Coming up, Carl Anthony Towns was back in town in Minnesota, so we got John Krasinski to talk about it. Yovan Buha stopped in to talk to me about some Lakers trades. Zena, why are people complaining about ratings? Isn't that like the thing to do? I guess. It's boring. It's boring. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena. Good evening, John Krasinski, live from Wolves, Knicks. Carl Anthony Towns, big return to town after being traded away to the Knicks. And man, Zena, this game at times, I just felt like I was confused by what the Wolves were trying to do. I was shocked that Carl Anthony Towns played like this. And the game got a little bit boring after a minute.

Yeah, I don't think I, I was watching the game. I started with a solid like, oh, look, Timberwolves got it together. They're showing up. And I think I fell asleep towards the third, woke up at the top of the fourth. So, yeah, it was tough. It was a tough watch.

Well, John, you, you were there. You've covered this team for a long time. You've covered Carl Anthony Towns for his entire career. I want to ask you just personally, what was it like having him back in Minnesota and then to see him come through with this sort of performance? I mean, just the statistics are pretty incredible. Tom Thibodeau, it was just effusive in the praise that he gave him. And I do want to put the numbers out there because I do think they're important. 32 points, 20 rebounds, six assists, two steals, five of five from three. Man, that would have looked good on the Wolves tonight.

It sure would have, Dave. mean um you know you're right I've covered him his whole career I've heard him disparaged discounted knocked down um his whole career and some of it has been valid the criticism that he's gotten certainly but I've always felt like a lot of people didn't really look at the full context of who he is as a player what the Timberwolves did and didn't do around him. And to see him kind of return here and absolutely lay waste to the Timberwolves was just a weird feeling. You know, I went to New York for the preseason game with them. And so I've seen him in a Knicks uniform before. but to see him in a Knicks uniform at target center, uh, it was definitely weird. You know, you, it's kind of like it, this is really happening. And there he was, um, you know, I remember when he was a baby faced 19 year old kid coming in as a number one overall pick and kind of going through all of the things, both positively and negatively that he did and now it does appear that in year 10 coming off of a western conference finals run you know with a really good team around him now that he's just really settled into who he is as a player and he looks just incredibly dominant and um it was a glaring thing because everything he did tonight is exactly what the Timberwolves lack right now. It was so awkward to see the way that Kat showed back up in town, 30 points. I think he was the first player in NBA history to do what he did against the Timberwolves, like perfectly fitting. And then on the complete opposite side of the ball, we have to remember there was a trade made and Julius Randall walks off the court, does not shake hands, does not engage with his old teammates, like the complete opposite experience, right? For the other person on the end of this, the Wolves have to answer to, they lost the trade. And today they put it on national television. What is the answer for what we just saw, especially offensively, a.k what we didn't see? Yeah, I think it's I mean, they are searching right now offensively. And I think, you know, there's some glaring, glaring problems right now with the way that Julius Randle wants to be effective and the way that the team overall wants to do it. I mean, you're talking about a very isolation heavy player. Anthony Edwards is an isolation heavy player as well. And so you put the two of them together and you just see stagnancy all of the time. I mean, in the second quarter, I think they had two points in the first five of the quarter and most of the possessions that they had in the half court were either no pass or one pass possessions and it was over with and part of that is you know the way that Edwards and Randall like to probe and because Carl Anthony Towns is not there as the spacer, as the real threat on the perimeter. Opposing defenses can pack the paint against Anthony Edwards. And so he drives downhill and there are two or three guys at the rim every single time because he's on the floor with Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels, who are not threats to score from the perimeter. And so they I think they're getting close now. They're 26 games into the season to really having to ask themselves, do you make a real change in the starting lineup? Do you look at putting Nas Reed, who is a better shooter, even though he has really shot the ball poorly this season, he is a better shooter from the perimeter at the four. And do you try to put Julius Randle in more of a featured role with the second unit, something like that, because everything else that they have tried offensively has just not worked even remotely so far. And they have to find a way to get a rhythm and get a flow going.

