In theory Karl-Anthony Towns should be an easy player to root for. A guy who has stuck by a struggling franchise for a long time and went through lots of chaos and dysfunction in the organization, but on top of it all, he endured cruel tragedy losing his mother and several family members to the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope for a deep Wolves playoff run for his sake as much as anyone else's.
100%. I left out the personal struggles from the video just because I feel like UA-camrs will tell athlete’s personal stories for views at times, so I wanted to keep that separate. But you’re absolutely correct!
I know why because he's really a great person who's totally misunderstood. It's always been like that from the time he was a kid growing up to now. People love to hate on those who, when you meet them, have nothing but respect for you, and all you have is grief. "Misery loves company."
Current NBA fandom feeds off of memes and hot takes. So it’s expected that a lot of these guys are going to face a lot more shit talking than normal. He honestly has had some disappointing moments, but he’s a definite stud.
He gets such a bad whistle. I swear they call any little thing on him. KAT has been loyal and extremely talented and has proved the haters wrong this season by stepping up his defense in a big way and adjusting to playing the 4. He deserves alot of credit
This shouldn’t be a redemption story though. The general NBA fan hates him because of his voice and narratives about his personality. Not basketball reasons.
We can argue if it should or shouldn’t. But it is going to be regardless. Which makes it a massive story. And the NBA media hates him too for being “not a winning player”.
Nah you are seriously wrong. Kat has not been good in the playoffs, and he wines on the court a ton. It’s for basketball reasons why people don’t take him seriously. The voice and awkwardness off court may add to it. But he’s not taken seriously because he hasn’t done anything amazing outside the regular season. If he goes off this playoffs he 100% will get more respect.
You must have forgotten when towns was getting clowned for poorly he played in the grizzlies series when he was supposed to be the wolves number one option
Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert really changed the locker room. Both are mature leaders, Rudy controls the defense and will tell KAT,Ant, Jaden, and all the young players how to run the defense and what they need to do. Conley is the older brother that KAT and Ant can ask anything about and who they can rely on whenever games are out of control. Remember that the wolves had DLO who didn’t like Gobert, played 0 defense, wasn’t a leader.
@@davidtaylor8645the Lakers have been delusional since they thought it was a good idea to blow up the team that won them a chip. There was no reason not to run it back. The Lakers management makes me wanna rage so hard.
KAT has gotten so much criticism in his years of the NBA, and rightly so... but this year watching games, this is by far his best season of his career. He's probably the player on the Wolves' roster that had to sacrifice the most and mend into this new system both offensively and defensively. I have little to no criticism for him this year, but the media still literally nit-pick at him yet. He's stayed level-headed, calm and collected after that Boston game early on - that is his biggest improvement. The question is if this play carries over to the playoffs. If by some miracle that happens, I don't see why they won't end up in the Finals; we all know Ant is going to bring it every night and same with Gobert. If KAT can do the same... wow...
nuggets lose if they play any team out of the east celtics bucks and timberwolves are just better . unless jokic had a dirk type of playoff run where he dominates stacked teams its a wrap.
It's not just NBA media, I think nba fans are also partially at blame. Somehow many fans think assholes who find whatever angle to insult their teammate in the most obnoxious way possible, like jimmy butler or Kobe, are better leaders than mature leaders like Tim Duncan or Lebron who know how to communicate efficiently while controlling their temper. The best leaders/communicators know to convince others to do the right thing, without creating unnecessary conflict. Being brunt can be effective communication in some cases... but finding the most nasty angle to insult your teammate like Kobe or Jimmy butler do, is most likely far from best leadership practice.
No, it’s the fact that he never lived up to his potential. His name should be in the conversation with people like embid and Jokic. They started attacking him when he decided to launch a gaming channel while having losing, mediocre seasons and he’s suppose to be the man on the team. Jimmy gave them work with the second tier team because he knew they may be the stars but they don’t care. No killer mentality. No will to win. Now minn has a real dog as the guy like antman
@@SickNYC most nba players have distractions on the side, much like the video games hobby of towns, jimmy is a hypocrite if he only pratice, play nba games and go home. when the day bulter called up the media and say his story, i said "THATS YOUR STORY, OF COURSE OTHER PEOPLE ARE BAD IN IT AND YOU ARE THE THAT IS GOOD" i stand on that still to this day, fans will be fans of course, the celebrity effect is something else you can make an army of it. it doesnt help to make him credible when its reported that butler demanded max contract(if i remember correctly) or a salary same with towns and wiggins, before the drama.
