The Brutal Luck Of Minnesota Sports Fans Continues After Karl-Anthony Towns Tears His Meniscus And Is Out Indefinitely

Stephen Maturen. Getty Images.

Well, this really stinks. Not exactly the type of Woj/Shams bombs anyone was hoping for this morning, and you can't help but feel for Towns, the Wolves and that fanbase given not only the nature of the injury, but the season and timing in which it happened. At 43-19, the Wolves have regained the top spot in the West with Towns having one of the best seasons of his career. So close to the playoffs, I think most of us who have been watching the Wolves all year wanted to see what things looked like as fully healthy as possible, given this is easily their best team since the KG days. To have that basically ripped from you before you may have even had a cup of coffee this morning is tough.

While I'm certainly no doctor, I can't imagine missing zero time is actually on the table as Woj suggested. That just seems like a bad idea. What I have done is watch a big man on my favorite team play on a fucked up meniscus who maybe came back too early, and it did not go great. It's the same reason why the Sixers are not fucking around with Embiid. You have to take your time with these things or else you open up a can of worms that could end up making things a whole lot worse. 

Aside from the injury itself, the timing of it is equally as brutal. The playoff begin in just 44 days, and while that seems like it may be a lot, it'll be here before you know it. Hopefully KAT's injury is something that with 40+ days of rest he could manage, but it also wouldn't shock me if we learn he has surgery and is out for much longer. As we're starting to learn with these types of injuries, you never really know until you're in there. Sometimes it's worse than you think, sometimes it's not as bad. 

For a fanbase that sure knows a thing or two about pain when it comes to sports, I do feel for them too. Given how awesome the Wolves have been, you have every reason to be on cloud 9 as a fan, so hearing this news is definitely a kick to the dick. It doesn't seem to matter what sport it is, MIN fans keep being forced to experience insane heartbreak. You could argue they are one of the most tortured fanbases in sports, even when their teams are awesome. It's impossible to not feel for them.

The question now becomes, how do the Wolves survive?

The largest impact of course is going to come on the offensive end. This is significant because even with KAT, the #1 seeded Wolves are owners of the 18th ranked offense in the NBA. It's been one of their questions all year. Once you get to the playoffs, can you survive with that type of inconsistency/shot making in a playoff series? I think that's what we all wanted to see.

When you look at their minutes when both KAT and Ant are off the floor (their new reality when Ant subs out), the Wolves have a 105 ORTG. To put that into perspective, the Memphis Grizzlies who rank 30th in offense and have lost their entire roster this season, have a 107.1 ORTG. Now the Wolves are not only going to have to deal with defenses who can now focus way more attention to Edwards, but they also have to survive a group that is literally the worst offense in the NBA when both Ant and KAT are off the floor. That's tough.

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You also can't ignore the picture of how things stand out West and what this could potentially mean as well

I think it's possible we could see the Wolves stay somewhere around the top 3 seeds, which is why things get interesting for anyone seeded 6-10. If you're someone like the Lakers or the Warriors, you now have a little bit of a new life. There's a chance we see another year where one of those Play In teams are able to win a first round series against a higher seed, which obviously changes the dynamic of the Western Conference playoffs. How about someone like Denver, who is 0-1 so far on the season against MIN and could potentially not have to worry about a team that gives them some matchup problems while on their quest to repeat? We know they aren't sweating having to potentially go through teams like the Lakers (3-0) or GS (4-0) should one of those teams go on some sort of magical run to the WCF, so we may have another year where the Nuggets pretty much have a cakewalk to the Finals should they handle their business.

The main point as always, is that injuries suck. They're simply the worst. It's even worse when we see it happen to a main piece of a #1 seed about a month and a half before the playoffs. All I want as a fan is to see everyone healthy for the playoff run given how deep the league is with talent. I want to see see the best of the best do battle and see who comes out alive. Unfortunately, now in both conferences we're dealing with a pretty significant injury to a very important player on a team that had dreams of making a deep run, and potentially trying to get to the Finals and win a title. That's such a bummer.

I'm still holding out hope for some sort of prayer that has KAT back at some point during the playoffs, maybe deep into the first round or something. But if you thought things were wide open in the West before, well things just got a little more spicy with about 20 games to go.