The Minnesota Timberwolves have been finding ways to win without both Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels. A huge reason why is the way Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert have been playing, but especially KAT.
The Timberwolves have been getting superstar-level play from KAT, as he has taken over the reins of the best player on this team while Ant is out. It's been impressive to see some of the things he is doing. However, the most impressive thing has to be how efficient he has been in these last few games.
Obviously, we are roughly 20 games into an 82-game season, but as things currently stand, KAT is in the 50,40,90 club, which is when a player averages 50% from the field, 40% from the three-point line, and 90% from the free throw line. If he can continue that level of efficient play, and there is a chance some of the numbers dip, it will be the best year of his career.
That, in a way, has been KAT's secret weapon.
"He's been phenomenal," Chris Finch recently told reporters. "KAT's secret weapon has always been his efficiency," Finch said. "He doesn't need a lot of shots. He's an aggressive scorer, and we love that. He's shooting the ball really clean from the 3-point line; there's not a lot of hesitation. Probably the best shooter on our team. We needed him to do more of that."
The impressive thing is how he has been able to maintain great efficiency with or without two starters in the starting lineup. It seems that his game has not been majorly affected by the absence of those guys, and it really wasn't affected when the two were playing.
Not many big men in the league who can shoot from deep as well have as good shooting efficiency as KAT does. In fact, he may be the most efficient. Even guys who are known for just being stretch fours or stretch fives don't shoot that well from deep.
It's easy to see that what KAT is doing is extremely special, and it's a huge reason the Timberwolves were being looked at as one of the best teams in the NBA.