Karl-Anthony Towns posts 25 points and 21 rebounds in first game without Jimmy Butler
With the specter of Jimmy Butler’s humiliating trade demands finally exorcised from the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team broke a five-game losing streak and won its first game of the month on Monday with 120-113 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
The star of the game: Karl-Anthony Towns, the frequent target of Butler’s barbs. In his first game since the Butler trade, Towns’ 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting with a season-high 21 rebounds.
Karl-Anthony Towns’ big night
Towns dropping his sixth-career 20-20 game has to be an encouraging sign for a Timberwolves team that has fully circled itself around the idea of him and Andrew Wiggins as the team’s centerpieces, but it was also a game that came with its share of red flags.
Do Butler’s criticisms of Towns remain valid?
For most, the worrying stat from Monday will be Towns’ 10 turnovers, which gave him a rather ignominious triple-double. That really isn’t great, but there’s another stat that sums up a significant problem for Minnesota: Towns’ 11 field goal attempts.
On a night facing a team with no starter taller than 6-foot-7, Towns finished fourth on his own team in field goals. That kind of stat line is exactly why Butler was so critical of Towns; it was Towns’ passivity, not his talent.
Towns’ talent has never been in question. The 22-year-old is an extraordinarily rare type of player: a 7-footer with deft shooting touch and elite rebounding ability. Since the day he was drafted, he has been the future of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Except Towns seems to refute that whenever he can.
Even after Butler was finally traded, Towns wouldn’t say he has to be the Timberwolvers’ leader.
From The Star-Tribune:
On Sunday, Karl-Anthony Towns took issue with the idea that, with Butler gone, he had to become the team’s leader.
“First of all, I’m not one of the most important [players on the team],’’ he said. “I’m just a piece on this team. Everyone is just as important as the next. So if everyone’s doing their job and everyone is working hard, doing the little things, we make a great product. That’s first. And second, we just have to come together. We’re not doing well on defense so far this year, and we have to clean that up.’’
A sentiment of placing teamwork over individual production is admirable, but only to an extent. When you’re a former first overall pick, a Rookie of the Year, an All-Star and just signed a contract worth $190 million, it’s probably not a good look to say you’re just a piece of the team rather than its foundation.
On games like Monday, when Towns is averaging more than two points per field goal attempt, he should be seeing more shots than 11. Granted, we’re only talking about one game and the Timberwolves still won on Monday, but it’s not like trading away Butler has fixed everything.
Towns should be demanding the ball, because in many games, he’s going to be the most talented player on the court. And yet, Towns will have those games where he’s simply not the featured player for the Timberwolves, even though he’s not having an off night. Maybe that’s the vision for Tom Thibodeau’s Timberwolves, but it’s hard to see how Towns will ever fulfill his potential in such an environment.
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