Karl-Anthony Towns doesn’t mess around.
The 2016 unanimous NBA Rookie of the Year has big plans for his Minnesota Timberwolves next season—ambitions they may not yet be ready to actualize.
He wants a playoff berth.
From Alysha Tsuji of For The Win:
For me, it’s all about team goals. We want to make the playoffs, we want to end the drought. I think it’s 13 years now. We want to end that drought and we want to go to the playoffs, and we don’t just want to be there and be a first round team. We want to be able to make a deep run, so we’re making those steps now. It also depends on me improving every single aspect of my game.
This comes with the disclaimer that almost every NBA player worth his salt will say something similar when talking about his goals for next season. If you’re not on a playoff team, you want to make the playoffs; if you’re on a playoff team, you want to win a championship. And so on and so forth.
But Towns is a genuine competitive psychopath. His work ethic was renowned as a rookie. He didn’t earn unanimous dap for no reason, after all. He would get frustrated after losses and never seemed to bask in his triumphs for long.
And to his credit, the Timberwolves aren’t terribly far off from contending for a playoff berth, at least not on paper. They have Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Ricky Rubio and Zach LaVine leading the way on the court, and now Tom Thibodeau, in addition to Kevin Garnett, guiding them off it.
Next year could be special for the Timberwolves. Even if it’s not, the future is already special.This Minnesota team will get there, back to the playoffs, very soon.
Towns is going to make sure of it.