I'd argue that Nas reads level of competitiveness defensively gets him in the starting lineup, not just what he brings on the offensive end. So that's been me actually, since the trade was made, I thought that Nas Reed should have been the starter. You know, I understand the personalities involved, but at this point, like you just said, I mean, you're 26 games into the season. I mean, Christmas is literally next week. And a lot of teams know that they're kind of stuck where they're at. If they don't make changes come Christmas time, this is who you are right now. So let me ask you, what's on the table for them? You know, is it is it all internal or is this another team like the Lakers? And, you know, like we just saw with the Warriors, it's going to be out on the market looking for someone and maybe even looking to move some of the guys that they've got. Yeah,

I mean, I do think one thing, one bit of perspective right now for them is that it that you'll hear them say is, hey, tonight was terrible. There's no doubt about it. But we had just won six of seven. Yeah. And they started to put some things together, at least defensively, where they looked really, really good. Now we can look at some of the opponents that they were playing and they weren't the strongest, but they were absolutely dominating those games defensively against those opponents. And so I don't think that they feel internally that the sky is falling right now, but they definitely have to have their eyes open to the idea of changes either internally with rotations and starting lineups or possibly looking at some trades. Tim Connolly has already proven to be one of the most aggressive general managers in the entire league in terms of making big trades. They, they don't have a ton of ammunition to, to really make a wholesale trade, big trade. I mean, you can move Randall, but does he have a big market right now? That's going to be a problem with, you know, him able to be a free agent at the end of the season and just the way that he's playing so far. So I don't know that there's like a magic bullet they can fire from a trade perspective, but I do think that they do have to look at doing some things differently because offensively they're running into the same problems every single night. And if they keep trying to do what they've been doing all along, you're going to get the same results. See, that was going to be my question. It's like, I I'm also in the same boat of like, I saw five capable teams being held under a hundred points by the Minnesota Timberwolves. There is some credit to be given for that. And I'm wondering how much does how much of the Timberwolves believe that their defense can shape up like this was an aberration. This isn't what we're usually doing. We're capable of playing enough defense that even if we're not scoring, it still will balance out. Yes. I do think that they have a lot of confidence in their defense. Today was terrible. There's no question about that. But given that, you know, it wasn't even just under 100, it was like 92 or below. Like that's a minuscule number that they were holding teams to tonight. They did not have it for whatever reason. Rudy Gobert was terrible tonight. You know, there just was not the same energy the same intensity that they had been showing so I think that they feel like in general they can get back to somewhere around you know definitely a top five defense in the league I think that you know there are going to be nights like this where the other team hits a lot of shots and you just chalk it up and you shake their hand but I think the greater problem for them is that when that defense isn't there they do not have the offense to win shootouts at least right now everything is too difficult for them all they're not generating easy looks and when they do generate them Dante DiVincenzo or Nas Reed or Mike Conley or Jane McGansler missing those open shots so yeah they have to find a way to be in games and win games when you just don't quite have the same kind of a defensive juice um that that that they're normally used to having yeah

I mean look it's a it's a little bit of a similar problem to what they had last year but they didn't they didn't have Towns who was this just incredible offensive threat I mean, you know, you replaced him with Julius Randall and Dante DiVincenzo, who both it's been disappointing so far. So any other is there any other lineup shakeup that you might see coming here in the next few weeks or month? I mean, Nikhil Alexander Walker has been so good. I just think that he is one of the best five players. You know, does he get more run? Yeah.

I mean, I think you could look at that, but then I think that the antidote or the, the compensation for that is probably playing Jaden McDaniels a little less. And Jaden has actually played really well of late tonight. Tonight was up and down, and kind of quiet, but in general lately, the last two, three weeks, he's been really, really good offensively and defensively. And Mike Conley would be the other guy that you would cut minutes for, for Nakio, but Mike has been so important for any kind of offensive organization or structure. He is their only real quarterback. And so you hesitate to do that as well. I do think you did see tonight that Chris Finch did try to play Rob Dillingham a little bit more. And that is kind of, you know, a spark plug guy who, you know, he's a rookie. He's 19 years old. He's figuring things out, he has a little more electricity and juice in him offensively and can maybe get the ball into transition opportunities a little bit more and so I would think that they might try to continue to put him out there and just you might have to sink or swim with him a little bit until he gets a feel for this game. Because you're going to need him by the playoffs, but certainly over the next couple of years as Mike Conley ages out of this. So that's one more guy that I think could use a little bit more time, even though tonight it did not go well for him.