Minnesota Timberwolves: Where ESPN and SI ranked Karl-Anthony Towns

Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Karl-Anthony Towns has been a consensus top-25 player for years, and despite an injury-riddled 2020-21 campaign, he has maintained that status heading into the upcoming season.

Both ESPN and Sports Illustrated completed their player rank lists, and Towns was in a similar spot on each outlet’s respective rankings.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Karl-Anthony Towns falls five spots on SI.com

Last season, Sports Illustrated ranked Towns at No. 18 on their list. This was on the heels of a 2019-20 season that saw Towns injure his wrist and his knee and only appear in 35 of the Wolves’ 64 games on the pandemic-shortened schedule.

This year, SI.com has Towns ranked at No. 23 (subscription required), a five-spot drop from where he was in December.

It’s a defensible ranking to be sure; while Towns showed signs of fixing his defensive shortcomings last season, the sample size was small and the team success simply wasn’t there. The Wolves ranked No. 28 in defensive rating and No. 29 in opponent’s points scored per game while the team finished with a 23-49 record.

When healthy, Towns’ shooting numbers were down a tick, but there are plenty of factors that play into that. He remains the best-shooting big man in the league and one of the better all-around offensive players.

If the Wolves make the playoffs this year, Towns will almost certainly be ranked in the top 15 next year, if not the top 10.

Previously, SI.com ranked three Wolves players between No. 51 and No. 100 on the first portion of their list. The total of four Wolves in the top 100 of Sports Illustrated’s rankin is up from three from last season.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Karl-Anthony Towns only down one spot on ESPN

ESPN, on the other hand, had Towns ranked at No. 23 last season after sitting at No. 18 during the prior year. This time around, he’s only down one spot to No. 24.

Kirk Goldsberry adds the commentary to the Towns portion of ESPN’s list and notes that Towns is only ranked this low because of his defensive issues and that the Wolves will be relying heavily on Towns this season to help them fix their defense.

We’ll get into player ranked just ahead and behind Towns in a separate piece, but let’s just say that this is where things get a bit questionable. Simply saying that Towns belongs in the No. 20 to 25 range seems about right, but when we start to put actual names on the guys in front if it, a No. 24 ranking starts to feel a little bit low.

At any rate, Towns is once again officially a consensus top-25 player. Add in two (or three, depending on whose list you’re using) additional top-100 players, and it becomes clear that this is a talented enough roster to make the playoffs.