Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns expected to return in 'coming weeks'

The Timberwolves have been relatively quiet on Karl-Anthony Towns‘ status since he was diagnosed with a right calf strain in late November, but the team put out a press release on Wednesday formally issuing an update on the forward/center.

According to the Wolves, Towns has progressed in his rehab process and is participating in basketball activities. The expectation is that he’ll return to action in “the coming weeks,” per the club.

That phrasing is pretty vague, but with three-and-a-half weeks left in the regular season, it sounds like the Wolves remain hopeful that they’ll get Towns back before the postseason gets underway. As Chris Hine of The Star Tribune observes (via Twitter), the club didn’t have to make an announcement on Towns’ status at this point, so the fact that it did so anyway suggests there’s optimism he’ll play this spring.

At 35-34, Minnesota currently controls the No. 7 seed in the West, but there’s not much room for error — the Thunder, Mavericks, and Lakers are all just one game back at 34-35.

Towns, who sustained his calf injury on November 28, was still adjusting to playing alongside newcomer Rudy Gobert when he went down. His scoring average (20.8 PPG), rebounding rate (8.2 RPG), and three-point percentage (32.5%) were all career worsts or close to it, though he was still making 50.5% of his shots from the field and was thriving as a facilitator, with a career-best 5.3 APG.

One report around the time of his injury suggested Towns would miss about four-to-six weeks and should be back on the floor in January. However, his recovery process has extended well beyond that, and the 27-year-old expressed some frustration in January about that initial reporting, referring to his injury as “significant” and indicating that he was always going to be out for more than four-to-six weeks.

If and when Towns returns, he’ll have more adjusting to do, as the Wolves have changed point guards since his injury — Mike Conley is now the team’s floor leader, replacing D’Angelo Russell.