The Karl-Anthony Towns waiting game

With Kyrie Irving walking out the door to Brooklyn this summer, the Celtics’ front office regrouped nicely by landing an All-Star replacement in Kemba Walker. There is still work to be done to build a true contender with this roster and the C’s eyes will be searching near and far around the league for the next available star to pounce on.

One of the more frequent names that has been suggested by Boston fans to go after is Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns. The former No. 1 pick has been a walking double-double with terrific 3-point range for the Wolves throughout his four-year career.

Minnesota has been dysfunctional during most of Towns’ NBA tenure, with the 23-year-old already on his third head coach in four seasons. The Tom Thibodeau era did not go well and Towns never really meshed with his only potential co-star to date in Jimmy Butler before the swingman asked out.

The Wolves infrastructure has been stabilized in the past few months though. The team handed Ryan Saunders (who is very close with Towns) the full-time head coaching job this summer after hiring former Rockets assistant general manager Gersson Rosas to run their basketball operations department.

In the wake of signing a five-year max extension with the Wolves last summer, Towns is not scheduled to become a free agent until the summer of 2024 so the only chance for Towns to realistically become available on the trade market in the next few seasons would be for him to ask for a way out. That sounds a long ways away from happening after his latest remarks to Wolves reporter Jon Krawcynski.

“The biggest thing when you have that conversation is you say, ‘Is he happy here?'” Towns told Jon Krawczynski on Monday. “I’m tremendously happy. I love my front office. I love my coaching staff. I think we’ve made great moves and great changes. I love the culture we have here. If you want to leave, you have to be miserable somewhere. I am not there. I’m planning to be in Minnesota for a long time.”

We’ve heard this refrain before from other stars in smaller markets, most recently by Anthony Davis in New Orleans a little over one year before he requested a trade.

Towns’ contract length makes his claims more believable though. He didn’t have to sign a five-year max deal last summer (with no options) and that commitment to becoming a face of the franchise isn’t going to fade so early in his career.

“I’m here. That’s the answer. That’s the best answer I can give you,” Towns said of his commitment. “I’m here. I’m actually in Minnesota. You can write about that what you want.”

The only thing the Celtics and other potential suitors could have going for them on this front is the competition in the Western Conference. After the Warriors stole away the Wolves’ top free agent target in D’Angelo Russell (close friend of Towns), the franchise failed to make a big splash. Instead, they settled for low cost signings like Jake Layman, Noah Vonleh and Jordan Bell thanks to an ugly cap sheet.

Their current roster shouldn’t be good enough to compete for a playoff spot in the West even at full health. Things don’t get much better next summer either as Andrew Wiggins (AAV: $30 million) remains on the books through 2023 while Gorgui Dieng ($17 million) is signed through 2021. There simply aren’t a lot of promising young trade assets either to improve the roster in the near term outside of a lottery pick like No. 6 pick Jarrett Culver breaking out early in his career.

Barring some magic by the front office and Saunders, the Wolves look like a franchise destined for mediocrity right now. If and when Towns asks out of that path remains to be seen, but the problem for Boston is that if he ever does during this deal, their best assets (Tatum, Brown, MEM pick) are likely to have been already used or no longer on rookie deals.

All of this combined with Towns’ recent comments makes the seven-footer a pipe dream for now when it comes to potential stars to pursuit for Boston. There will be other names that surprisingly become available in the next year or two across the league. Just don’t expect Towns to be one of them.