Minnesota Timberwolves: Karl-Anthony Towns Has Been As Good As Advertised

Through 10 games into the Minnesota Timberwolves season, Karl-Anthony Towns has been as good as advertised

Karl-Anthony Towns has had a great start to his freshmen campaign in the NBA. He’s shown flashes of stardom that weren’t expected to shine this bright 10 games in. Towns has done so and has the Timberwolves playing and exciting brand of basketball, and even has them in playoff conversation. The young K.A.T. has been tremendous and soon his flashes will become omnipresent solar beams.

Before the NBA Draft, Towns worked out with ELEVI8 Sports. The company is highly renowned and recognized for their training, coaching and more with players ranging from high school to the professional level. One of ELEVI8’s more noticeable faces is Cody Toppert, as he has a vast understanding and knowledge on the game of basketball. Toppert has played in the D-league and overseas, along with training some high profile players and lending his knowledge on sites such as D-League Digest and Basketball Insiders. As of this past October, Toppert landed a job with the Houston Rockets’ D-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Vipers.

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Minnesota had many options for the No. 1 pick, but decided to use it own Kentucky’s Towns. The move was speculated heavily prior to the draft with rumors coming out that the organization had K.A.T. prior to draft night he’ll be selected by them. Ten games in and it’s been a great selection for the organization, as they’ve historically made bad draft decisions, ex: selected Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn with their back-to-back picks and leaving Stephen Curry to land in Golden State one pick later.

“Great size and great versatility, and a great two-way player,” Toppert began to say. ” To me he has great weak-side shot blocking ability, and excellent moves over both shoulders. He can go inside and outside, along with knocking down a fifteen to eighteen foot jump shot with pretty good consistency right away. He still needs to continue to develop his body, he has a little baby fat on him. Once he does that, that’ll be extremely important for his development, and he’ll be able to take the physicality of the NBA.”

Everything Toppert said about Towns during our interview has come to fruition. In college, “Special K” was mainly looked at as being a prominent defensive player, but that was mainly because his team at Kentucky was loaded. Thus far into his career, Towns is averaging 15.5 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per night with a PER of 21.6. He’s off to a hot start as his importance on the team continues to burgeon, and with that said, Towns has a chance of becoming the first rookie since Blake Griffin in 2011 to make the All-Star team.

Along with his All-Star play, Towns has shown to be a great cornerstone to along with Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and Ricky Rubio.

Minnesota has something special in Towns, as he’s upended the franchise and is putting up numbers that haven’t been since in awhile

“I think he’ll play very well alongside Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins… I think it provides them with a foundation to end that eleven year drought of not making the playoffs. Minnesota Timberwolves fans shouldn’t be waiting much longer.”

When Towns arrived, there was a concern that Nikola Pekovic, Anthony Bennett and Kevin Garnett would require too much playing time. Luckily though, the T’Wolves have had some good fortune by releasing Bennett – who’s now with Toronto – Garnett is 39 years old and doesn’t really have much left to prove or accomplish in the league, thus reducing his playing time to a career-low fifteen per night, and Pekovic is currently rehabbing from an Achilles injury.

Playing time is now there for Towns as he’s the starting center for the team. The question is: what do you do with Pekovic once he’s healthy? His situation will become interesting as he’s in the third-year of a five-year, $50 million contract, which was inked during the summer of 2013.

Pekovic is one of the problems that T’Wolves will have going forward. Do you attempt to trade him, or do you keep him and make a playoff? The same applies for Kevin Martin, who’s in year three of a four-year, $28 million deal he signed back in 2013. Both Martin and Pekovic could be are strange for anomalies as the team needs to think about trading them or making the playoffs for the first time since 2004. It’s an interesting conundrum that only the Timberwolves brass can solve.

“Honestly I think they’ll keep Pekovic, they’re paying him too much money. In general, he’s going to be a hard guy to dump. I think he’s making about $12 million. It’s going to be hard to get rid of his salary, I just think he’ll stay. Honestly, Kevin Martin’s not in future plans anyway, so that’s an easy guy that’s a target to move. The wave of the future is going to be, obviously, Andrew Wiggins as the cornerstone. Ricky Rubio’s still a young point guard, who has proved he can a more than serviceable player in this league, and that’s why they extended him last year in free agency.”

Minnesota has something special in Towns, as he’s upended the franchise and is putting up numbers that haven’t been since in awhile. He’s clearly a future All-Star if healthy, with everything he brings to the court and off it with his nice, cool, calm and relaxed and demeanor. Maybe it’s too early to predict, but could Towns become rivals and have a similar development to Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans? Anything is possible, and that’s just a guest.

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As for the team in general, their future is bright. There’s a nice concoction of youth and respected veteran leadership on that team including Garnett, Andre Miller and Tayshaun Prince. It’s up to Towns, LaVine and Wiggins to soak it all up and reach their expected potential… Which could be very scary. Shouldn’t be long until the Target Center is rocking around with palpable electricity that’ll have Towns and company howling to the moon, just like “The Kid.”