Karl-Anthony Towns: Timberwolves 2015 NBA Draft Profile

Mar 28, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Karl-Anthony Towns (12) is guarded by Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward Zach Auguste (30) during the first half in the finals of the midwest regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

Weaknesses:

One major concern with Towns will be his ability to adjust to much more minutes at the NBA level. He only played roughly 21 minutes per game in college, and that’ll likely increase at the NBA level with over twice as many games played (if he stays healthy). It wasn’t a problem for Andrew Wiggins, who wound up playing the second most minutes in the NBA in his rookie season. For Towns, he’ll see way more minutes than he did in college and fatigue could become a problem.

A weakness on the offensive end from Towns is that he didn’t show much of a jump shot in his only college season. While this may be due to the fact that he spent most of his time on the low block, it’s still a bit of a worry going forward. He should be able to develop a consistent jumper with time at the NBA level.

Additionally, Towns wasn’t featured much in the pick-and-roll offense in college, which is something head coach Flip Saunders likes to use in his offensive system. It’s not like Towns won’t be able to grasp this concept or won’t be able to run it, but he might be a bit rusty right away. He certainly has the basketball I.Q. and intangibles to be able to learn this concept.

Defensively, there isn’t a glaring weakness from Towns. However, the one thing that could be a concern right away is that he’ll be defending players that are much bigger and more physical than his college opponents. I do believe he’ll be able to adjust to this in the long run, but he’ll have trouble right away.

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