Towns Wins Award And Wolves Get Quality Time At Home

After taking the NBA by storm during his first month of his career, Wolves forward/center Karl-Anthony Towns was named the NBA’s Western Conference Rookie of the Month on Thursday afternoon.

That was the talk during the team’s practice on Thursday at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square.

In the month, Towns led all rookies in rebounding (9.4), blocked shots (2.18), field goal percentage (52.6 percent) and free-throw percent (86.7 percent). He was second among rookies scoring 14.4 points per game.

“(It’s) just a testament to the work I put in in the summer to come out starting hot, but it’s just one month,” the modest rookie said after practice.

Towns became the seventh player in team history to win the award. The last was current teammate Andrew Wiggins last season. Wiggins won the award five times and said he has his trophies at home on display. Although he had his fair share of success last season, Wiggins sounded impressed of what Towns has been able to do so early this season.

“He dominated a lot of games. (He) started off the year amazing – all the double-doubles,” Wiggins said. “… I didn’t even start picking it up (at this time last season). My numbers started picking up in December or January. He started earlier.”

The Wolves hope that Towns picks up a few more monthly awards, concluding with the Rookie of the Year award.

Home Sweet Home

The Wolves had yesterday off as interim head coach Sam Mitchell gave the team a much-needed day off. The team had been gone from last Thursday to Sunday night before playing on Tuesday at home. The team had a rare three days off before it takes on the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night.

“A lot of times when you only have limited practice time, you spend part of your time working on your stuff, part of your time working on your opponent’s stuff,” Mitchell said. “Today was all about what we need to get better.”

Wiggins, who once said that his favorite phone on his app was his alarm, said that it was just finally nice to sleep in his own bed.

“It feels pretty good just being able to sleep in our own bed,” Wiggins said. “Just relax, come to the practice facility. Just to enjoy our time here while we can.”

The Wolves will practice again before hosting the Trail Blazers on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.