Minnesota Timberwolves: Does Kevin Garnett really need to rest already?

The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a quite interesting season so far. The Wolves are perfect on the road, winless at home and have seen big offensive games from multiple sources. It got a little weirder on Tuesday night when the Charlotte Hornets came into Target Center and defeated the Wolves.

It wasn’t the loss really that was entirely weird, but the amount of people who sat out the game for Minnesota. Quite unexpectedly, both Ricky Rubio and Andrew Wiggins were sidelined with knee injuries, adding to that list was Kevin Garnett who was out for ‘rest’. The last one is the issue.

Garnett wasn’t brought to Minnesota to play a whole lot of basketball, that’s understood, but you shouldn’t be on an NBA roster if you can’t handle a back-to-back in November for game number eight of the year.

Hell, Gregg Popovich waits a while to rest Tim Duncan and they are the ‘DNP: old’ and rest kings of the NBA.

Garnett only played 14 minutes in the first game of the back-to-back in Atlanta against the Hawks on Monday. Why is this rest needed already in November? It shouldn’t be needed, especially when two teammates are out with apparent legitimate aliments that are preventing them from playing.

More from Sporting Sota

If Rubio and Wiggins are healthy for Tuesday’s game, sure, go hog wild, Kevin. Garnett can rest and we can see how the team responds without him on the floor, but the Wolves needed competent bodies and some leadership on the floor on Tuesday with two huge cogs out. That leadership is what Garnett was brought in for and he didn’t provide it on Tuesday.

Garnett’s defensive presence would have been tremendously helpful, too. It was a game that KG could have truly been a difference in.

It’s probably not easy on Garnett’s body to play two straight games, but it does show some leadership to actually be in uniform and be available if needed and the Wolves sure could have used his assistance as a player on Tuesday.

We should get used to this, I suppose. If Garnett is already taking off a game of a back-to-back, soon he won’t go on road trips and then after that he’ll probably only play half the Wolves home games. Maybe he’ll just buy a season ticket right next to Glen Taylor before April and sit there for games. They do look like some excellent seats.