Minnesota Sports Forum

...And here is a list of 20-year old rookies over the past 15 seasons that have averaged 15+ PPG, 10+RPG, and 2+ BPG:

Karl Anthony-Towns

OK, if you go back 25 years, Shaquille O'Neal did it in his first season with Orlando.

And if you raise the age up to 21, you get Tim Duncan's rookie year too.

And what if you raise it to 22? Alonzo Mourning.

Towns
Shaq
Duncan
Mourning

Pretty good company.

Is that over the course of a 82 games or 10?

Full seasons....So it's possible KAT could cool off (as he's done the last couple of games) or what's more likely is he could get even better. Scary.

Q12543 wrote:Full seasons....So it's possible KAT could cool off (as he's done the last couple of games) or what's more likely is he could get even better. Scary.

I certainly hope he gets better, but the transition from 35 games to 82 games against bigger stronger opponents makes it more likely he'll wear down a bit. There's a reason that list is so small. Shaq specifically came in the league and was already bigger and stronger than everyone else . Towns has been amazing but he could use a full professional off season to put on some muscle and get stronger using all benefits of a first rate gym , trainers and dietitians. I think next year we'll really see something special.

One difference is Towns is probably more skilled offensively than all of them maybe even Duncan. Also didn't Duncan have the advantage of playing PF next to a HOFer that still had plenty of game left?

PorkChop wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Full seasons....So it's possible KAT could cool off (as he's done the last couple of games) or what's more likely is he could get even better. Scary.

I certainly hope he gets better, but the transition from 35 games to 82 games against bigger stronger opponents makes it more likely he'll wear down a bit. There's a reason that list is so small. Shaq specifically came in the league and was already bigger and stronger than everyone else . Towns has been amazing but he could use a full professional off season to put on some muscle and get stronger using all benefits of a first rate gym , trainers and dietitians. I think next year we'll really see something special.

Agree that hitting the rookie wall is definitely a possibility, but unlike Wiggins last year, it appears that our coaching staff is carefully monitoring his minutes.

Here is the scary part: KAT is putting up 15,10, and 2 playing just under 30 minutes per game. All those other guys I mentioned played 33-39 MPG as rookies. Literally no one else has done something similar as rookies other than Duncan, Hakeem, Shaq, and Mourning.

I'm not suggesting that KAT will end up being better than all these guys - it's still super early. But the fact this is the type of company he's keeping is quite startling.

(Anthony Davis by the way averaged 13 pts, 8 rebs, and 1.8 blks playing a similar amount of minutes as a rookie. He's now considered the best PF in the game. Perhaps KAT settles down into numbers more closely resembling these, which would still be a fantastic outcome).

monsterpile wrote:One difference is Towns is probably more skilled offensively than all of them maybe even Duncan. Also didn't Duncan have the advantage of playing PF next to a HOFer that still had plenty of game left?

Duncan also had the advantage of having played 4 years of college ball.

Perhaps Towns cooled off because he's not playing with a capable starting point guard. Might that be one explanation of his drop off in numbers as of late? He's not being given the ball in position to score, consistently. Much like what we saw with Pekovic after Rubio got injured.