I don’t know why people even got the narrative that Kat is mad that this is “Ants team” or Ant being the #1 option… he’s shown so much love to ant, idk where that narritave comes from. In fact, my biggest gripe with KAT is sometimes it feels like he defers too much. Maybe it’s the foul trouble or something else that gets in his head, but sometimes he doesn’t just have that consistency of high offensive output
I don't even think this is Ants team. Ant is medicore offensively and this is unacceptable for the best play on a contender. Ant only has 58% true shooting. By the way, NBA average is 58%. An average posession by Ant is not better than the league average... let along superstar on a contender. On the other hand, KAT true shooting is 62% which is elite. He has always been good. He just finally got some help.
hes rushing and desperate. with his rival embiid getting 20ft a night for doing a fouled action move and getting a whistle everytime he probably thought the refs are biased on him. thats my take. wolves are the only one i watch live "sometimes other games too within the same day" in nba seasons for 4-5 years now so anyway finch really thought last 2 years playoffs towns will score 20+pts on 50/40 percent just by making him do a post up move on double teams while his teammates watch and wait for rebounds.
I still can’t over that you said we “can’t blame him for the first six years of his career” SIX YEARS. That’s longer than most dude’s careers!! So we clearly can’t blame those guys for their careers at all, right? Nah, wild.
Tbh idk why Kat is so hated on he’s gone through so much bad stuff since coming into the league like many of his family members dying to Covid and almost dying twice in car crashes and he’s a pretty likeable guy
The narrative of KAT is from social media and what people see on national TV games. That is the problem with playing for a smaller market team you only have a few chances a year to prove yourself to the national audience. So if you have a bad game of national TV that is what will be remembered.
Had you told me 10 years ago the Thunder, the Nuggets and the Wolves were the top 3 teams in the west, I would have said, well... the Thunder make sense, KD is a monster. Never would have crossed my mind that of the 3 the Nuggets already have a title, and did so with a 2nd round pick as their top player.
I can’t believe you skipped the Rockets series in the Jimmy Butler year. Karl didn’t show up in the playoffs with Jimmy. That’s when the narrative truly started for Karl and fans wondered whether he was a winning player each night. He’s focused up now though on both ends. Those questions don’t exist anymore.
As a MN fan, I think KAT could solve the perception issue by not caring what people think. If he could block out some of the noise (which is very difficult) and just play ball, his game speaks for itself.
Even when Towns was at 5, there were already hints that he was better suited at 4. Kudos to the management for seeing this and switched him to his natural position. Have you even seen a stretch 4 before? I think he's the first.
stretch 4 is an old archtype dirk is the most obvious one, garnet to some extend, love in cavs and bosh. Hell if you really want to stretch it KD post gsw is a stretch 4
KAT is like Ben Simmons in that we can all see talent that could dominate the league but they lack the mentality to do that. Which is fine really. Most players can’t be that. But when there is so much talent people tend to see it as wasted on a #2 guy. Bit unfair sure, but most people also complain about ”What if Shaq had work ethic.” so even greats get shit when they underperform. Lebron get’s it constantly for ringchasing and squadpadding unlike his historical peers of elite talent. It’s part of the game.
It’s called playing for the Timberwolves If Kevin Garnett or Kevin Love couldn’t, I don’t see why Towns would be any different. They’re like the Lions of the NBA, it’s where careers go to die.
I’ve watched that play-in game vs LAC like 5 times and of those 6 fouls only 4 are legit fouls and on the other end dude was being fouled every time he touched the ball or tried to post up and not a single foul was called Also why is it KAT is the ONLY player that’s criticized for “whining” or “complaining” to the refs?
Everyone saying KAT is loyal. He is loyal for the contract. Don’t get me wrong as a Wolves fan I don’t want him traded but let’s be real. I feel like he’s grown up this year but up until this point KAT is selfish and all about the money and HIS performance, not including the playoffs because he has been mid in the playoffs.
If he had a different position player with the actual SAME level player, they would be in a completely different position. Im not even a Timberwolves fan either. Ant is good but i never seen a buzzer beater from him.
This summer I was so mad at him. His national team and him had a great shooting night and destroyed Italy BUT he was playing so fucking out of control, and he should have had 2 offensive foul and an additional defensive foul by mid second quarter.
The second half of his 60 point game still definitely has me doubting him because that was just a horrible display of immaturity and I worry it’ll happen again in the playoffs. I’m rooting for him to improve and for the twolves to prove the doubters wrong but if I had to bet on a reason y’all would fail it would be Kat flaming out again.
The issue with him is that, if he’s not scoring , he’s really not doing much. While he is quite athletic , you can also push him around, throw him off his game with physicality
Whoa whoa whoa his rep was questioned while jimmy was there, while other pieces were there. This didn’t just start, they’ve started turning the corner for sure but he’s not the #1 guy either.
