Time to change the narrative on Timberwolves’ Wiggins and Towns

We’ve all heard the narrative about Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins: they’re “terrible defenders”. But I’m here to tell you that it’s time to scrap that idea, and actually appreciate how far the young Timberwolves have come.

Most of the disrespect to Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins have come from the national audience, the casual fan turning the game on, or national broadcasters. Everyone likes to say, they are “terrible defenders”, but it’s just not true — at least not anymore.

I’m not here to say they are elite, or even great… but they’re certainly good-to-solid defenders. Especially if you consider the idea of where they’ve come from since their rookie year. Oh, and one other thing: they’re 22 years old. How many players truly come into the league at 18 or 19 and are great defenders? Not many.

Throughout the season, we’ve seen some big improvements defensively. While Wiggins a rough month of December, you’ll remember that was the month in which he lost all confidence in his play because of his poor shooting slump. Since breaking that, his defensive improvement has picked up where it had left off.

Andrew Wiggins:

• October: 112.2
• November: 102.0
• December: 107.2
• January: 101.8

Karl-Anthony Towns:

• October: 115.6
• November: 106.4
• December:104.5
• January: 99.3

During the Wolves five-game homestand in which they won all five games, Wiggins and Towns both showed drastic improvements in their defensive games.

Andrew Wiggins

Wiggins gets the worse of the end of the stick, mainly because of his lack of emotion. A player doesn’t need to show a ton of emotion to be a good player. (Although at Kawhi Leonard; he doesn’t show emotion, yet he’s still a superstar.) Wiggins is a quiet player who isn’t outspoken, but instead of ridiculing him, it’s best to watch his improvements and appreciate his play.

One other thing that’s impressive and not talked about much is his defensive win shares.

That list is full of All-stars or players who are known for their defense. The fact that he hasn’t received enough attention to how far he’s come is sad. We’ve seen plays that we never would of seen last year out of him.

Wiggins has been blocking more shots this season, and has been able to sniff out a few steals each game, averaging 1.2 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. In the month of January, he’s averaging 0.9 blocks per game.

But, even if he isn’t blocking shots or stealing the ball, he’s impacting the defense in a positive way. Take the Oklahoma City game, for example. He shut down All-Star Paul George, limiting him to just 13 points, on 5-14 shooting.

One last thing about his improvement: he’s having himself his best defensive rating season in his four year span. This season he has a 105.1 defensive rating, which is a big improvement from last year’s 110.4.

Karl-Anthony Towns

Now that we’ve seen that Wiggins has improved a lot, let’s look into his teammate.

Towns is also having himself a better defensive year. His defensive rating has improved, and, like Wiggins, this season is his best year thus far. He has a 105.7 defensive rating, whereas last year, he had a 110.8.

This year, he’s averaging 1.6 blocks and 0.9 steals per game. In December, he recorded 2.1 blocks and 1.6 steals per game. H’s had games in which he’s recorded four-plus per game, including Thursday’s loss to the Rockets. Those are numbers we see out of players like Hassan Whiteside and Rudy Gobert, and hadn’t been typical of KAT until recently.

In Houston, we saw a perfect example to how far Towns has come on the defensive side of things. Not only did he record five blocks, but he made Chris Paul look foolish.

He’s even rotating on defense the right way, and largely making the right plays.

Both of these players over the course of the season and their career have improved greatly. There are times where both seem a little lost, but not every player is perfect on defense. They’re still 22 years old and still figuring things out. If this season is anything to consider, it’s that they will continue to head in the right direction.

Next: Should the Timberwolves trade for Kemba Walker?

Both Wiggins and Towns have become good/solid defenders this season. Instead of saying that they’re terrible defenders, it’s time to appreciate the fact that the Timberwolves have two incredible young talents, and watch how far they’ve come.