Timberwolves: Proof that Karl-Anthony Towns has new tools

Here at Dunking With Wolves we’ve been hesitant to define Karl-Anthony Town’s ceiling due to his beastly numbers the past few seasons. At this point, we are even more hesitant to say we are close to knowing his potential.

Pro skills trainer Matt Mazarei (@mattmazarei) has been training Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns for most of the offseason, and they’ve both given us proof that an MVP trophy isn’t far off from Towns future.

Since coming to the NBA, this 7-footer has helped change the game for the better at the Center position. Shooting 42 percent from deep isn’t an outlier, that’s just how Towns has crafted his game. But, there have been a few noticeable issues with Towns game that can, at times, hold the Timberwolves back late in games.

Pressuring Towns at the perimeter or a few feet from the basket can derail his offensive abilities to the point of forcing him into stagnant motions or quick post fadeaways. If you can get Towns flat footed or stagnant, you may have him beat – albeit some insane shots he can make sometimes – but regardless of these negatives, Towns has proved this offseason he wants to keep working harder and improve.

Coach Matt Mazarei has given myself and Dunking With Wolves access to some of Towns training down below:

So what we can see above is Towns working on his handling abilities, if he can take it from the perimeter to the cup, he will be almost unstoppable against any opponent. The way his training staff has him dribbling on the ground and off picks will hopefully open up the offense even more.

Peep the curl layup that you usually see from 6’4″ guards …

What we’ve seen from guys like Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic is that they have great vision and fantastic dribbling abilities to get past mediocre defenders that are over-sized. Towns is arguably a top-3 center, but with a few touches on offense and hopefully a lot on defense he has shown the potential to be a top-ten player in this league.

After Towns averaged over 25 points a game and 12 boards two years ago, you can imagine the possibilities if he’s given more shot attempts. Somehow, Head Coach Tom Thibodeau has taken away shots from Towns making him more efficient, but yet the offense seems more stagnant at times, especially if Jimmy Butler doesn’t stay healthy.

While most skeptics will say that Towns should be solely working on defense, it’s apparent that Towns needs to get back to his offensive form in 2016-17 before he can play a disrupting defensive game, along with the fact he needs more help from his other teammates.

But at the end of the day, this is just one video, so we don’t really know the extent to what Towns is doing this offseason.

However, it’s evident that he’s working extremely hard to make up for the Wolves travesty in the playoffs against the Houston Rockets where Towns, Butler, and Wiggins couldn’t do anything against the Rockets defense.

Expect more to come from Dunking With Wolves about Karl-Anthony Towns and Coach Mazarei, as we believe in Towns to keep up the work and help lead the Wolves to another playoff season.