Yet there it was on Thursday, impossible for the all-business coach to hide when he started to talk about the development of Karl-Anthony Towns.

”Karl’s scoring inside, outside, making plays,” Thibodeau said. ”I think his defense is improving. His rebounding has been great all year and he’s taking the challenge on. He and (Andrew Wiggins). So they set the tone for the team. The better they play defensively, the better our team will play defensively.”

As the schedule has gotten tougher and their playoff odds have gotten longer, Towns has risen to the occasion to give long-suffering Wolves fans something they are unaccustomed to seeing – games that matter in March.

Towns has been at the center of Minnesota’s surge toward playoff contention, averaging 27.9 points on 60 percent shooting and 13.2 rebounds over the last 26 games, a stretch in which the Timberwolves have gone 15-11 and beaten the likes of the Rockets, Clippers (twice), Jazz, Raptors, Thunder and Nuggets (twice). The Wolves have won five of their last seven games to climb to 2+ games behind Denver for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, with the Golden State Warriors set to visit on Friday night.

With Zach LaVine out since Feb. 3 because of a torn ACL in his left knee, Towns and Wiggins have had to shoulder even more of the load. The sense of urgency has worn well on the reigning rookie of the year.

”Desperation makes you do a lot of things you couldn’t normally do,” Towns said. ”Being so close to the playoffs, I have a lot of desperation trying to play the best that I can so I can try to help us get to the playoffs and get that eighth spot.”

During the Wolves’ miserable 6-18 start, Towns was taking 3.8 3-pointers per game and hitting them at a respectable 36.3 percent. Over the last two months, he is attempting 2.5 per game but making them at a sparkling 40.9 percent. Meanwhile, he leads the NBA in points in the paint and unveils a different weapon in his game seemingly every week – the one-legged Dirk fade-away, a left-handed hook shot, a pump fake and scoop off a drive to the rim.

”I don’t think one guy can guard him,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said.

It’s not just what he is doing, but who he is doing it against.

He hung 37 points and 12 rebounds on DeAndre Jordan in January, then put 29 and 14 on one of the league’s best defenders on Wednesday night. He had 21 points and 15 boards against Rudy Gobert and the Jazz and went for 37 and 22 in a shootout loss in Houston.

And in four games against the Nuggets, whose supremely talented Nikola Jokic is routinely compared to Towns on the list of the league’s versatile young big men, Towns has averaged 25.6 points, 14.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists on 52.7 percent shooting. Jokic has averaged 14.3 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists and shot 46.9 percent.

”I’m seeing things at a much slower pace,” Towns said. ”A lot of times it feels like I’m seeing things in slow motion out there. Just finding holes much easier than last year.”

The biggest change lately has been on defense, where Towns and Wiggins have gained a better understanding of Thibodeau’s system. The mental mistakes and open layups that were surrendered while they hesitated with their decision-making earlier in the season are gradually disappearing.

”Me and Wigg were talking the other day about how sometimes we’re moving and we don’t even realize we’re moving to the right spot without thinking,” Towns said. ”It’s just our bodies are doing it for us.”

In the six games since the All-Star break, the Timberwolves rank first in the NBA in net rating, defensive rating and field goal percentage defense.

The odds are still against them. The Wolves (26-37) are in 11th in the West, with Portland and Dallas sitting between them and the Nuggets. Eleven of their final 15 games are on the road.

But the Wolves do have a chance. And for a team that has not made the playoffs since 2004, and a fan base even more desperate than the players are, that’s a pretty good start.

”I think people are finding a sense of hope, finally,” Towns said. ”Just to see hope come together with results, I think that’s what’s making people so excited. They’re not just hearing about how good we can be, they’re seeing it.”

The post Karl-Anthony Towns takes charge for desperate Timberwolves appeared first on IdealCapper.

First-year players from the U.S. and overseas convened in New Jersey this week to attend four days of classes aimed at helping them make the jump to the pros. The NBA and the players’ union collaborated to give them information on everything from financial planning and retirement to ways to handle relationships with women.

