Karl-Anthony Towns and the defensive leap of 2018
Karl-Anthony Towns was expected by many to have an All-NBA caliber season last year, and he wasn’t far off with his 25.1 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. But the missing link was still his defense, which left much to be desired.
President of basketball operations and head coach Tom Thibodeau has slowly molded the Minnesota Timberwolves into his type of team. With newly acquired veterans Jimmy Butler, Jeff Teague and Taj Gibson rounding out the roster, you can expect to see a much better T-Wolves defense.
But it all started last season for this iteration of the T-Wolves, and it all ends with Towns.
Last season, Karl-Anthony Towns shouldered more of the load on offense, but he took a step back on defense. He finished with a defensive rating of 110 (four points worse than last year) and ended up with 35 fewer blocks.
His defensive mistakes certainly don’t come from a lack of trying. If you look at a series of Towns’ best defensive sequences from last season, you will notice him giving a 110 percent to contest shots, even if it’s not his man. The fact that he is all over the floor is both good and bad. He is trying to help, but oftentimes is caught flat-footed or out of position.
Thibodeau’s ICE-defensive concept is supposed to contain the pick-and-roll without the need for a third defender. For that to happen, the perimeter defender must deny the lane, and the man guarding the screener has to contain the ball-handler. Towns was usually that man, and for the most part he committed to stopping the man with the ball.
When he didn’t, he was stuck in no-man’s land and left himself susceptible to hesitation dribble moves. Next season he will have even more reason to commit to hard closeouts with such a veteran-heavy roster, and his quickness will allow him to become the ultimate cleanup man on the backend of the defense.
2017-18 Outlook:
Having to provide last-minute help on defense will be less of an issue with the T-Wolves’ new perimeter defenders. Butler and Teague both have career average defensive ratings below 107, showing how often they have been integral parts of great defensive squads.
With these two tasked with guarding the best perimeter scorers every night, Towns will be able to lock-in on his assignment.
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No longer will he have to guard the weakest big. One of the main reasons Towns hasn’t improved on defense is just how much his team was relying on him for offensive contributions. With all of the new faces getting acclimated in Minnesota, Towns will be able to further sharpen his all-around skill-set.
The first step will be (even if only occasionally) letting Towns guard other world-class bigs like DeMarcus Cousins, Marc Gasol and Nikola Jokic.
Gourgi Dieng was the man guarding the All-Star caliber big men for Minnesota last season, and that is unacceptable. Dieng is an great post defender, but whatever advantage he has on Towns is not big enough for him to receive that responsibility. Towns makes up for his lack of defensive seasoning with his tremendous athleticism. He has a knack for getting back into the picture after he bites hard on pump-fakes, and that is why Thibodeau got the perfect partner for him in Taj Gibson.
With Gibson and Towns on the floor, no stretch-4 will get easy looks. That will be a huge relief to a Minnesota unit that gave up 9.9 three-pointers per game last year. Gibson will provide help on Towns’ man any time the action calls for him to corral ball-handlers. All Towns has to do is trust that the help will be there. That is often the last step for NBA players into becoming excellent defenders.
Final Verdict:
In Karl-Anthony Towns’ first two seasons he had reason to believe that the help would not come on defense. When he did close off the lane he was like a jackrabbit — leaping several times — which resulted in just as many silly fouls as it did spectacular blocks.
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In 2018 Towns has a chance to complete the last piece of the puzzle, which is winning. And that goes hand-in-hand with improving your defensive-IQ. If Towns starts believing in himself and the players around him, he will make his first All-NBA team in 2018.