Minnesota Timberwolves Player Review: Karl-Anthony Towns

We’re in the home stretch of our Minnesota Timberwolves player reviews as we take a look at the season of third-year big man Karl-Anthony Towns.

After Karl-Anthony Towns won the 2015-16 Rookie of the Year award, there were plenty in the NBA blogosphere that would have made the argument that he had the most trade value of any player this side of LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant.

Anthony Davis or Towns? More often than not, the answer seemed to be KAT. Davis’ struggles to carry his team to the postseason and checkered injury history was enough for the younger of the two Kentucky alumni to vault his predecessor in the NBA’s “who would you rather have?” pecking order.

Then, only marginal improvement in Towns’ Year Two, including what could fairly be considered a dip in defensive performance. While offensive efficiency and the willingness/ability to shoot 3-pointers increased significantly, the team stagnated, winning just 31 games in Tom Thibodeau’s first year at the helm compared to 29 in Towns’ rookie year under interim coach Sam Mitchell, and that was at least partly blamed on Towns, the team’s de facto best player.

Fast-forward to the season just completed, and Towns not only exploded offensively but took baby steps on defense to get himself to improve past his sophomore slump.

Sometime in mid-to-late December, Thibodeau’s defensive scheme seemed to click with Towns. The team rattled off seven straight games in which they held the opposition under 100 points, and in Thibodeau’s system, much of that credit goes to the big men, Towns and Taj Gibson.

On the front of that run was a close loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Here’s what I wrote about Towns’ defensive performance, including the below.

"Towns actually more than held his own in one-on-one situations with Embiid, proving that playing up (and down) to his competition continues to be a real issue.…This last clip is one of the more impressive plays that Towns had throughout the course of the night."

"While he bites a bit on the initial shot-fake, Towns keeps his feet and recovers into solid guarding position. He forces Embiid to his left, and Taj Gibson slides into the middle of the lane to further deter the Sixers center from a free run at the rim. As Embiid continues down the right side of the key, Towns doesn’t fall for another fake to the middle and stays right on Embiid’s tough, fadeaway jumper on a left-shoulder turn."

Shortly after the calendar flipped to January, however, things started to slip. The Wolves struggled as a team, and Towns’ issues with inconsistency cropped up once again.

Before things fell into what was basically a .500 winning percentage pace for the remainder of the season, I wrote about Towns’ offensive improvement.

"On Sunday night against Portland, KAT catches the ball at the top of the arc. With Gibson on the left elbow, Towns has a clear driving lane to his right hand. After one hard dribble, Al-Farouq Aminu had slid off of Taj to cut-off Towns’ drive. Towns delivered a bullet pass to Gibson in a tight window that snuck through and allowed Gibson to get the ball up to the rim before the third defender rotated down."

"This was a perfect example of quick thinking. Aminu was surely looking to take a charge, and throwing the ball down to Gibson was the best play that Towns could have made."

Towns’ assist rate was actually a career-low, but that was largely a function of playing in an offense loaded with high-usage talent; KAT simply had the ball in his hands less than in his first two seasons in the NBA.

On the flip side of the coin, Towns saw increases in his rebounding, block, and steal rates, as well as across the board when it came to shooting. His field goal, 3-point, and free throw triple-slash was a thing of beauty: .545/.421/.858 — a 50/40/90 season isn’t far off.

Towns’ true shooting percentage of .646 was ninth in the NBA, behind short-range artists like DeAndre Jordan, Montrezl Harrell, Clint Capela, Dwight Howard, and Rudy Gobert. Only Steph Curry, Anthony Tolliver (!!), and Kyle Korver ranked ahead of Towns in the metric that takes into account 2-point and 3-point shot attempts as well as free throws.

Towns’ offensive issues were limited to aggressiveness; the only truly concerning number for KAT was his decrease in offensive rebounding, from 11.2 percent a year ago to 9.3 rebounds this season. That meant only 0.7 less offensive rebounds per game, but a KAT offensive rebound usually leads to an easy bucket.

Outside of rebounding, getting the ball into Towns in the post simply didn’t happen enough. Part of this was related to Towns’ post position and aggressiveness in asking  for the ball, but part of it could be blamed on the willingness and ability of the Wolves’ guards to throw accurate entry passes. There were nights that Towns didn’t bring the same level of energy as he did on other nights, but a lack of shots was never something that could be blamed squarely on Towns.

Remember: Karl-Anthony Towns won’t turn 23 years old until mid-November. He made his first All-Star appearance of many this year, and he took a much bigger leap from Year Two to Year Three than he did from rookie to sophomore season.

Next: 5 players the Timberwolves should consider drafting

Things are trending up for Towns, and it’s up to the Wolves’ front office and coaching staff to keep that arrow pointed in the right direction, both in Towns’ individual game as well as the players with whom they surround their young superstar.