Minnesota Sports Forum

Towns is a month older than Okafor meaning he was probably held back as a kid and skipped his junior year to get back with people his age.

khans2k5 wrote:Towns is a month older than Okafor meaning he was probably held back as a kid and skipped his junior year to get back with people his age.

Possibly, or he missed his school's cutoff date to begin school. Either way, he didn't get four years of high school to round out his game like a lot of kids, including Okafor, did. Pretty impressive, in my opinion. Not every kid would have done the same.

Camden0916 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Towns is a month older than Okafor meaning he was probably held back as a kid and skipped his junior year to get back with people his age.

Possibly, or he missed his school's cutoff date to begin school. Either way, he didn't get four years of high school to round out his game like a lot of kids, including Okafor, did. Pretty impressive, in my opinion. Not every kid would have done the same.

It at the very least shows some sort of motivation.

Camden wrote:I'm going to point out something that has yet to be said in this thread.

Karl-Anthony Towns should be a senior in high school this year. He shouldn't even be playing against collegiate competition.

He re-classified just to be able to play this year, and he was able to do that by taking online/extra classes while he was in high school to skip his junior year.

I've heard/read about so many NBA players discuss how important their senior year was to developing their game and readying them for the next level (college followed by NBA).

This is Towns' senior year, if you will.

Karl-Anthony's going to be a beast, and at least from this year, you could say he's a lock to develop his game. He's a completely different player than he was at the beginning of the season.

You do realize he's the oldest of all the top freshman right? He's a talented player so there's no need to stray from the facts in an attempt to make him look better. Yes he re-classified but he didn't miss his "senior year," he was 18 his last year of high school, for comparison Booker was only 17.

The Rage Monster wrote:

Camden wrote:I'm going to point out something that has yet to be said in this thread.

Karl-Anthony Towns should be a senior in high school this year. He shouldn't even be playing against collegiate competition.

He re-classified just to be able to play this year, and he was able to do that by taking online/extra classes while he was in high school to skip his junior year.

I've heard/read about so many NBA players discuss how important their senior year was to developing their game and readying them for the next level (college followed by NBA).

This is Towns' senior year, if you will.

Karl-Anthony's going to be a beast, and at least from this year, you could say he's a lock to develop his game. He's a completely different player than he was at the beginning of the season.

You do realize he's the oldest of all the top freshman right? He's a talented player so there's no need to stray from the facts in an attempt to make him look better. Yes he re-classified but he didn't miss his "senior year," he was 18 his last year of high school, for comparison Booker was only 17.

What fact did I stray from? I provided more facts than the one's commonly given actually, and I'd argue that my post shows that when he's determined to do something, he's more than capable of doing it. Not sure how old you are, but making up an entire year of high school while currently (at the time) in school AND being an athlete is no easy task. Don't make it out to be me making him look better. I'm pointing out something that he did that I found impressive.

And for one, you're right, he didn't miss his senior year and I didn't say that. He skipped his junior year and had he not done that, this would be his senior year.

You're talking about age, and I'm talking about years of basketball, which aren't always the same thing. My point was this:

1. It's awesome that Karl-Anthony's a tremendous kid with a great work ethic and 100% capable of making goals and achieving them.

2. He only played three years of HS basketball and decided not to play AAU during the summers, instead playing for the Dominican Republic. If you're not familiar, for whatever reason, this is odd in today's basketball scene for a kid in the states because normally they play against the best kids their age growing up. Towns didn't do that.

3. I'm also suggesting that it's possible Towns was further behind the learning curve when the college season started. Most of the other highly-touted freshman had already played against each other on the AAU scene. As I've previously said, Towns is a completely different player than he was at the season's start.

Even Towns teammates at Kentucky (Booker, Lyles, Ulis) had never met him before the McDonald's All-American game. 19 of the 24 players in the McDonald's All-American Game were in Nike Elite Youth Basketball League last year, but not Towns.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Interesting article. Putting 2014 and 2015 classes together. It really proves how future picks are worth more then past. (Payne trade strikes again)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markheisler/2015/04/01/2015-nba-draft-class-isnt-just-better-than-heralded-2014s-its-not-close/

That was an interesting article, bleed...good to see that Wiggins is still the #1 pick even if the classes are combined.

