Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
2023-24 stats: 21.2 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 3.0 apg, 0.7 spg, 0.6 bpg, 49.6 FG%, 40.5 3P% in 78 games
Salary ranking: No. 24 ($36,016,200)
Without question, Karl-Anthony Towns is one of the best bigs in the NBA today. Even so, 2023-24 was a tricky season for him, as he did miss a lot of time due to injury. Then, in the playoffs, he had some high moments but also some lows, at times getting benched late in games in favor of fellow floor-spacing big man Naz Reid.
Over Towns’ final seven playoff games this season, he had a brutal stretch of shooting, hitting just 20.9 percent of his threes, and if we remove one four-for-five-shooting evening from that stretch, that number becomes 13.2 percent, coinciding with the Wolves going 3-4 in that time frame and getting knocked out of the playoffs by Dallas.
What’s more, Minnesota also was 12.7 points per 100 possessions worse during his time on the floor in the postseason. Gobert, as we mentioned in his slide, was roughly a plus-16 over that same stretch.
Like it or not, that tough showing at times in the playoffs plus how much success the team had without him in the regular season (and the fact Reid can fill in what he does at a fraction of the cost, contract-wise) will lead to many questions about Towns’ future with the team this summer.
