Anthony Edwards injured, Timberwolves season gets worse

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ season from hell continued Friday night as they lost to the Chicago Bulls in double overtime and may have lost Anthony Edwards for the remainder of the regular season to an ankle injury. There has been no official update from the team. Edwards returned to the bench in a walking boot towards the end of the game and briefly told reporters that he was going to be fine.

I can appreciate Ant’s attitude and toughness. He has played in 71 of 71 games, while other stars hardly bother to play seven straight. It is with just three weeks left on the NBA’s regular season calendar, the T-Wolves are one game out of the playoffs and one game away from missing the play-in.

But fear not, Minnesota, backup Should arrive anytime. (Hey, Karl, that’s your cue.) Karl-Anthony Towns is close to returning from a months-long calf injury. The update from two days ago was that KAT will be back in “the weeks to come.” Whatever that means, he better be back on the floor soon.

The good

All things considered, it’s still not too bad because the bottom of the West is abysmal. Minnesota must fend off the Jazz, Pelicans and Blazers for the 12 seed. Two of those organizations are in freefall, and Danny Ainge is doing everything in his power to keep the third team in the lottery.

Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert are more than capable of playing .500 basketball for a short period of time, and hopefully, that’s long enough to bridge the gap until Towns’ return. And when that happens, whatever problems Gobert and Towns had sharing the floor together better magically disappear.

The bad

Minnesota without Edwards is the 2021 Utah Jazz, but older and without Donovan Mitchell, and that’s about as depressing of a basketball situation as you’ll find. The front office gave away a million draft picks for Gobert, and the only argument that it was a smart move is that he’s the last cornerstone standing.

D’Angelo Russell is a Laker, KAT’s natural state tends to an injury, and the brightest spot of all the spots crumbled to the court Friday night and screamed “TIMEOUT!” like he was trying to stop a fight after being belted too hard by his older brother.

The front office has already tried to recreate the narrative once and it didn’t work, so if this season ends abruptly, the next steps could be more drastic.

The ugly one

The only way the Wolves avoid an offseason with pundits wondering who’s disgruntled and fans making fake KAT trades is if they make the playoffs and win a round. It’s possible, but it would take Edwards back to the playoffs and Towns going ballistic as soon as possible, for as long as possible.

Whenever we wonder which franchise is the gold standard for mismanagement, Minnesota offers a season like this, or the year after the last time they made the playoffs when Jimmy Butler hacked his way out of Minneapolis with a machete. Then it makes people ask, “Weren’t you the team that took two point guards not named Steph Curry ahead of Steph Curry?” And things continue to spiral from there.

So good luck, T-Wolves fans. And just know, it’s not your fault.

We really feel bad for Minnesota sports fans, but not enough to write nice things about Kirk Cousins. read more Timberwolves and Vikings news on Deadspin’s team pages.