Minnesota Timberwolves Draft Rewind: Profiling Towns and Russell

Minnesota Timberwolves Draft Rewind: Profiling Towns and Russell

Evaluation of Player Comparison

Looking purely at stats through five seasons, KAT has clearly had the best career thus far among the trio. He has the most points, rebounds, and assists and is tied for the most block. Plus, he’s the most efficient at all three levels among the players.

Taking a look at advanced stats, Towns leads the pack in PER, Offensive Rating, Offensive Win Shares, Win Shares, Offensive Box Plus/Minus, Box Plus/Minus, and Value over Replacement Player. Divac was the best defensive player of the three, having the best Defensive Rating, Defensive Win Share, and Defensive Box Plus/Minus. Bogut did not lead in any stats.

One of KAT’s biggest knocks on his career to date has been his defense. However, his advanced stats tell a different story. KAT’s defensive numbers (Defensive Rating, Defensive Win Shares, Defensive Box Plus/Minus) have improved each season he has been in the NBA and are all now at or above league average. He has also been top-10 in blocks per game in three seasons.

KAT has had a better start to his career by quite a wide margin compared to Bogut. Towns has had better numbers in every measurable stat, including advanced statistics. It is reasonable to think that he has had a career than Bogut already as well, with KAT having more All-Star selections and the same amount of All-NBA appearances to date.

While there isn’t quite as wide of a margin between the first five seasons for Towns and Divac, KAT still looks to have had the better start to his career. Towns’ counting stats and offensive ratings are well above Divac’s. Divac does have better defensive numbers, however.

Divac never won an NBA title in his career, but he did make it to the Finals with the Lakers in 1990-91 and made the playoffs in 14 of his 16 seasons. He was also one of the top defensive centers in the league year-in and year-out, which is something KAT is still looking to become.

It looks as though KAT is well on his way to surpassing Divac’s career but he still needs a few more seasons before he does. Divac’s teams were a mainstay in the playoffs and he was a better defender than Towns has been to this point. Once KAT consistently catches up to Divac in these two areas, he will without-a-doubt pass Divac’s career.

While the Wolves have been a miserable franchise since Kevin Garnett was traded to the Boston Celtics, there is hope that better days are ahead with KAT and D-Lo leading the way.