I think that the analysis with him is easy. He is an incredible shooter, has a great first step, he is a great athlete. However, he does not know how to play basketball: angles of the body, when to be aggressive and when not, when to force and when not, how to throw tough and contexted passes, etc. So he can get points. He can have amazing performances. But he can also disappear completely. It depends on the shot working that night and what the opposite team is doing. He cannot adapt or control it. You need to hope is a good night and the other team did not prepare something that can challenge him too much.
Honestly I want KAT to win a ring with the TWolves just so we can definitively say that Kevin Garnett was wrong when he said winning a title in Minnesota was impossible, lmao
I thought I was the only one who peeped this he attached himself to Ant bc he’s undeniably good but before that he had a terrible attitude towards him being #1 option
What the hell do you expect him to do really like what more would make a difference individually his teams haven’t been that talented until now yall are anything
Respectfully, I disagree with the notion that the 2022 Play In/Playoffs ruined KAT’s reputation. Folks dogpiled after Jimmy and it’s been uphill from there. The Memphis series was brutal, though, I think it validated a lot of the haters.
Fair enough! I think that’s when the clowning about the off the court stuff started. Validation is probably a correct word for 2022. There was some hope he had broken away from that previous school of thought with the incredible season he was having. But the playin/memphis series solidified it.
@@hardwood_yt yes, and I don’t mean to nitpick fyi, I liked your breakdown and agreed totally. It’s been a journey and it’s hard to not feel badly for KAT for being dragged by the media/NBA community for so many years. He’s a good dude.
@@ben_jammin9470 oh dude I totally appreciate the pushback and opinion! Didn’t get that vibe at all. I appreciate your contribution via the comment. I am selfishly hoping the narrative turns this spring.
He just had bad luck with the media honest with that demarcus cousin baby pic to throw in “shade” at ant in his rookie year bout Popeye💀changing to voice in interviews 😂 but he's not a bad player
I was definitely one of those haters for a bit lol. Jimmy Butler is one of my favorite players and I actually did think of KAT as a "Bitch" who could not successfuly contribute to winning. I also didn''t really care for Rudy Gobert, mainly with his personality. But, my feelings took a complete 180 once this season came around and they have been maintaining this record. I like Ant a good amount, but I also like this Timberwolves roster as a whole. Rudy Gobert is honestly probably my first pick of someone to build around as well. KAT has been pretty solid defensively and can naturally hit a 3 whenever. I don't view him as "James Harden-esque" with volume stats (most of the time... there was that high scoring KAT game this year that had him benched), Im not a Twolves fan yet, but I definitely love how they are giving the top contenders hell. I respect their lineup and love the role players like Mike Conley, Naz Ried, Kyle Anderson, Jared McDaniel, Nikhil Alexander-Walker etc. I am also not fully sure they make it to the WCF, but I think it's a 50-50 chance. KAT himself does still have more room to grow, and i think another year/wo with him and Ant would get it happening. The IQ isn't always the highest, and can lead them to struggle against more experienced teams. A lot like the Celtics vs Miami/Lakers/Warriors. But in a series between Twolves and OKC, I got Twolves.
I feel like a lot of KAT’s struggles just filter down to the fact that he’s been playing on a team that’s been losing for so long, I feel like that mentality has kinda been forced into his mind. I feel he got “exposed” in the playoffs and play-in because of how quickly the culture shift happened in Minnesota. If I had to put money on it, I feel like KAT will be a better playoff player and performer in the ladder half of his career.
Kats never tried to leave because he can stay there and be mid. If he went to the lakers or something the media would come for him lol. He’s on your team so y’all feel loyal but believe me no team is stressin about the wolves in the playoffs…
Until they’re matched up with them!!!! Their reason Denver prefer not to see wolves… other teams don’t matter in west that’s our focus rematch with Denver with Naz and McDaniel this time ho around. Remember five if laker titles are from Minneapolis where lakers were founded.
KAT and Embiid are the same guy - all-time talented big men who SHOULD dominate every time they step on the court, who each want credit for ‘changing the game’ before they’ve accomplished anything of note, and then they love to whine to the media when people don’t see them as such. btw Mickey Mouse MVPs don’t count
You are just flat out wrong when you say “which didn’t happen last year” regarding the big man lobs. Kat was lobbing Rudy last year too. He just got hurt so they couldn’t gain chemistry as fast as we’d like.
"played well in the lakers play-in" dude he got completely clamped in the 2nd half, he had Reeves on him and couldnt impact the game. He is totally redundant to the teams current success, but he has fit in this season and hasnt shipwrecked the the team which is great. If he tries to 'step-up and prove something' in the playoffs he will blow it for the team, just let Mike, Ant and Kyle make the decisions on offence and do what Rudy, Mike and Kyle say on defence and the wolves can go all the way. Hitting a few big open shots when they actually need them would be nice for a 50million dollar player to.