As Payne continues to struggle, I'm moving more toward the conclusion that a late teens pick is more valuable than Adreian...but mostly as a trade chip, because NBA scouts continue to overvalue draft picks. They see these guys dominating in college, and seem to forget that almost all rookies struggle. I would be willing to bet that a year from now everyone will be drooling about the Class of 2016, and talking about how the class of 2015 didn't live up to expectations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UGjSTg6rC1c

Camden wrote:

The Rage Monster wrote:

Camden wrote:I'm going to point out something that has yet to be said in this thread.

Karl-Anthony Towns should be a senior in high school this year. He shouldn't even be playing against collegiate competition.

He re-classified just to be able to play this year, and he was able to do that by taking online/extra classes while he was in high school to skip his junior year.

I've heard/read about so many NBA players discuss how important their senior year was to developing their game and readying them for the next level (college followed by NBA).

This is Towns' senior year, if you will.

Karl-Anthony's going to be a beast, and at least from this year, you could say he's a lock to develop his game. He's a completely different player than he was at the beginning of the season.

You do realize he's the oldest of all the top freshman right? He's a talented player so there's no need to stray from the facts in an attempt to make him look better. Yes he re-classified but he didn't miss his "senior year," he was 18 his last year of high school, for comparison Booker was only 17.

What fact did I stray from? I provided more facts than the one's commonly given actually, and I'd argue that my post shows that when he's determined to do something, he's more than capable of doing it. Not sure how old you are, but making up an entire year of high school while currently (at the time) in school AND being an athlete is no easy task. Don't make it out to be me making him look better. I'm pointing out something that he did that I found impressive.

And for one, you're right, he didn't miss his senior year and I didn't say that. He skipped his junior year and had he not done that, this would be his senior year.

You're talking about age, and I'm talking about years of basketball, which aren't always the same thing. My point was this:

1. It's awesome that Karl-Anthony's a tremendous kid with a great work ethic and 100% capable of making goals and achieving them.

2. He only played three years of HS basketball and decided not to play AAU during the summers, instead playing for the Dominican Republic. If you're not familiar, for whatever reason, this is odd in today's basketball scene for a kid in the states because normally they play against the best kids their age growing up. Towns didn't do that.

3. I'm also suggesting that it's possible Towns was further behind the learning curve when the college season started. Most of the other highly-touted freshman had already played against each other on the AAU scene. As I've previously said, Towns is a completely different player than he was at the season's start.

Even Towns teammates at Kentucky (Booker, Lyles, Ulis) had never met him before the McDonald's All-American game. 19 of the 24 players in the McDonald's All-American Game were in Nike Elite Youth Basketball League last year, but not Towns.

I would consider incorrectly representing information in an effort to make Towns look better straying from the facts. You said yourself, "this is Town's senior year if you will," so if this is his senior year but he's not in high school he skipped his senior (think senior as in last, not year in HS) season. Although he may have only played 3 seasons while in high school that doesn't necessarily short him years of practice. His dad was a high school coach, he attended those practices from the age of 5, he's not lacking in basketball knowledge.

I'm not against Towns, that other stuff shows great dedication and maturity, I could very well see him as the top pick.

Just a note and not really a surprise.

Ian O'Connor
@Ian_OConnor

Most educated Knicks fan I know left town hall meeting w/ strong impression Phil Jackson would draft Karl-Anthony Towns No. 1. 1h

GymRat wrote:Just a note and not really a surprise.

Ian O'Connor
@Ian_OConnor

Most educated Knicks fan I know left town hall meeting w/ strong impression Phil Jackson would draft Karl-Anthony Towns No. 1. 1h

Thx for that. Disappointing for me because even though my draft order changes day to day, I have Towns ranked #1 now. Hopefully Carnak Cool is correct about us winning the lottery this year.