NBA Playoffs: Comparing Timberwolves Starters to Remaining Players
Karl-Anthony Towns
The main theme that developed over the course of the regular season was that Karl-Anthony Towns is a special breed of player unconcerned with comparisons, even passing the potential of Anthony Davis, the most similar player, over the course of the season.
Maybe, just maybe, the most similar player remaining in the NBA Playoffs is none other than the guy Towns interviewed way back when he was still in high school: Kevin Durant. Okay, hear me out.
“A player of his size should not be able to have the skillset that he has.”
Durant is known as one of just a handful of guys capable of scoring the basketball whenever he wants. As we witnessed during a string of games to close out the season, Towns showed that same ability to close out a couple of games including knocking down a game-winner against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Karl-Anthony Towns showed abilities that a player his size should not be able to possess. He was able to put the ball on the floor, drive the lane for massive dunks, and demonstrated his range, hitting 34.1 percent of his shots from beyond the arc but really showed his talents from 16 feet to the three-point arc, knocking down 50.1 percent of his shots from that spot on the floor.
Where have we heard that before? “A player of his size should not be able to have the skillset that he has,” Ahh, that’s right. It’s been used to in awe towards 6’11” Kevin Durant (or, as far as the NBA is concerned, 6’9″ Kevin Durant or, as the far as the ladies are concerned, 7′ Kevin Durant).
Despite the similarities in having guard like skills in a big-mans body, Karl-Anthony Towns plays much bigger than Durant. He officially towers over Durant 7′ to 6’9″ and outweighs him 244 pounds to 240, but you’ve got to believe the height difference is much smaller and the weight difference is much larger. The Timberwolves have wisely kept Towns operating in the post whereas the Thunder have done the same in keeping Durant as a deadly perimeter threat.
While the two players operate differently in their respective offenses, both Towns possess dominant scoring ability as well as skills normally seen in players much smaller. Timberwolves fans everywhere are anxious for Towns to launch into the stratosphere of super-stardom where Durant currently resides.
Don’t miss the match-up between the Warriors and the Thunder, featuring Kevin Durant, an over-sized ball-handling mismatch, draining more threes than Karl-Anthony Towns but providing similar scoring prowess and drawing similar awe from the masses.
If you are at all interested in the NBA, which you probably are if you took the time to read this article, you need to be following both of the Conference Finals match-ups.
If the games themselves don’t interest you (the Warriors-Thunder match-up should be enough to wake even the slightest sports fan), at least pay attention to the select group of players outlined above, observe the skill-sets they exhibit that include skills similar to Timberwolves roster players, and get excited about the future of this young, maturing, and Rising Wolves team.