I've been a Nuggets fan for a long time now, and I have always liked Kat. I never really heard bad things about him. I also like Anthony Edwards. If the Nuggets can't repeat, I would probably root for the Wolves
Towns is a pretty complicated player. First off I think it's outright false he has any problems stemming from his mentality. Nothing he has said has indicated that he doesn't take responsibility, conversely he always does. I think this stems from a stereotype that nice guys can't be winners which is dubious. You don't shoot 44% from three after overcoming an injury at 7ft with a losing mentality. Furthermore, his defense has significantly improved, which is supported by stats, and with the exception of a few late game possessions, has been phenomenal with shot selection this year. But as a Timberwolves fan he does have a few frustrating qualities. First is his tendency to draw offensive fouls. I hear this stems from his reputation of hooking arms when he drives, which makes sense and sucks because he gets called for lesser fouls than the likes of Giannis and Joel. The second is when he's not getting called for an offensive foul he resorts to taking a falling shot and even if he scores, the other team pushes the pace with him on the ground. But again this year his decision making seems to be better and he's doing at lower rate than prior years. The West is loaded, if we win one playoff series I say keep KAT and run it back. Apologize for my rant
you're right. I glossed over it just because that was more of unlocking Rudy than Kat. But it all works together. The subtraction of DLo and addition of Mike Conley has been EVERYTHING
0:37 should say November 11th, 2022. My apologies.
In theory Karl-Anthony Towns should be an easy player to root for. A guy who has stuck by a struggling franchise for a long time and went through lots of chaos and dysfunction in the organization, but on top of it all, he endured cruel tragedy losing his mother and several family members to the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope for a deep Wolves playoff run for his sake as much as anyone else's.
100%. I left out the personal struggles from the video just because I feel like UA-camrs will tell athlete’s personal stories for views at times, so I wanted to keep that separate. But you’re absolutely correct!
It's totally the opposite , people hate on kat like crazy and I don't know why
I know why because he's really a great person who's totally misunderstood. It's always been like that from the time he was a kid growing up to now. People love to hate on those who, when you meet them, have nothing but respect for you, and all you have is grief. "Misery loves company."
Current NBA fandom feeds off of memes and hot takes. So it’s expected that a lot of these guys are going to face a lot more shit talking than normal. He honestly has had some disappointing moments, but he’s a definite stud.
Towns is underrated by tons
He gets such a bad whistle. I swear they call any little thing on him. KAT has been loyal and extremely talented and has proved the haters wrong this season by stepping up his defense in a big way and adjusting to playing the 4. He deserves alot of credit
he gets an awful awful whistle. But his reactions this year have been so much better and I swear its made a difference. Agreed
@hardwood_yt hopefully Ant stops complaining too. I know he has legitimate reasons to, but the refs are human and don't like to be showed up.
Yes he needs to chill. Don’t need to make it harder for yourself with the officials
This shouldn’t be a redemption story though. The general NBA fan hates him because of his voice and narratives about his personality. Not basketball reasons.
We can argue if it should or shouldn’t. But it is going to be regardless. Which makes it a massive story.
And the NBA media hates him too for being “not a winning player”.
Also Jimmy Butler did huge damage to his perception
Nah you are seriously wrong. Kat has not been good in the playoffs, and he wines on the court a ton. It’s for basketball reasons why people don’t take him seriously. The voice and awkwardness off court may add to it. But he’s not taken seriously because he hasn’t done anything amazing outside the regular season. If he goes off this playoffs he 100% will get more respect.
“Not basketball reasons” you sound like a female
You must have forgotten when towns was getting clowned for poorly he played in the grizzlies series when he was supposed to be the wolves number one option
Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert really changed the locker room.
Both are mature leaders, Rudy controls the defense and will tell KAT,Ant, Jaden, and all the young players how to run the defense and what they need to do.
Conley is the older brother that KAT and Ant can ask anything about and who they can rely on whenever games are out of control.
Remember that the wolves had DLO who didn’t like Gobert, played 0 defense, wasn’t a leader.
Going from Dlo terrorist ball to conley efficiency ball was life changing as a wolves fan
Yah I’m shocked the lakers didn’t get rid of him. They are delusional if they think he’s gonna help them in the playoffs. He’s so bad
@@davidtaylor8645the Lakers have been delusional since they thought it was a good idea to blow up the team that won them a chip. There was no reason not to run it back. The Lakers management makes me wanna rage so hard.
@@myka4337 yah first Russ then trusting d lo 😂 like at least Russ has had decent playoff games. Dlo got benched for J Mac in the playoffs.
