Karl-Anthony Towns would benefit a lot if Sam Mitchell and the Minnesota Timberwolves frequently used him as a power forward.
Karl-Anthony Towns has been a dominant center this season. On any given night, he frequently is seen as a player who can impact the center position dramatically, but there is something to be said about Towns playing more power forward.
We saw that in Wednesday night’s game, when Towns started at power forward alongside Nikola Pekovic because Kevin Garnett sat out the second game of the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ back-to-back.
One thing that became apparent from this game was that Towns is mobile enough to stick with power forwards. In Wednesday’s game, he matched up against Clint Capela and there was no drop-off despite the T-wolves having a center guarding a power forward.
Not only that, it meant that Towns didn’t have to guard Dwight Howard. This helped out the team so Towns didn’t see any unnecessary fouls, and he didn’t have to deal with Howard’s stingy defense on the block.
More from Minnesota Timberwolves
- 5 NBA players everyone should be keeping a close eye on in 2023-24
- Ranking the 4 riskiest boom-or-bust NBA teams in 2023–24
- Ranking the 10 championship-less NBA teams by closeness to title
- 1 Crucial skill that every Timberwolves star must work on this summer
- 3 players in line for a big raise during the 2023 NBA offseason
The Timberwolves need to use Towns as more of an outside threat, whether that be from pick-and-pop action, screens on the perimeter, or just pulling him out to create room around the paint. It would be interesting to see the Timberwolves use this more often.
With Pekovic back and playing good bunches of minutes, and with Gorgui Dieng typically grabbing minutes from Towns, it’s a very crowded spot for three players who are all exceptional at their position.
A lot of this depends on who the team is playing. When playing a team like the Grizzlies, who feature a big man combo of Zach Randolph/Marc Gasol, it would be very crucial to stack the two big men, but when playing teams like the Warriors, who have a very mobile power forward in Draymond Green, you’d need to shy away from two bigs in the game.
We live in a small-ball league now, but if you want to counteract that at certain times of the game, the T-Wolves could benefit a lot from stacking Towns and Pekovic together.
Towns can be used a lot like Tim Duncan, Kevin Love or Chris Bosh. Both Bosh and Love are known as perimeter guys. Both can shoot the jumper, have nice pick and pop action and can help with the floor spacing. When comparing Towns, Bosh and Duncan, the percentages may intrigue you.
More hoops habit: Every NBA Team's Best Bargain Contract
From midrange, Towns shoots 45 percent, according to NBA.com. Love features a 40 percent shot, Bosh is at 43 percent and Duncan is at 32 percent. Towns can knock down that jumper and it may be smart for Sam Mitchell to feature that more often. Rubio is a wizard getting to the basket and passing, and it could help increase their offensive movement.
Kevin Garnett is supposedly helping teach Towns how to play power forward effectively, and if that is the case then Towns is in good hands. Not many know more about the position than Garnett. In his prime he was a feared player offensively and defensively, and can bring solid wisdom to Towns.