Karl-Anthony Towns Made Wolves History And Reminded Us The Future Is Bright In Minnesota

The Minnesota Timberwolves aren’t going to make the playoffs in 2017 and, in retrospect, it should not be that much of a surprise. Yes, the team entered the 2016-2017 campaign with lofty expectations in the minds of some, but Minnesota’s core remains incredibly young and the presumptive first-year bump under the direction of Tom Thibodeau never materialized. Still, there is a shining light in the (relative) darkness which comes in the form of Karl-Anthony Towns.

Towns, who was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, enjoyed a phenomenal rookie season in which he averaged 18.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game for the less-than-dominant Wolves. In his follow-up campaign, Towns has been even more electric and, on Tuesday evening, he made history in a way that may surprise many people in the NBA world.

While Minnesota’s franchise history is not quite as extensive as many other NBA organizations, it remains highly noteworthy that Towns would surpass the likes of Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love for the team’s record for points in a season. Entering Tuesday’s game, Towns had appeared in all 80 of his team’s games and, in those contests, the 21-year-old big man is averaging 25.1 points per game. Given the level of efficiency that the talented big man puts forth (54.1 percent shooting, 36.2 percent from three), that is a jarringly high total and it comes with the caveat that the Wolves have many mouths to feed, highlighted by fellow youngsters Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine.

Defensively, it would be fair to point out that Towns has not yet taken the sizable leap forward that many expected. He is not a force as a rim protector just yet and the impressive defensive tools he possesses have not been fully realized. With that said, Towns remains unfathomably young in his age-21 season, to the point that he will be (much) younger than many NBA Draft prospects who will be entering the league in late June.

From a team-based perspective, it is certainly a disappointment that Minnesota will finish the 2016-2017 campaign with no more than 33 victories. Still, it is always a very encouraging thing to be able to build around one of the top five “assets” in the entire NBA and, given the way that Towns has played during his sophomore season, that seems to be a conservative estimate when projecting his future in the league.

The Wolves have some big-time decisions to make in the future, including the fact that the 2017 offseason will likely present the organization’s final opportunity to spend big-time money in free agency before being forced into contract extensions for Towns, Wiggins and the now-injured LaVine. With Towns in the middle of it all, though, those issues and the question marks from a team-building perspective seem to be more futile than you would expect, simply because of the immense luxury that comes with having the franchise’s building block in place.

Towns is already the franchise record-holder for points in a season and it seems like a safe bet to assume that he will break it again somewhere down the line. Things aren’t so bad in Minnesota after all.