Facts
Kat is truly one of the most loyal players and he gets hate for no reason
No reason…. He has been pretty bad in the playoffs and he’s not very humble. I wouldn’t say no reason
@@davidtaylor8645when has humble been a trend in the nba when the goats are all arrogant ?
@@TacticalSteez ur right goats are arrogant. But a lot of people hate them for that… lebron gets a lot of hate for that too, I think it’s valid
@@TacticalSteezyeah all goats are arrogant, but KAT aint no GOAT, and he certainly don’t play like one
@@jaroj1112 nobody said kat is a goat but he’s definitely one of the top shooting bigs of all time that’s the mentality he should have
KAT has gotten so much criticism in his years of the NBA, and rightly so... but this year watching games, this is by far his best season of his career. He's probably the player on the Wolves' roster that had to sacrifice the most and mend into this new system both offensively and defensively. I have little to no criticism for him this year, but the media still literally nit-pick at him yet. He's stayed level-headed, calm and collected after that Boston game early on - that is his biggest improvement.
The question is if this play carries over to the playoffs. If by some miracle that happens, I don't see why they won't end up in the Finals; we all know Ant is going to bring it every night and same with Gobert. If KAT can do the same... wow...
you're right.
Uh, bc of the Nuggets?
nuggets lose if they play any team out of the east celtics bucks and timberwolves are just better . unless jokic had a dirk type of playoff run where he dominates stacked teams its a wrap.
This year I unfortunately think he won’t be healthy enough for play to transfer over into the playoffs and the narrative will continue.
KAT is not very like because he’s not your typical afro nba player. He doesn’t look and act ghetto for SAS and the rest of the media.
100% WITH YOU
It's not just NBA media, I think nba fans are also partially at blame. Somehow many fans think assholes who find whatever angle to insult their teammate in the most obnoxious way possible, like jimmy butler or Kobe, are better leaders than mature leaders like Tim Duncan or Lebron who know how to communicate efficiently while controlling their temper.
The best leaders/communicators know to convince others to do the right thing, without creating unnecessary conflict. Being brunt can be effective communication in some cases... but finding the most nasty angle to insult your teammate like Kobe or Jimmy butler do, is most likely far from best leadership practice.
No, it’s the fact that he never lived up to his potential. His name should be in the conversation with people like embid and Jokic. They started attacking him when he decided to launch a gaming channel while having losing, mediocre seasons and he’s suppose to be the man on the team. Jimmy gave them work with the second tier team because he knew they may be the stars but they don’t care. No killer mentality. No will to win. Now minn has a real dog as the guy like antman
@@SickNYC most nba players have distractions on the side, much like the video games hobby of towns, jimmy is a hypocrite if he only pratice, play nba games and go home. when the day bulter called up the media and say his story, i said "THATS YOUR STORY, OF COURSE OTHER PEOPLE ARE BAD IN IT AND YOU ARE THE THAT IS GOOD" i stand on that still to this day, fans will be fans of course, the celebrity effect is something else you can make an army of it. it doesnt help to make him credible when its reported that butler demanded max contract(if i remember correctly) or a salary same with towns and wiggins, before the drama.
I don’t know why people even got the narrative that Kat is mad that this is “Ants team” or Ant being the #1 option… he’s shown so much love to ant, idk where that narritave comes from. In fact, my biggest gripe with KAT is sometimes it feels like he defers too much. Maybe it’s the foul trouble or something else that gets in his head, but sometimes he doesn’t just have that consistency of high offensive output
agreed. It's a lazy take. There's never been a power struggle lol
I don't even think this is Ants team. Ant is medicore offensively and this is unacceptable for the best play on a contender. Ant only has 58% true shooting. By the way, NBA average is 58%. An average posession by Ant is not better than the league average... let along superstar on a contender. On the other hand, KAT true shooting is 62% which is elite. He has always been good. He just finally got some help.
hes rushing and desperate. with his rival embiid getting 20ft a night for doing a fouled action move and getting a whistle everytime he probably thought the refs are biased on him. thats my take. wolves are the only one i watch live "sometimes other games too within the same day" in nba seasons for 4-5 years now so anyway finch really thought last 2 years playoffs towns will score 20+pts on 50/40 percent just by making him do a post up move on double teams while his teammates watch and wait for rebounds.
RIP Flip, thanks for drafting him.
god imagine the wolves if okafor went number 1
This aged sourly
This was a quality watch. You just gained a new subscriber
thank you so much. Stay tuned. Much more content coming :)
I still can’t over that you said we “can’t blame him for the first six years of his career” SIX YEARS. That’s longer than most dude’s careers!! So we clearly can’t blame those guys for their careers at all, right? Nah, wild.
