Karl-Anthony Towns made his triumphant return to Target Center on Thursday, drawing cheers from fans of his former team and eventually torching the Wolves so thoroughly that those same fans booed the home team.
It was a reminder of what the Wolves have been missing, particularly when Anthony Edwards decried the team’s lack of an offensive identity after the 133-107 loss.
“We know I’mma shoot a bunch of shots. We know [Julius Randle] gonna shoot a bunch of shots. That’s all we know. We don’t really know anything else,” Ant said postgame. “It’s not on the coaches at all. It’s on us. We out there playing, but we got to make it easier for each other. Coaches put us in great position, too, man. We just don’t do it.”
The aforementioned Randle had 24 points and was off to a hot start in helping the Wolves to a seven-point lead late in the first quarter, but he cooled off quickly and finished with five turnovers. Nobody else did much to help, as I talked about on Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
Wolves fans have been quick (and correct) to point out the efficiency and stylistic differences between KAT and Randle, the big men swapped in the blockbuster trade three months ago.
What needs to be said, though, is this: The Wolves’ offense has been somewhere between lacking an identity and broken for quite a while now, predating the KAT trade by at least two years.
For all of Towns’ offensive gifts, the Wolves had an offensive rating in the top half of the NBA just once in his final five seasons on the team.
Last year they were No. 17, as defense (No. 1 rating) clearly led the way. Two years ago, the first year with Rudy Gobert here and with KAT sidelined for two-thirds of the season, they were No. 23.
