Karl-Anthony Towns is probably best known for being incredibly skilled, mature and, frankly, the complete package of what a (very) young NBA big man is supposed to look like. However, the Minnesota Timberwolves are also blessed with a centerpiece for the future that in addition to all of those things happens to be incredibly athletic and explosive, and Towns showed off his abilities on Thursday night with a highlight reel dunk.
Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas bore the brunt of Towns’ authority at the rim with a poster-worthy dunk and, before it came to that, the big man exercised a beautiful fake to weave his way through the rest of the Toronto defense. The Raptors aren’t exactly known for their overarching defensive prowess, to be fair, but this was an instance in which Towns was the best player on the court and that is becoming more of a regular occurrence.
In fact, Towns’ athleticism is jarring on this particular play, as he exploded off his right foot while moving slightly toward his left down the lane, and the 7-footer from Kentucky was still able to dunk with his right hand after a considerable wind-up to elude the defense. The 21-year-old is already one of the darlings of the NBA, but with a few more of these plays, any notion that he isn’t an appallingly explosive athlete won’t be taken seriously.
