Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Marion on Rose, Perkins on Towns

With the Minnesota Timberwolves season all but over, a pair of former NBA players spoke highly about a pair of current Wolves.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a disappointing season. But that doesn’t mean that the campaign has been devoid of indivdual accomplishments.

Sure, Andrew Wiggins has regressed once again. Yeah, Robert Covington has been out since New Year’s Eve due to injury. And Dario Saric has been on a frustrating roller coaster since his November acquisition, and Jeff Teague played a career-low 42 games, and Derrick Rose has been nicked-up in practically every way imaginable after having a phenomenal bounce-back season.

But that doesn’t change just how awesome Karl-Anthony Towns has been this season. Or how just how well Rose has played when he’s been able to stay on the court.

First, let’s talk about Towns.

We’ve spent plenty of time discussing just how transformative Towns’ game is/will be for the league, but we’re not the only ones. Nope, Sam Perkins wants to chat about KAT, too.

You remember Perkins, the good-but-not-great scoring forward who never made an All-Star team but was consistently the second or third-leading scorer on playoff teams throughout the late ’80s and early-to-mid ’90s. His career lasted from 1984 to 2001, but if you throw out the final four years during which he was a low-scoring bench piece in Seattle and Indiana, Perkins averaged 13.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game for the bulk of his career while shooting 36.2 percent from beyond the arc on 1.8 long-range attempts per contest.

But all that said, Perkins is more than happy to compare himself to Towns, who is averaging 24.7 points and 12.5 rebounds per game while shooting 41.2 percent from 3-point range on 4.8 attempts per game and has a career triple-slash of .538/.396/.836.

To be fair, Perkins is right about Towns’ proficiency both inside and out, and Perkins was one of the better jump-shooting big men of his area — at least among the bigs who dared venture beyond the mid-range.

While the comparison itself is certainly a reach, Perkins does deserve a bit of recognition for a great yet underappreciated career.

Elsewhere, former All-Star Shawn Marion was asked about fellow Chicagoan Derrick Rose and had this to say, in part:

"“That’s my boy he is from Chicago, but Derrick was playing great last year up until the little hiatus or whatever. He was averaging 15 or 16 points a game. Derrick is averaging 18 coming off the bench in Minnesota and don’t it twisted he has been playing really good.  He is not playing like the D Rose of old because it is not the same kind of minutes and some role for him different team and different situation for him…”"

Nothing groundbreaking, of course, but it’s the obligatory former-NBA-star-loves-Derrick-Rose quote, so there it is in all its glory.

Unfortunately, Rose has been shut down for the remainder of the season due to an elbow injury that required surgery. It remains to be seen what kind of market the former MVP will find this offseason, but we can expect it to be far more robust than the one that landed him back in Minnesota on a minimum deal last summer.

In the meantime, the Wolves have a bit more basketball to play. Let’s enjoy the last eight games of Sam Per — er, Karl-Anthony Towns, and we’ll reconvene to talk offseason moves after that.

Enjoy Wolves-Warriors tonight, DWW family.