There is no question that Flip Saunders, Timberwolves coach and head of basketball operations, got the player he wanted when he selected Karl-Anthony Towns with the No. 1 overall pick in Thursday night's NBA draft.
My sources tell me that from Day 1 of the draft process, there was little doubt that the Wolves were going to select the consensus best player in the draft.
Towns, who played one season at Kentucky and averaged only 21.1 minutes per game as the Wildcats spread their minutes around, will look to become another franchise cornerstone for Saunders and the Wolves along with NBA Rookie of the Year Andrew Wiggins and point guard Ricky Rubio.
Towns has shown that he has tremendous post skills during his collegiate season, when he averaged 10.3 points on 56.6 percent shooting and also hit 81.3 percent of his free-throws to go along with 6.7 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 1.1 assists per game.
But the thing that impressed Saunders was that those skills are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Towns, because while playing at Kentucky his minutes were limited and his skills were harnessed because the team had such great depth.
"The thing about Towns is he has great versatility, I mean, he handles the basketball extremely well for a guy that is just under 7-foot," Saunders said earlier this week. "He is a two-way player. He can block shots and score offensively. He didn't show it in college, because [Kentucky coach John] Calipari didn't ask him to do it, but he's a very, very good perimeter-type shooter. So I just think his versatility, and then he's very charismatic.
"Like most young players, what you have to do is keep working to get stronger as you keep maturing. I mean he's only 19 years old, which basically the top three kids in the draft are all 19. The one guy who doesn't have to worry about strength is [Jahlil] Okafor, because of his size. But like I said before, they all have different qualities. There is no question that Towns was probably by far the best two-way player in college basketball when you look at what he can do offensively and what he can do defensively."
Saunders talked about Towns' range as a scorer, something that has become increasingly important for big men in the NBA these days.