Karl-Anthony Towns has been putting up an All-NBA type of season, but there has been little to no media attention surrounding the Minnesota Timberwolves center. But why is Towns exactly this underrated?
Cornerstone
Karl-Anthony Towns was selected with the first pick in 2015 by the Minnesota Timberwolves and immediately became the franchise’s cornerstone. He was paired with Andrew Wiggins and Zach Lavine, the number one and 13 overall picks respectively in 2014, and the future looked bright for the franchise that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2004. But the Timberwolves didn’t make the playoffs in Town’s first season. The Wolves ended up with the 5th overall pick in the draft and selected point guard Kris Dunn.
But the nucleus off Dunn-Lavine-Wiggins-Towns didn’t pan out and Minnesota traded away the former 2, alongside Lauri Markkanen, for Jimmy Butler and a pick that would later turn out to be Justin Patton, at the 2017 draft. The trio of Butler, Wiggins and Towns was later joined by Jeff Teague, and the Wolves looked to be on their way to the playoffs. And they made it, barely, when they won the last game of the season in an overtime thriller in a direct battle for the last playoff spot against the Denver Nuggets.
However, that was as far the Wolves went. They lost 4-1 in the first round of the 2018 playoffs against the one-seed Houston Rockets led by MVP James Harden. What followed was a summer of turmoil. Butler didn’t sign a contract extension with the Timberwolves; Towns did sign a huge extension, worth $158m over 5 years (with potential add-ons, which I’ll come back to later); Butler requested a trade from the team, reportedly because Wiggins and Towns were ‘soft’ and didn’t do whatever it took to win; Butler entered training camp, yelling at the GM and coaches about how much they need him, and beat the starters by taking a bunch of third-stringers and practice squad players.
Post-Butler era
KAT’s image had taken a hit, and Butler being there for the beginning of the season clearly had a burden on the former number one pick. When Butler was traded to the Philadelphia 76’ers however, the team looked like they were happy again, even though they weren’t winning. Coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau had to pay for the bad results and the whole Jimmy Butler debacle and got fired, being replaced by Ryan Saunders, son of the late Flip Saunders, former coach of the Timberwolves himself.
Towns himself was also “freed”: His averages were just shy of 20 points and 11 rebounds per game on 46% shooting when Butler was still part of the team for the first 13 games. Those jumped to 25.3 points and 12.7 rebounds on 52% for the rest of the season.
Through all of the dysfunction and misery within the team and the organization, Towns kept doing what he did best: Putting up huge scoring numbers and cleaning the glass with all of his rebounds. Towns missed a game for the first time in his career after a scary car accident, which he said should have killed him: “I’d say I had a 5% chance of making it out alive”. It caused him to miss 2 games, after 303 straight starts, which was the longest active streak in the NBA at that time, and the longest in NBA history for a player starting his career. He hadn’t missed a game since middle school, when he opted to play a game of baseball instead of basketball when the 2 were scheduled around the same time.
Iron-man
For a player to have such a long streak is impressive. For a player to go through that streak without getting injured is very impressive. Then there are big men, who are way more injury-prone than any other position. Yet, people call Towns soft, just because of what went down with Jimmy Butler. A player who’s soft doesn’t suit up for every single game since middle school. That’s called heart. People don’t actually look at Towns’ games, instead they just base their opinions on a bunch of words coming from Butler, who has been on 3 teams in 2 years, and problems have followed him everywhere. I’m not here to talk down on Jimmy Butler, who himself has the heart of a champion and the mentality of a winner. I’m saying that just because 2 players/personalities didn’t mesh it doesn’t mean that one had a bad mentality.
All of that aside, let’s just look at Towns’ game. KAT has ranked in the top 20 for points, rebounds, blocks and PER for all of his 4 seasons in the league. His career average of 39% from deep is 65th all-time and first amongst centers. His value over replacement player has been top 20 for the past 3 years. Towns has been dominating since his rookie season. He is the perfect example of an old-school back-to-the-basket player mixed with a new-age big that can get his points from deep. He is already one of the most polished players in the league at the age of just 23, let’s not forget that. Add all that to the fact that he’s been available for 98.5% of his games throughout his career, and there’s nothing really to complain about.
But yet, people do complain. Why? The Butler situation that was overblown by the media and the lack of team success. KAT has only been to the playoffs once, but you can’t blame it on him and him alone. His numbers have been All-NBA worthy for the past 3 years. As long as Towns keeps improving his games and the team success starts to come along with it, people will start seeing that they were wrong to criticize a 23-year old kid based on the words of someone else.
Courtside 