His leadership and maturity improvement has gone so unnoticed this year
100%
I’m a big fan of KAT as a player and I hope he and the TWolves have some legit playoff success sooner rather than later,
Shoutout to KAT for staying with my wolves even with the shittiest of teams built around him
exactly. Nobody understands what he's went through from an organizational perspective.
Refs hate the wolves
Being a kat fan for years now has been having to defend him for (checks notes) changing his voice sometimes and being better than 90% of the nba
Keep up the quality content ❤
Thank you so much man
Respect for sticking with your franchise. It contributes to the economy to have a thriving sports team.
Tbh idk why Kat is so hated on he’s gone through so much bad stuff since coming into the league like many of his family members dying to Covid and almost dying twice in car crashes and he’s a pretty likeable guy
The narrative of KAT is from social media and what people see on national TV games. That is the problem with playing for a smaller market team you only have a few chances a year to prove yourself to the national audience. So if you have a bad game of national TV that is what will be remembered.
Had you told me 10 years ago the Thunder, the Nuggets and the Wolves were the top 3 teams in the west, I would have said, well... the Thunder make sense, KD is a monster. Never would have crossed my mind that of the 3 the Nuggets already have a title, and did so with a 2nd round pick as their top player.
Who the fuck is talking about a power struggle between KAT and Ant? I live here and watch every game and I ain’t heard anything about that in forever.
tons of national talking heads. It's pretty tiring. Nobody around here does. I live in the Minneapolis suburbs.
@@hardwood_yt ant is the leader there's no "power struggle" and what u heard is hot takes from ppl that don't know wtf they're talking about.
Joe Marotta aka Barry McCockiner
Some of those fouls look like bullish too…
I can’t believe you skipped the Rockets series in the Jimmy Butler year. Karl didn’t show up in the playoffs with Jimmy. That’s when the narrative truly started for Karl and fans wondered whether he was a winning player each night. He’s focused up now though on both ends. Those questions don’t exist anymore.
As a MN fan, I think KAT could solve the perception issue by not caring what people think. If he could block out some of the noise (which is very difficult) and just play ball, his game speaks for itself.
Even when Towns was at 5, there were already hints that he was better suited at 4. Kudos to the management for seeing this and switched him to his natural position. Have you even seen a stretch 4 before? I think he's the first.
stretch 4 is an old archtype
dirk is the most obvious one, garnet to some extend, love in cavs and bosh. Hell if you really want to stretch it KD post gsw is a stretch 4
@@piusbutarbutar1782love was a stretch 4 in minny too, unironically one of the best shooters in franchise history
@@piusbutarbutar1782can’t forget peja stojakovic. the og stretch 4
@@dropandy1453 aint he a 3? because at kings webber playing at 4 and at dallas dirk is the 4
@@piusbutarbutar1782 he played PF with the new orleans hornets for a few seasons. but you’re right. for most of his career he was a 3.
Bro you used Barry in the thumbnail 😂
Lmfaooo you’re one of the few to notice
I am not a believer in Kat or Ant. I think the hype surrounding this team will only make the disappointment all the more impactful.
KAT is like Ben Simmons in that we can all see talent that could dominate the league but they lack the mentality to do that. Which is fine really. Most players can’t be that. But when there is so much talent people tend to see it as wasted on a #2 guy. Bit unfair sure, but most people also complain about ”What if Shaq had work ethic.” so even greats get shit when they underperform. Lebron get’s it constantly for ringchasing and squadpadding unlike his historical peers of elite talent. It’s part of the game.
The wolves have the 15th offensive rating with KAT. They have a DEAD LAST offensive rating without him 😂
It’s called playing for the Timberwolves
If Kevin Garnett or Kevin Love couldn’t, I don’t see why Towns would be any different. They’re like the Lions of the NBA, it’s where careers go to die.
I’ve watched that play-in game vs LAC like 5 times and of those 6 fouls only 4 are legit fouls and on the other end dude was being fouled every time he touched the ball or tried to post up and not a single foul was called
Also why is it KAT is the ONLY player that’s criticized for “whining” or “complaining” to the refs?
Everyone saying KAT is loyal. He is loyal for the contract. Don’t get me wrong as a Wolves fan I don’t want him traded but let’s be real. I feel like he’s grown up this year but up until this point KAT is selfish and all about the money and HIS performance, not including the playoffs because he has been mid in the playoffs.
If he had a different position player with the actual SAME level player, they would be in a completely different position. Im not even a Timberwolves fan either. Ant is good but i never seen a buzzer beater from him.
I just wanna know why he be changing his voice all the time?
This summer I was so mad at him. His national team and him had a great shooting night and destroyed Italy BUT he was playing so fucking out of control, and he should have had 2 offensive foul and an additional defensive foul by mid second quarter.
