Karl-Anthony Towns signs reported 4-year, $224M extension with Timberwolves

 

Karl-Anthony Towns is under contract for six more years, after agreeing to an extension Friday to remain with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The team announced he signed the deal on July 7.

Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns has agreed on a four-year, $224M super max extension, his agent Jessica Holtz of @CAA_Basketball tells ESPN. Deal begins with the 2024-25 season and delivers Towns’ total contract value to six years and $295M.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2022

NEWS: @Timberwolves Sign All-NBA Center Karl-Anthony Towns to Multi-Year Contract Extension

Full release:https://t.co/pYGM772WEV

— Timberwolves PR (@Twolves_PR) July 8, 2022

It’s a huge commitment from the Timberwolves, and one they made as quickly as they possibly could: Starting in 2024-25, Towns will make $224 million over four years, and that follows the $70 million he’s slotted to make over the next two seasons.

The deal was formally agreed to early Friday. By NBA rule, Towns and the Timberwolves had to wait until July 1 — and it was just after midnight in the East — to strike their deal.

Towns deftly bounced back during the 2021-22 season from a couple of rough years, when he was dogged by a wrist injury and waylaid by COVID-19 like so many other players. The virus hit especially close to home for him, too, when his mother died early in the pandemic in 2020 after the NBA went on hiatus.

The 26-year-old, who is entering his eighth NBA season, continued to diversify his offensive game in coach Chris Finch’s system and was more aggressive at taking the ball to the basket. His versatility was never more apparent than when he won the 3-point shooting contest at All-Star weekend, but he’s still a post player at heart.

The extension begins with the 2024-25 season. Towns made All-NBA 3rd Team, qualifying for the supermax deal.

Led by Towns, second-year phenom Anthony Edwards and point guard D’Angelo Russell, the seventh-seeded Timberwolves pushed the second-seeded Grizzlies to the brink in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs before ultimately falling to Memphis.

The 26-year-old has become one of the league’s most dominant offensive big men during his eight years in Minnesota.

The No. 1 overall pick in 2015, Towns averaged 24.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 33.5 minutes per game last season.

Over the last three games of Minnesota’s six-game loss to Memphis in the first round of the playoffs, Towns averaged 26.3 points, 12.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks. During the regular season, he posted a career-high 60-point game at San Antonio in 36 minutes on March 14.

By being voted third-team All-NBA, Towns became eligible for another supermax deal, the second contract extension he’s received from the Timberwolves since they drafted him first overall out of Kentucky in 2015.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.