The discussions around Karl-Anthony Towns have always been interesting. From the moment KAT was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves, there was a tremendous amount of pressure placed on him. In some ways, his early-career success probably caused the expectations placed on him to be a bit unrealistic.
But Towns has adapted his game over the years to become the exact player the Timberwolves needed to achieve a top record in the Western Conference. Many doubted if KAT would be humble enough to accept Anthony Edwards as the team's top option in the long term, but he has made it clear time and again that he cares about Minnesota's success more than anything else.
Sure, Karl still has his shortcomings, but so does every other player. By and large, KAT has been a massive positive for the Timberwolves over the last few seasons as they began building toward being a major power in the West.
When it comes to outside noise, there are plenty of pundits, commenters, analysts and every other type of observer that will withhold giving Towns his proper credit. But that does not include former NBA player and former Timberwolf Patrick Beverley.
Pat Bev put KAT in his top 5 power forwards
This week, Pat Bev appeared on his podcast and took part in a fun exercise. After being prompted by his co-host, Beverley listed out who he believes to be the top five power forwards in the NBA. To the surprise of probably no one in Minnesota, Pat named Karl-Anthony Towns as the first power forward on his list.
Now, Beverley was clear that his list was not "in order." It was not a definitive ranking of who he thought was the top dog down to the fifth-best power forward, but rather it was simply the five best "fours" in the NBA that he could think of. Pat and his co-host struggle for a minute with the rest of the list, eventually coming up with a solid five-man lineup.
The other four power forwards that made Pat Bev's list were Zion Williamson, Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen and Draymond Green. His list took several minutes to come up with and went through a few alterations, mostly because the two hosts were debating about who was a "four" versus who was a "five" or a "three." Pat made some pretty controversial choices, including stating that Giannis Antetokounmpo was not a power forward.
But overall, it was nice to see Beverley show some respect to Karl-Anthony Towns. Putting him on this list of top five "fours" was a nice gesture, but naming him first right off the bat shows a different level of admiration. This is yet another reason Timberwolves fans will be holding on to their love of Pat Bev for many years to come.