The List: Karl-Anthony Towns is already good and still getting better

Karl-Anthony Towns is not a unicorn or a hypebeast. His game is not especially fun or revolutionary. He’s a big man with exceptional range, but that’s become the norm rather than the exception. He’s put up absurd numbers in his first few years in the league, but those gaudy stats have been accompanied by a nagging feeling that he still has more to give.

It’s against that backdrop that Towns has become something of an afterthought in the current conversation of young and talented stars. It doesn’t help his cause that Jimmy Butler has emerged as Minnesota’s best player, while earning well-deserved kudos for helping turn the franchise around.

Butler’s been sublime, but this feels like a good time to take a critical reassessment of KAT’s progress.

Expectations have consequences: When the Wolves struggled last season, Towns’ star began to dim. Yes, he averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds and made a run at an All-NBA nod, but the Wolves won only two more games than they did the previous season and never entered into the playoff race.

It was a curious sort of regression. Even with Tom Thibodeau on the sideline, their team defense got worse. How much of that was on KAT, and how much of it was based on an inexperienced roster? To address the latter issue, Thibodeau traded for Butler and signed Taj Gibson, Jeff Teague, and Jamal Crawford in free agency.

Their team defense is still a work in progress (more on that later), but the Wolves have become an elite offensive team. It’s not the path many of us predicted, but it’s been a successful one. The Wolves were 25-16 at the midway point and they hung a 28-point beatdown on the Cavs on Monday.

Of all the elements that go into player development, learning how to win is the most crucial. As Thibs put it, referencing Towns and fellow young’un Andrew Wiggins: “They’re sacrificing some of their individual statistics, but their contributions to winning are far greater than they were last year.”

It’s been 14 long years since Minnesota made the playoffs. Beyond all the other numbers or individual accomplishments, making the postseason is the most important thing for Towns.

He’s extremely durable: One of my favorite NBA truisms is that the first requirement of a superstar is availability. All the talent in the world won’t matter if you’re racking up DNPs. Injuries happen. Rest and recovery matter. We are no longer living in the dark ages of tape it up and go play.

And yet, whether it’s superior fitness, cast-iron will or extreme luck, some players are blessed with an ability to stay on the court. Karl-Anthony Towns plays literally every game. He’s never missed one in his two and a half years in the league, up to 206 and counting. That has to matter if we’re comparing young players, especially if we’re comparing big men.

Joel Embiid is the obvious point of comparison here, but Towns has also appeared in more than 30 games than Kristaps Porzingis during that span and logged almost 2,500 more minutes than Nikola Jokic. The latter is the equivalent of an extra season worth of production. While Embiid is on a minutes-maintenance plan and Porzingis is concerned about fatigue, Towns keeps rolling right along.

He really is a 20-and-10 guy: Every big man who can score and grab a board is inevitably labeled a 20-and-10 guy. To wit: ‘He can get you 20 points and 10 boards every night.’ That’s a harder double-double to achieve than you’d think.

Per basketball-reference, only 88 players have averaged 20-and-10 for an entire season. Towns hit that mark last season and among active players, only 10 others have recorded 20-and-10 campaigns. Those may be elite numbers, but they also serve as a baseline expectation for his production.

Even though his scoring has dipped a bit this season, Towns is well on his way toward joining the club again this season. As for the board work, Towns has been a top rebounder since he came into the league.

Still, the Wolves have struggled on the defensive glass during his tenure. There’s a difference between grabbing as many rebounds as you can get your hands on and controlling the boards.

To cite one recent example, while KAT pulled down 23 rebounds against the Celtics on Friday, the Wolves still managed to give up 17 offensive boards. This is a team-wide issue, obviously, but if you’re looking for an area where KAT can still give more, this is a big one.

His range is incredible: Towns is a career 37 percent shooter from behind the arc. That’s a higher percentage that Porzingis (35 percent) and Jokic and Embiid aren’t in the same class as long-range bombers (both around 33 percent.)

Towns has also improved each season from 34 percent as a rookie to a respectable 36 last year and a sizzling 41 percent this season. If we’re talking about 7-footers who have shot 40 percent or better from behind the arc, it’s a very short list. (Shouts to Kelly Olynyk and Spencer Hawes). With his long, looping Sam Perkins-esque form, Towns’ shot is essentially unblockable.

Towns is not just a stretch-five. As a scorer, he’s the perfect big man for the modern age. He shoots over 70 percent in the restricted area and his improved 3-point accuracy has coincided with a bump in attempts. He could get stronger on the block, but he’s quick enough to get around defenders and long enough to score over the top. All that and he doesn’t have that one killer move yet.

Here’s where we remind you that he’s only 22 years old.

“When you’re that talented and you put up numbers people have the impression that now it’s time to make the next step,” Crawford said. “For him, who can tell how he’s going to progress? Everyone’s on their own journey. You constantly evolve.”

If anything, Towns’ evolution has been more subtle than his peers, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Let’s talk about the defense: For all his talent, Towns has generally underwhelmed on the defensive end of the floor. Because he came into the league with the expectation of an elite defender, the lack of improvement is the most notable knock on his game.

There are various theories. He made progress as a rookie when Kevin Garnett was shouting KGisms in his ear and regressed without KG holding him accountable in his second. Until this season, his supporting cast was young and unproven leading to gaps in coverage and miscommunications.

Things didn’t start out all that well this season either, but there have been signs that it’s starting to come together. NBA.com’s John Schumann offered this nugget in his weekly power rankings: The Wolves are 14.6 points better defensively with Towns on the court per 100 possessions over the last 21 games; as opposed to 10.6 points worse per 100 possessions with Towns during their first 20 contests.

“I see the improvement defensively,” Thibodeau said. “He’s blocking shots, he’s getting a lot of deflections, he’s seeing things better. The only way you get better is by doing it in games. It has to become important to do it on every possession.”

This is the big one for KAT. He has all the tools to be great defensively and he has a top tactician on the sidelines calling the shots. If this improvement is real and lasts into the postseason, it will put him in an entirely different class of stardom.

Really, the kid is doing pretty well and he’s only going to get better.