The debate surrounding this week’s All-NBA Team announcements is well underway, and some of it surrounds the Timberwolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns.
There’s a popular opinion out there that says that Karl-Anthony Towns deserves to on one of the three All-NBA teams — and it’s not an opinion that is only voiced by fans. Players including Devon Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns himself feel the same way.
Make no mistake about it, KAT deserves to be on an All-NBA team. His offensive repertoire is arguably better then any center in the league. He can score in the post, off the pick-and-roll, from the perimeter and does it all at an efficient rate as well, facts proven by his 25.1 points per game on 54.2 percent shooting.
His passing flies under the radar as well, he averages nearly three assists per game, an impressive number for a center. He also ranks sixth in rebounds per game for the season.
Despite all this, it seems like two factors prevent him from making one of the teams. The Timberwolves only won 31 games and Towns played what many consider to be poor defense for much of the year. \
I understand why team performance could factor into his exclusion off the teams. However, if that prevented Towns from making any team altogether, then Davis definitely shouldn’t be on the first team as the Pelicans finished with only 34 wins. It’s not only the exclusion here that is puzzling, but equally the lack of consistency in the criteria used in evaluating these centers.
While his defense is not as good as second-teamer Rudy Gobert and third-teamer DeAndre Jordan, it’s a problem that’s been overblown out of proportion. While it is true that Towns is prone to defensive lapses and inconsistent intensity on that end of the floor, he also doesn’t have the luxury of good perimeter defense supporting him, leaving him exposed to drives constantly on that end.
At the very least, he should be on the third team over Jordan. In my opinion, many bigs deserve it over the Clippers center. After all, while Towns isn’t as good a defender or as good of a rebounder as Jordan, he is leaps and bounds ahead of DeAndre on offense. While Towns is among the most dominant offensive players, Jordan’s scoring almost entirely depends on put backs and alley-oops. You’d think that such an intense disparity would surely make up for the advantages Jordan gains in other areas.
Unfortunately, voters don’t seem to grasp that. It’s a shame, as All-NBA inclusions now have major contract implications around them.
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As a result, the fate of players is in their hands. Voters need to realize that when they start voting inconsistently and making wrong decisions such as they did with this exclusion