score 18 points, have 10 rebounds as the Wolves would blow another

10 point lead in the fourth quarter, losing 114 to 106. The story of this series was so

frustratingly hopeful. The Timberwolves just could not stay ahead when they would build a lead

But at the same time, it looked like they were the better team in that series

The problem is when you combined the couple low points that Cat had in this series with the awful performance he had in the play-in, and if you combine that with the foul trouble, some of the boneheaded plays, and the constant whining that he had to officials after committing fouls, while supposedly being the number one player on this team, he ended up getting a certain reputation in basketball circles that I'm sure every one of you are aware of

And I can say as a Timberwolves fan that it is an emotional roller coaster having Carl Anthony Towns on your team because in one moment he's unstoppable on the offensive end

In another moment, he's getting into foul trouble and costing his team the game

And then the Rudy Gobert trade happens and everybody hates how much Minnesota gave up for him

Plus, nobody thinks him and Carl Anthony Towns can play alongside each other

And of course, it doesn't go well right away. It looks clunky in the first 13 games they play together

The Wolves go 5 A couple weeks later Carl Anthony Towns tears his calf is out a majority of the rest of the season By the time he comes back and everyone starts paying attention again

there's only a couple weeks left in the NBA regular season. The Timberwolves disappoint

in the league of 42 and 40. They get in the play-in versus the Lakers. They lose without

Rudy Gobert. Carl Anthony Towns has five fouls again, a lot of them very foolish fouls. And

although he plays well in that game all anyone's seeing is the fact that the Timberwolves lost

and Cat was in foul trouble again the Timberwolves then fall in five games to the Denver Nuggets

Cat averages 18 points per game 10 rebounds but only shoots 45 from the field 25 from three

and has double the amount of turnovers than anyone else on his team so again although Carl

Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert only got to play a handful of games together the narrative going

into the 2023 offseason was this. The Timberwolves have no choice but to trade Carl Anthony Towns

But if you're paying attention closely, you knew that Chris Finch, Tim Connelly, and all of the

Wolves brass said they did not have enough time to see if this thing would work. They were going

to run it back for one more season. And thank God they did. Which brings us to the premise of this

video. We are sitting here on Wednesday, February 21st, post All-Star break. The Timberwolves are

the number one seed in the West. Carl Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, everyone on

this team has been healthy all year long, and they have looked the part going 39-16 through their

first 55 games. They have the NBA's best defense by a pretty wide margin with an efficiency rating

of 108.2 points per 100 possessions, and Cat is having a fantastic season, averaging 22.5 points

per game, 8.4 rebounds, while shooting 51% from the field, 43.7% from three, and 88% from the free

throw line. And if we filter those stats from January 1st on, it gets even better. He's averaging

24.2 points per game on 53% from the field, 47% from three on 5.8 attempts per game, 7.2 rebounds

and a true shooting percentage of 66.1%. Quite frankly, nobody thought the Timberwolves

would be in the position they are this deep into the NBA season

but there's still plenty of question marks, not just the Timberwolves, but Carl Anthony Towns has to answer

It was incredible to see Cat get recognized in the All-Star game, making his third one

and to put up 50 points, but the rest of the NBA world

still isn't taking him seriously. And that's why I believe the 2024 NBA playoffs are going to be a legacy-defining moment for

Carl Anthony Towns. If you've watched the Timberwolves this year, he's been a lot more mature when it comes

to complaining to officials. And even with offensive fouls or boneheaded plays, he's just been a lot sharper

He's also been assisting Rudy a ton this year, especially on alley-oop, something that never

happened the previous season in the short time they had. But the bottom line is that his overall reputation has not changed at all in the basketball world just yet

He has to prove it in the 2024 playoffs. I don't think that anybody is asking for him to be the one to carry this team

Everybody knows this is Anthony Edwards' team. And Carl is completely fine with that

He loves Ant. Ant's one of the best leaders in the NBA from an emotional intelligence perspective

The Wolves culture is super strong, but he does need to be a very very close 1B to Ant And I would go as far as to say that if the timberwolves can make the western conference finals and carl anthony towns can just average what he averaged in the

regular season in the playoffs and not foul out or make some oblivious mistakes repeatedly i think

there's a good chance that his reputation begins to be redeemed and we start to see a redemption

arc for a player that had such high hopes coming into the league. Another thing to keep in mind as

well is that Cat is 28 years old. This is his golden age, his official prime, and I think that

with that has come a certain level of maturity this season compared to last or the seasons before

So what do you think? What does Carl Anthony Towns need to do to achieve redemption in the eyes of

the basketball world at large. I think it's Western Conference finals minimum and just not

having poor series or really bad moments that cost games. I also think that some of the hate that

comes with Cat is just odd and it's not necessarily fair making fun of his voice, making fun of the

love that he has for Minnesota and the team that he plays for. He's an emotional guy and at any

point in his first six seasons he could have forced his way out of minnesota after what jimmy

butler did to him after all of the disorganization and chaos that came with being a part of one of

the worst franchises historically in nba history he could have easily said i'm done with this i'm

gonna go play for a contender get me out of minnesota but instead he stuck with it even when

they fired his really good friend ryan saunders he called chris finch he welcomed him with open arms

and he's always done, I believe, what's best for the team. And that's one thing about Cat as a teammate

that I don't think a lot of people pay attention to. Everyone talks about this power struggle

between him and Ant over the past year and a half. And as a Wolves fan, I've never really seen it that way

Carl's an incredible teammate who's had Ant's back from the beginning. And even when a new GM came in the summer of 2023

and traded for a defensive-minded star that plays his position at the five

He took it with a grain of salt and he's completely reinvented himself as a four in the NBA, which is not an easy ask

But at the same time, the money is real. Cat's about to be making $60 million a year

He has to be an elite 1B to Anthony Edwards for this to work out in the long run

as a player in his career because let's be honest if he does what he did in 2022 again in these

playoffs the Timberwolves probably have no choice but to trade him this offseason he's making too

much money and they're gonna go into the second apron paying the luxury tax but if he's the

player that we've seen he can be especially this season gelling so well with Rudy with Ant with

Jaden with Nas then I think the perception is going to shift and then from there if the Wolves

making Western Conference finals, they fall just short. It could be the beginning of them

the Thunder, the Nuggets, vying for the Western Conference for the next three, four, five years

to come. Let me know what you think in the comments. Try to be fair and provide rational

reasoning if you are going to critique Cat or if you're going to praise him and think that his

critiques are unwarranted. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video, the YouTube algorithm

thinks you'll enjoy this upload from me right here. And as always, we'll see you on the hardwood