It took Karl-Anthony Towns all of two weeks to announce that he was very much deserving of being drafted first overall, and he spent his entire rookie season putting up double-doubles with Tim Duncan-like consistency. He’s got all the physical tools to be a dominant defender, and he’s already one of the most dangerous offensive big men in the league. He is a legit superstar already, and he’s 20 years old. You would want to start your team with him, and so do NBA GMs, as they revealed in the annual survey of all 30 of them conducted by NBA.com.
Towns received 48 percent of the votes for “player you’d most want to start a franchise with,” finishing ahead of Kevin Durant in second and LeBron James in third. Crazily, Anthony Davis — who’s still only 23 years old and won 86 percent of the votes last year — fell to fifth place. Sure, he plateaud last season, but those same GMs still rated him as the best power forward in the NBA in this very same survey. It just goes to show you that a sample size small enough, even among the game’s experts, will produce some kooky inconsistencies.
Devin Booker was the runaway choice for the player most likely to have a breakout year — hilariously, Durant also got a vote here, as if he hasn’t already won an MVP award — and Kris Dunn of the Minnesota Timberwolves was the GMs’ pick for Rookie of the Year. He would be the third Timberwolves rookie in a row to win that award, after Andrew Wiggins and Towns.
(Via NBA.com)
