Karl-Anthony Towns publicly criticized the nutrition habits of his teammate Anthony Edwards and how it could impact his performance in back-to-backs.

“Maybe I could do a better job of teaching him how to take care of his body — diet and everything,” Towns said. “That’ll be on me. I know y’all think it’s funny up here when he talks about Popeyes and all that s–t. That doesn’t make me happy to hear. We’re high-level athletes.”

Edwards became a pitchman for Popeyes, doing a commercial for Uber Eats in which he and Ja Morant held a “slam dunk contest” about how they dunk their chicken pieces in dips.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have begun extension talks with two of their valuable young players. The Wolves are looking to lock up both Jaylen Nowell and Naz Reid to deals before the end of the season. Reid seems the more likely to ink a new contract, as Nowell appears headed for free agency in the summer of 2023.

Both Nowell and Reid are finishing the four-year deals they signed as rookies in 2019. Because they are on expiring contracts, Nowell and Reid are extension-eligible through June 30. Both players are eligible to sign extensions worth up to $58 million over as many as four seasons.

Nowell has improved each year and has seen his role grow for Minnesota each season. He's averaged 8.3 points on 44.5% shooting in 122 games, mostly off the Wolves bench.

Reid became a key backup for the Timberwolves over the last two seasons. He's largely played behind Karl-Anthony Towns at the center spot, and this season is backing up Rudy Gobert. In 179 appearances (32 starts), Reid has averaged 9.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and nearly on block in 17.2 minutes per game.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have waived Eric Paschall from his Two-Way contract.

Paschall appeared in one preseason game with the Wolves.

Last season, Paschall averaged 5.8 points and 1.8 rebounds in 12.7 minutes with the Utah Jazz.

D'Angelo Russell is playing out the final season of the four-year, maximum deal he signed in 2019. Russell is extension-eligible with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but it doesn't seem like the 26-year-old guard has an extension coming his way.

On a recent episode of The Scoop with Darren Wolfson, guest Brian Windhorst said about Russell, "I have not heard any discussion of him getting an extension."

Wolfson agreed by adding, "Well, I think (Russell's) representation has reached out to the Wolves, but it doesn’t seem like it’s being reciprocated."

Russell signed his current deal with the Brooklyn Nets as part of a sign-and-trade to the Golden State Warriors. That deal sent Kevin Durant, also via sign-and-trade, to Brooklyn. Russell was then traded at the 2020 trade deadline to Minnesota in exchange for Andrew Wiggins.

Because he's on an expiring contract, Russell will remain extension-eligible through the end of the league year on June 30.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have picked up their team options for Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels for the 2023-24 season. These are fourth-year options for both Edwards and McDaniels.

Edwards averaged 21.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.5 steals in his second season. The 6-foot-5 guard is poised to make his first All-Star team this season.

McDaniels averaged 9.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game off the Wolves bench last season. He was recently named as Minnesota's starting small forward for this upcoming season, alongside Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert and D'Angelo Russell.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have waived P.J. Dozier and C.J. Elleby from their training camp contracts. Minnesota has also waived A.J. Lawson from his Two-Way contract.

The Wolves will reportedly convert preseason standout Luka Garza to a Two-Way deal. Garza was signed to a convertible training camp deal.

All three of Dozier, Elleby and Lawson are likely to land with the Iowa Wolves of the G League this season.

Luka Garza signed a two-way deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, sources told Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Garza averaged 7.3 points while shooting 66.7% from the 3-point line during preseason. 

Host Danny Leroux (@DannyLeroux) and Arturo Galletti (@AmericanNumbers) break down the over/unders for the Western Conference.

They discuss the win total, division, conference and title odds as well as any pertinent individual award lines for the Thunder (2:03), Rockets (10:47), Spurs (16:23), Jazz (20:47), Kings (28:06), Trail Blazers (33:38), Pelicans (39:22), Lakers (46:58), Timberwolves (54:41), Mavericks (1:01:10), Grizzlies (1:06:48), Nuggets (1:11:50), Warriors (1:16:41), Clippers (1:25:11) and Suns (1:29:04).

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The Minnesota Timberwolves pulled off the most surprising transaction of the offseason when they traded four players and four first round picks to the Utah Jazz for Rudy Gobert.

Around the NBA, executives were shocked by the price Minnesota paid for Gobert. 

"We put up the 30 best players in the league on a board," said Chris Finch.

"At any given time, like there's maybe three or four of them available. Some aren't even available if you gave 10 picks. And if you have one you can get and he fits and does a lot of the things that we like -- the more that we looked at it and the deeper we went, like just the more we felt like we couldn't not [trade for him]."

The Wolves believe Gobert will elevate their defense while also unlocking Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards and D'Angelo Russell. 

"It's a very small list of elite players," said Minnesota president of basketball operations Tim Connelly.

"When you're able to add a difference-maker and not trade a guy in a similar tier, it's so rare ... we didn't think we'd get a call like this for a long, long, long time."

Karl-Anthony Towns was hospitalized last week with a throat infection that caused him trouble breathing and forced him to be on bed rest for days.

Towns said his weight was down to 231 pounds (he's listed at 248), but he didn't reveal the nature of the non-COVID-19 illness.

Towns didn't get clearance to walk again until Saturday.

"I'm still recovering. I'm still getting better," Towns told reporters in Minneapolis before the team left on a 10-day preseason road trip. "There was more drastic things to worry about than basketball [during the illness]."

During the offseason, Towns had stem-cell treatments and platelet-rich plasma injections in both knees, his left ankle, left wrist and right finger.