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2015 NBA Summer League: Everyone Relax, Karl-Anthony Towns is Playing Just Fine in Vegas

By James Fitzgerald

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It is funny how people can be prisoners of the moment nowadays. People see certain things and kind of assume that people are not playing up to par or that there is some kind of problem.

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That is the kind of the misconception about what is happening with the No.1 overall draft pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, Karl-Anthony Towns right now.

In Towns debut game against the Los Angeles Lakers, he finished with 12 points and three rebounds in helping his T-Wolves defeat L.A. 81-68.

Admittedly, Towns was feeling butterflies in his stomach going into that game, and even air-balled his first shot during his first act on stage.

Towns explained to Marc J. Spears in a yahoo.com post that he had the jitters and he actually did not want to take that first attempt from downtown.

"“I didn’t even want to shoot the basketball. It’s just rookie jitters. Even though I’m the No. 1 pick, I’m not going to be perfect. I started out like any other rookie. I ain’t going to lie. I had a lot of butterflies. I was very nervous. My legs felt heavy. It’s your first game out.”."

Those jitters are completely understandable going into the situation he was in. Besides, Karl-Anthony Towns just wants to put his best foot forward right?

(Photo: Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports)

Then Towns played his second game against Bobby Portis and the Chicago Bulls only to outplayed by Portis in Minnesota’s 84-71 loss.

Bobby Portis finished with 23 points and seven rebounds while Karl-Anthony Towns ended up with nine points and nine rebounds.

It was funny seeing people discuss how Karl-Anthony Towns has not played like a No.1 pick through two games or about how Bobby Portis outplayed him on Facebook and Twitter.

Yeah, I guess it is fair for people to be somewhat critical of Towns in these glorified Rec-League games. I guess it is fair to wonder why he is not putting up gaudy number through a mere two games of the Las Vegas Summer League.

The reality however is that despite Karl-Anthony Towns averaging only 10.5 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 38.1% from the field, he is playing just fine, and his monster games are going to happen before everybody leaves Vegas.

Sometimes you have to get used to your new found freedom which is something that Towns has right now offensively.

While at Kentucky, John Calipari had Towns on a strict low-block diet offensively, now Towns gets to show off other parts of his game like 15-foot jumpers or maybe even attempting a deep ball or two.

What has been good for him in these Summer League games is the fact that his opposition has thrown occasional double and sometimes triple-teams at him on the block, forcing him to have to make decisions passing the ball and read defenses. He has done well in those situations for the most part.

Another thing that has been great to watch is his defensive skills. He has blocked three shots already and has served as a deterrent on a few others around the rim.

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    • Karl-Anthony Towns is simply using this opportunity like everyone else is — to get his feet wet and get used to his new surroundings.

    It is kind of like a boxer who is in the ring with an opponent in the early rounds. He’ll kind of feel the situation out before unleashing the beast on his opponent.

    There is never anything wrong with getting comfortable, besides, if he was forcing things  in the early going, people would be bashing him for being to anxious.

    When Karl-Anthony Towns drops his first 20 and 10 games in this Vegas Summer League it will be expected, and people are going to be “ho-hum”about it anyway, so everyone should be like that now about these last two games.

    He is going to be just fine, don’t put to much on anything that you are seeing right now.

    Simply relax, it is too soon to come to conclusions or pass judgements, plus, he is doing a lot of good things out there anyway.

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