The Golden State Warriors are set up to win multiple championships with their super team. Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns is going to do everything in his power to spoil that.
Right now there is a lot talk about what players will move during the offseason to form the next super team. The main focus has been on what players will join LeBron James to defeat the Golden State Warriors.
After that, there are a few teams like the San Antonio Spurs who could add a big name player like Chris Paul to take a stab at beating the mighty Warriors.
None of the super-team talk involves the Minnesota Timberwolves, however.
There is one player who isn’t banking on building a super-team to beat Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and company. That player is Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns is a very competitive young talent and may be just what the NBA needs to fix the super-team mentality.
Towns recently told The B/R Mag Show the following when asked about how many more titles the Warriors can win.
"“If I have anything to say about it, not that many.”"
This comment shows the fire you want to see in a franchise player. Not only is Towns young and competitive, but he is coming off of an All-Star caliber season despite not getting the accolades for his performance during the season. DeAndre Jordan beat out Towns for the last spot on the All-Star team and the All-NBA Third Team.
What about the numbers?
To show how insulting it is that Towns didn’t make either of those teams, let’s look at his stats vs. DeAndre Jordan’s stats from last season.
| Rk | Player | Season ▲ | Age | G | GS | MP | FG% | 3P% | 2P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karl-Anthony Towns | 2016-17 | 21 | 82 | 82 | 37.0 | .542 | .367 | .582 | .832 | 12.3 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 25.1 |
| 2 | DeAndre Jordan | 2016-17 | 28 | 81 | 81 | 31.7 | .714 | .000 | .717 | .482 | 13.8 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 12.7 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/16/2017.
You can clearly see that Towns outperformed DeAndre Jordan this season. There is no argument that it was even remotely a close contest. Towns scored 12.4 more points a game, averaged 1.5 more assists, shot 36.7 percent from three, and was not a liability from the free throw line. This point is important because at only 21 years old, Karl-Anthony Towns is essentially an All-Star in the NBA.
Taking down the Warriors
Towns is developing into a player that is going to give the Warriors trouble in the future. He rises to the occasion against them and gives them all they can handle. The Warriors only lost 15 games during the season. One of them was to the Minnesota Timberwolves with a stellar performance from Towns. The Wolves play and matchup well against the Warriors.
When this team puts it all together, Towns’ comment may not be that unrealistic. Furthermore, if Minnesota’s forward Andrew Wiggins can progress over the offseason, that will help Towns in his quest to dethrone the champs.
Towns truly does believe that the Timberwolves are coming soon. He recently explained what exactly he meant after commenting #comingsoon on Instagram to USA Today.
"“Yeah, we’re coming soon. The Timberwolves are not a team to just forget about. We’re gonna jump in that hunt sooner than later. I don’t wanna hear people say they never knew we were an NBA team. They knew us from the get.”"
Next: 5 reasons the Warriors will repeat as NBA champions in 2018
Timberwolves fans who have not seen their team make the playoff since the Kevin Garnett days will be hoping that he truly did mean sooner than later.