For one reason or another, Karl-Anthony Towns isn’t being talked about in the same shining light in the national media this season.
In September of 2017, Sports Illustrated featured The Crossover’s Top 100 NBA Players of 2018. They had Towns ranked at 14. Ahead of the likes of Nikola Jokic, Al Horford, LaMarcus Aldridge and Marc Gasol. That sounds aggressive but seems reasonable considering Towns’ eye-popping 2016-2017 campaign.
The Ringer also published their Top 25 Players of the First 25(-ish) Games earlier in December of 2017. Towns failed to crack the list.
So was Towns that underwhelming through the first 25 games? Probably not. But considering the arrival and leadership of Jimmy Butler, Towns’ statistical totals taking a hit from last season and poor defensive play early, I can see where it would be hard to rank him there.
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Towns is averaging a statistical line of 20.2 points and 11.6 rebounds which is down from 25.1 and 12.3 from last season.
However, by no means does that means Towns has been a disappointment this season. In fact, you could argue that over the previous month, he is now outplaying the majority of his competition and playing the best basketball of his career.
If The Ringer were to redo their list today, Towns has a strong a case to be featured on it. Let’s take a look.