Kevin Garnett is a shell of his former self and has been all season for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Garnett's impact since being traded back to the Timberwolves last season, though, was never supposed to come via on-court production. Garnett waived his no-trade clause to come back to where his career started and to help a young team through some struggles.
Garnett is one of the great leaders the NBA has ever seen, but he has been dealing with a right knee injury lately which has relegated him to the bench. Garnett may be better off on the bench at this point in his career anyway, as an assistant coach, but this injury could possibly mark the end of what has been a tremendous playing career.
Garnett hasn't played since Jan. 23, and he has appeared in just 38 games this season. The 39-year-old's knee has continued to bother him, and while there is no timetable for when he might get back on the court interim head coach Sam Mitchell hinted that we might not see him play again this season.
"It's a day-to-day, week-to-week thing, I'm not even going to promise that you're going to see him," said Mitchell.
There hasn't been much talk about Garnett this season as most of the conversation has been about Kobe Bryant's retirement, but this could possibly be his last year too. Garnett hasn't officially announced his retirement after this season, but it is very possible he hangs it up after this injury-plagued year. Garnett has considered retirement after each of the last few years but has continued to come back.
This past offseason Garnett signed a two-year deal with the Timberwolves, so he will still be under contract should he decide to return, but this seems like it could be the end of the road. Garnett is an NBA legend who is a surefire Hall of Famer, so it wouldn't be ideal for him to end his career with an injury, but he is 39 and has played a lot of minutes in his career. As the saying goes, father time catches up with all of us.
As for Garnett's plans should he decide to call it quits after this season, it is possible he could become a minority owner of the Timberwolves. Whether Garnett stays on as a veteran mentor for the young Timberwolves players or becomes a minority owner, it seems pretty clear that he will stay involved in basketball and Minnesota in the future.
