Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 players facing the most pressure in 2018-19

2. Karl-Anthony Towns

Karl-Anthony Towns has all the makings to be one of the ten best players in the league. He’s still only 22 years old, and most don’t expect a Wolves team without Butler to make the playoffs, so Towns won’t be excoriated if that happens.

What Towns will be criticized for is if his defense doesn’t improve. There have been brief bouts where he flashed plus defense, but those moments have been few and far between the past two years. It isn’t so much that Towns isn’t trying, but he often seems to be late in rotating and his quick foot speed has yet to translate to him stopping pick and rolls.

Opponents shot 61.5% at the rim against Towns as the primary defender, which places him in the bottom half of the league. A more scathing number is the Timberwolves’ defensive efficiency with and without Jimmy Butler. When Butler and Towns played together, the team posted a respectable 105.0 defensive rating, but when Towns played without Butler that number dropped to 111.7–just a tad worse than the Phoenix Suns’ 30th ranked 111.6 defensive rating.

When Butler leaves, the heart of Minnesota’s defense is going with him; as a center, it’s Towns’ responsibility to clean up the pieces left behind. That may not be entirely fair, but the man just signed a 5-year, $190 million max extension. If Towns isn’t worthy of that contract on both sides of the ball, his stock might drop even more.