The second half of his 60 point game still definitely has me doubting him because that was just a horrible display of immaturity and I worry it’ll happen again in the playoffs. I’m rooting for him to improve and for the twolves to prove the doubters wrong but if I had to bet on a reason y’all would fail it would be Kat flaming out again.
Lifetime wolves fan, towns is a clown… he’s always welcome to be our 3rd best player though
The issue with him is that, if he’s not scoring , he’s really not doing much. While he is quite athletic , you can also push him around, throw him off his game with physicality
Whoa whoa whoa his rep was questioned while jimmy was there, while other pieces were there. This didn’t just start, they’ve started turning the corner for sure but he’s not the #1 guy either.
I think a 2nd round exit with great stats wouldn’t be bad for KAT legacy either
I think that the analysis with him is easy. He is an incredible shooter, has a great first step, he is a great athlete. However, he does not know how to play basketball: angles of the body, when to be aggressive and when not, when to force and when not, how to throw tough and contexted passes, etc. So he can get points. He can have amazing performances. But he can also disappear completely. It depends on the shot working that night and what the opposite team is doing. He cannot adapt or control it. You need to hope is a good night and the other team did not prepare something that can challenge him too much.
Honestly I want KAT to win a ring with the TWolves just so we can definitively say that Kevin Garnett was wrong when he said winning a title in Minnesota was impossible, lmao
i just don't like the guy, i think it's his voice... He should be able to be a winning player tho
I thought I was the only one who peeped this he attached himself to Ant bc he’s undeniably good but before that he had a terrible attitude towards him being #1 option
What the hell do you expect him to do really like what more would make a difference individually his teams haven’t been that talented until now yall are anything
Dude was just soft. Only issue with him. He seem cool but no dawg when it comes to getting gritty
My thing against KAT is the constant complaining, and horrible shot selection at times
These vids deserve 100k viewws soo solidd
thank you so much bro!
He is a lazy bum when he isnt winning a championship, but I have hope for this season
His only problem is his delusion about his accomplishments.
The change in how zesty he sounds now probably took a lot of energy to supress.
man, i miss that retro T-Wolves logo, i hope they go back to that.
Shave his beard, trim his hair. No superstar looked like him before
Those two text messages are so wrong about Towns. They should go back to bed!
I feel like KAT is a better player than Lebron but no one says the same about lebron
sad man should have never anointed himself as the best shooting big oat
Majority of KAT hate I see is just homophobia 👎
If only you saw his most recent game 😔...
0:37 you got the entire year wrong on that clip, and it really through me off thinking they were hating when the T-Wolves were winning.
you're totally right, I effed that up. Good catch. I'll add a pinned comment.
People forget what he went through in a short period of time
Respectfully, I disagree with the notion that the 2022 Play In/Playoffs ruined KAT’s reputation. Folks dogpiled after Jimmy and it’s been uphill from there. The Memphis series was brutal, though, I think it validated a lot of the haters.
Fair enough! I think that’s when the clowning about the off the court stuff started.
Validation is probably a correct word for 2022. There was some hope he had broken away from that previous school of thought with the incredible season he was having. But the playin/memphis series solidified it.
@@hardwood_yt yes, and I don’t mean to nitpick fyi, I liked your breakdown and agreed totally. It’s been a journey and it’s hard to not feel badly for KAT for being dragged by the media/NBA community for so many years. He’s a good dude.
@@ben_jammin9470 oh dude I totally appreciate the pushback and opinion! Didn’t get that vibe at all. I appreciate your contribution via the comment.
I am selfishly hoping the narrative turns this spring.
in my opinion, hes the cornerstone in minnesota rather than ant
The Wolves will be a first round exit.
Kat has never been better than good extremely overrated
I love his game but to me… he’s a 1B player…
Here after conference finals appearance
so far he is proving he’s that guy
Facts: losing personality
He just had bad luck with the media honest with that demarcus cousin baby pic to throw in “shade” at ant in his rookie year bout Popeye💀changing to voice in interviews 😂 but he's not a bad player
these playoffs will be very telling
Does it matter ant is the guy 👆🏽
Its crazy cause after all that😊
and then ae gets injured😢😢😢
Kat back tell a friend
For real, for real.
I was definitely one of those haters for a bit lol.
Jimmy Butler is one of my favorite players and I actually did think of KAT as a "Bitch" who could not successfuly contribute to winning. I also didn''t really care for Rudy Gobert, mainly with his personality.
But, my feelings took a complete 180 once this season came around and they have been maintaining this record. I like Ant a good amount, but I also like this Timberwolves roster as a whole.
