Wolves' Towns has look of a future superstar

The Timberwolves thought Andrew Wiggins was the best thing to happen to the franchise since they drafted Kevin Garnett, but little did they know that just after Wiggins won the Rookie of the Year award, they would add another franchise-changing player in Karl-Anthony Towns.

Towns will certainly be named the Rookie of the Year this season, making the Wolves the first team since the Portland Trail Blazers in 1971-72 to have the league's top rookie in back-to-back years.

The stats on Towns are amazing, and the 20-year-old will continue to break records as the season goes along. He recently became only the third player to record 1,000 points, 550 rebounds, and 100 blocks before playing his 60th pro game, joining Pau Gasol and Tim Duncan.

Towns had 30 points and 15 rebounds in Saturday night's 112-110 victory at New Orleans, the Wolves' first victory in the past eight meetings with the Pelicans. It was Towns' 13th game this season with 25-plus points and 10-plus rebounds. The rest of the rookie class this year has six games combined with those numbers.

He is the most dominant rookie to hit the NBA since Anthony Davis four years ago, though his numbers are much better than even Davis'. The two former Kentucky stars were supposed to face off Saturday night in New Orleans, but Davis hurt his foot in pregame warmups.

Towns was asked when he knew he could be a special basketball player.

"I thought I would be good in high school," Towns said. "I saw improvement in myself, I saw myself playing against high competition. When I played for the Dominican national team I realized I had some skill and I was able to keep up with the best of the best, and the elite, when we played Team USA. I felt good about myself and felt that I had a career."

Towns said a lot of the credit for his young development went to his coach Dave Turkel and his assistant coaches at St. Joseph High School in New Jersey, and also his father, Karl-Anthony Towns Sr., who played in college at Monmouth and was a high school coach himself.

"I mean, I just was able to work on the bulk of my skills from being a big and also having guard-like skills," the younger Towns recalled about his boyhood days. "It was a testament to my coaches keeping me improving every single day and also helping me grow into the player I am today."

One of the most impressive parts of Towns' game is his shooting ability, and he said that is something he works on the hardest.

"I'm just constantly shooting, constantly shooting," he said. "I'm getting reps and reps and reps. Repetition has been a big thing for me, so being able to stay consistent, just constantly shooting, trying to get better, that's helped me tremendously."

When you look at what Towns averaged the only year he played at Kentucky, compared to what he has done with the Wolves, it's amazing.

Towns averaged 10.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game with the Wildcats, but he played only 21.1 minutes per game beacuse coach John Calipari used a 10-man rotation. Towns shot 56.6 percent from the floor and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line, but interestingly he took only eight three-pointers and made only two.

Compare that to now, with Towns' season averages of 17.5 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 30.7 minutes per game for the Wolves. He is hitting 53.7 percent from the floor, 35.1 percent from three-point range (20-for-57) and 83.0 percent on free throws.

Towns said Calipari, a former NBA head coach, taught him a great deal.

"He taught me how to refine my low-post game and taught me how to win, how to be a leader and how to be the player I wanted to be," Towns said. "They helped me tremendously all-around from shooting to post-up. Without Kentucky I don't know how I would have ended up."

Yes, it's clear now why the late Flip Saunders didn't hesitate to draft Towns.

After last summer's draft, the Wolves coach and president explained what he saw in Towns: "I hate to put comparisons, but besides Kevin Garnett in '95 [Towns] probably had the most impressive workout, individual workout that we've had. It's everything. He plays with a great amount of passion, plays really hard, multiskilled."

While Towns didn't get to play under Saunders, he said that studying under Sam Mitchell has been a great continuation of his coaching experiences.

"Coach Mitchell has helped me tremendously," Towns said. "I mean, just teaching me how to play the way I want to play, teaching me how to be the best player I can be, and just helping me day in and day out on my IQ, my skill, everything."

With Towns and Wiggins, the Wolves have the best young duo in the NBA to build up their franchise for years to come. Still, even Towns said he wasn't expecting to be this good, this fast.

"I dreamed I would be in the pros, not even playing just being in the pros," he said. "I'm just so blessed to be in this position in life to be playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves."

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