Minnesota Timberwolves Draft Rewind: Profiling Towns and Russell
Minnesota Timberwolves Draft Rewind: Profiling Towns and Russell
Evaluation of Player Comparison
Through five seasons of each player’s respective careers, all three have surprisingly similar stats.
While Hardaway and Roy averaged more minutes per game, leading to higher counting stats across the board, Russell leads the way in most per-36-minute numbers. Russell has a lower field goal percentage but is the most prolific 3-point shooter of the group while taking over three 3-point attempts a game more than Hardaway and Roy.
On the defensive side of the ball, Hardaway is clearly the best defender of the bunch. He led the way with Defensive Rating, Defensive Win Shares, and Defensive Box Plus/Minus. D-Lo falls last in all defensive stats, while also lagging behind in most advanced stats, including Player Efficiency Rating, Win Shares, Box Plus/Minus, and Value Over Replacement Player.
Russell appears to have kept up with Hardaway and Roy so far in his career when it comes to stats, but it seems he still needs to develop into a leader who can make a difference in the winning department. Luckily, he will be paired with KAT for the foreseeable future.
When it comes to overall career, Roy was forced to retire after his fifth season, just when he was about to enter his athletic prime, due to degenerative knee. Before he was forced to retire he was named Rookie of the Year, All-Rookie First Team, All-NBA Team (twice), and made the All-Star Team three times. Roy did try to make a comeback with the Timberwolves in 2012, but only appeared in five games before re-retiring.
Roy clearly had a better first five years to his career compared to Russell when factoring in stats, accolades, and team success. However, Roy was not able to last in the NBA for long due to injuries. As long as Russell continues to stay healthy and proves he belongs to stay in the All-Star conversation year-in-and-year-out he will surpass Roy’s career in just a few short years.
Hardaway, on the other hand, had a long, successful career. He appeared on the All-Rookie First Team, was a two-time member of the All-NBA First Team and one-time member of the All-NBA Second Team, was named to four straight All-Star teams, and received MVP votes in three separate seasons, including finishing third in the MVP race in 1995-96.
Russell has had similar counting stats to Penny through five seasons but fell well short when looking at the advanced stats. Hardaway fell off some towards the end of his career, but played consistently and was a leader on his teams through his prime years.
Hardaway had the better start to his career compared to Russell due to team and personal accomplishments, and unless D-Lo takes his game to another level and performs consistently at that level for multiple years it does not appear as though he will be able to surpass Penny’s career.