Rudy Gobert is honestly probably my first pick of someone to build around as well. KAT has been pretty solid defensively and can naturally hit a 3 whenever. I don't view him as "James Harden-esque" with volume stats (most of the time... there was that high scoring KAT game this year that had him benched),
Im not a Twolves fan yet, but I definitely love how they are giving the top contenders hell. I respect their lineup and love the role players like Mike Conley, Naz Ried, Kyle Anderson, Jared McDaniel, Nikhil Alexander-Walker etc.
I am also not fully sure they make it to the WCF, but I think it's a 50-50 chance. KAT himself does still have more room to grow, and i think another year/wo with him and Ant would get it happening.
The IQ isn't always the highest, and can lead them to struggle against more experienced teams. A lot like the Celtics vs Miami/Lakers/Warriors.
But in a series between Twolves and OKC, I got Twolves.
I feel like a lot of KAT’s struggles just filter down to the fact that he’s been playing on a team that’s been losing for so long, I feel like that mentality has kinda been forced into his mind. I feel he got “exposed” in the playoffs and play-in because of how quickly the culture shift happened in Minnesota. If I had to put money on it, I feel like KAT will be a better playoff player and performer in the ladder half of his career.
oh he aint winning anytime soon
Kats never tried to leave because he can stay there and be mid. If he went to the lakers or something the media would come for him lol.
He’s on your team so y’all feel loyal but believe me no team is stressin about the wolves in the playoffs…
Until they’re matched up with them!!!! Their reason Denver prefer not to see wolves… other teams don’t matter in west that’s our focus rematch with Denver with Naz and McDaniel this time ho around. Remember five if laker titles are from Minneapolis where lakers were founded.
Now he’s injurrrred 😭
Front runner like Tatum
What about Jonny Flynn?
Bro caught berry up
KAT and Embiid are the same guy - all-time talented big men who SHOULD dominate every time they step on the court, who each want credit for ‘changing the game’ before they’ve accomplished anything of note, and then they love to whine to the media when people don’t see them as such.
btw Mickey Mouse MVPs don’t count
He got injured 😢
You are just flat out wrong when you say “which didn’t happen last year” regarding the big man lobs. Kat was lobbing Rudy last year too. He just got hurt so they couldn’t gain chemistry as fast as we’d like.
"played well in the lakers play-in" dude he got completely clamped in the 2nd half, he had Reeves on him and couldnt impact the game.
He is totally redundant to the teams current success, but he has fit in this season and hasnt shipwrecked the the team which is great.
If he tries to 'step-up and prove something' in the playoffs he will blow it for the team, just let Mike, Ant and Kyle make the decisions on offence and do what Rudy, Mike and Kyle say on defence and the wolves can go all the way.
Hitting a few big open shots when they actually need them would be nice for a 50million dollar player to.
I've been a Nuggets fan for a long time now, and I have always liked Kat. I never really heard bad things about him. I also like Anthony Edwards. If the Nuggets can't repeat, I would probably root for the Wolves
Nuggets and Wolves fans unite 👀
Towns is a pretty complicated player. First off I think it's outright false he has any problems stemming from his mentality. Nothing he has said has indicated that he doesn't take responsibility, conversely he always does. I think this stems from a stereotype that nice guys can't be winners which is dubious. You don't shoot 44% from three after overcoming an injury at 7ft with a losing mentality. Furthermore, his defense has significantly improved, which is supported by stats, and with the exception of a few late game possessions, has been phenomenal with shot selection this year. But as a Timberwolves fan he does have a few frustrating qualities. First is his tendency to draw offensive fouls. I hear this stems from his reputation of hooking arms when he drives, which makes sense and sucks because he gets called for lesser fouls than the likes of Giannis and Joel. The second is when he's not getting called for an offensive foul he resorts to taking a falling shot and even if he scores, the other team pushes the pace with him on the ground. But again this year his decision making seems to be better and he's doing at lower rate than prior years. The West is loaded, if we win one playoff series I say keep KAT and run it back. Apologize for my rant
He got selected to his 4th All Star game this year. Not his 3rd fyi
You’re right. that was my bad :) good catch
I think if he makes the Western Conference Finals, he’s redeemed from a fanatic standpoint. From a normal person standpoint, he’s fine.
That 3pt shot is UGLY to watch
It's like he wants to be a smaller player, as opposed to utilise the body he has.
Down goes Kat
I believe this team has the best shot against the Celtics, so from a finals preview POV, I hope they run through the east.
Naz Reid
he’s soft
Great video. Wish you would have touched on the DLo trade though. That was truly the catalyst for my team
you're right. I glossed over it just because that was more of unlocking Rudy than Kat. But it all works together. The subtraction of DLo and addition of Mike Conley has been EVERYTHING
@@hardwood_yt don't forget we got Alexander-Walker in that trade too
Naw is one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA per DunksAndThrees.
Love him.
nope