Towns was the No. 1 overall pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves. He called the experience and eye-opener. Towns says being able to hear from former NBA stars about the pitfalls that await was particularly helpful.

NBA senior vice president of player development Greg Taylor calls it the most important four days of a player’s career.

The post NBA rookies gather in New Jersey for transition program appeared first on IdealCapper.

It might seem temporarily forgotten at the start of the NBA draft.

The first three players taken Thursday could easily be a trio of big guys. Karl-Anthony Towns seems the likely pick by Minnesota at No. 1, the Los Angeles Lakers would next figure to snare Jahlil Okafor at No. 2 and it wouldn’t surprise many onlookers if Philadelphia then took Latvian prospect Kristaps Porzingis with the third pick.

Give or take an inch, they’re all 7-footers.

So after a title series where Cleveland’s LeBron James and Golden State’s Draymond Green – both about 6-foot-8 – spent time at center and where the Warriors swung the series their way by going to a small lineup and forcing the Cavaliers away from what was working, all eyes when the draft starts will be on bigs once again.

”I think big men still run the game,” Okafor said after a workout with the Lakers earlier this month. ”When you have a dominant big man, that changes the aspects of the game. You can see that now, you can see the Golden State big men and the Cleveland big men doing big things for their teams. So we believe the big men still run it.”

Not everyone would agree.

The dearth of the NBA big man has been well-chronicled, although it seems to be making a bit of comeback with Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin all ranking among the league’s top eight scorers this past season. But in today’s league, small ball – the type of play where speed and shooting takes precedence over size and power – is clearly en vogue, because it’s working.

”I understand the small ball,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said last week on a teleconference to discuss Towns and the Wildcats’ six other draft hopefuls. ”Small ball is because a 6-7 guy can move his feet and hands like a guard, but now you’ve got a 7-footer that can do the same. In three years, if someone has two 7-footers that can move their feet, then we’re going back to the twin towers.”

What Calipari is basically saying is that big men are trying to keep up with the times.

The notion of tall guys being able to shoot from deep isn’t new – Chris Bosh, Kevin Love, Channing Frye and Dirk Nowitzki are all serious 3-point threats, and all stand at least 6-foot-10. Towns is working on his range, Okafor has been known to make 3’s in practice and Porzingis’ outside game is clearly ahead of his post skills.

In the small-ball party right now, the big guys apparently don’t like being left out.

”By necessity, the league has gone smaller and more spread,” said Fran Fraschilla, a former college coach who now is an ESPN analyst. ”You’re seeing more, what I would call, small lineups. What we call the stretch four-man. In part, this is because there are just a handful of low-post scorers.”

If the draft starts with Towns, Okafor and Porzingis, it would be a rare big-big-big opening.

The last time three guys who were 7-footers led off a draft was 2007, when injury-prone Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Al Horford went 1-2-3. And the last time more than two true post players – Durant wouldn’t count there, of course – led off a draft was 2001, with Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol and Eddy Curry were the first four selections.

Chandler and Gasol have enjoyed great careers, Brown and Curry not so much. It’s a reminder that betting the franchise’s future on big men is always risky, with the most infamous example coming in 1984 when Hakeem Olajuwon went No. 1, Sam Bowie went No. 2 and the player widely considered to be the best ever in the game was still on the board.

A lesser-known blunder from that draft was that 15 teams passed on John Stockton.

”You go back to the Olajuwon-Bowie-Jordan draft,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said. ”In years past and maybe even today it makes sense to build around a big, but you don’t want to take a big because it’s a big and pass on the No. 3 pick – which turned out to be Michael Jordan.”

Hence, maybe taking a guard the wiser move

”It can be argued in today’s game that maybe you should do that,” Kupchak said.

Odds are, he won’t listen to that argument. Okafor wants to be a Laker and it’ll probably work out that way. Small ball isn’t everything – and Okafor wants to remind the league that’s the case.

”I know what my bread-and-butter is,” Okafor said, ”and that’s down in the post.”

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