shrink wrote:Chello1 wrote:Seriously? Ant? And Kevin Love jr or KAt as we call him will never help us win because you can't have a toothless alpha and he is the epitome of that. He is just what Love was- a great Robin to someone elses Batman.
It feels like people here would be mad at Robin for not being Batman.
Right now we have a potential Batman in Ant. He has massive potential and he can be the best “put the ball in his hands at the end of games” player here I can remember. But what characteristics do you want in a Robin?
1. If a guard, you want a big
2. He needs a skillset that compliments, and doesn’t cover over, the #1.
3. He needs to be willing to pass the ball, even in late game situations.
In my book, that description is KAT. He has size, he spreads the floor for Ant’s drives, and he’s always passed - even to far less talented teammates than Ant. There is no reason you can’t pay your #2 a max deal either, especially when your #1 is on rookie scale.
Offensively? Sure, he fits like a glove. In theory, anyway.
Mostly though if he's just there to move the ball and hit 3s then we don't need a max guy for that, which is where the problem lies; he's under-utilized. Now, I'm sure some will argue that's the coaches fault or the players fault or the refs fault or whoever but at the end of the day, Towns is paid the money, carries himself like a star and should be demanding the ball if he's not getting it enough. So basically it's a temperament issue. He's paid the money and talks like a star but acts like a role player. Which, if that's the case, we could fill that role for a fraction of the price.
Realistically, a Robin should be able to moonlight as Batman when needed. He should be able to carry the offence for stretches and to help create looks for his teammates. And in the modern NBA, that isn't what you get from bigs. It can work, in rare instances, but the fact that bigs need to be fed the ball creates a middle man situation that increases the chance of issues. That's not a knock on Towns, but it is a realistic aspect of who he is as a player.
And that's not even addressing the real issue, which is defence. Even now, after 7 years, he's still a bad defender. Has he improved? Oh, yes, of course. But that's going from terrible to bad. And before the arguments come in, I know he's not playing with the All Defence team, but he shouldn't have to. There's plenty of good defenders on bad teams and he's just never shown it. In fact, that time he went out with an injury and the exact same roster + Dieng went from like last in defence to first should have been a fairly damning indictment.
It should be clear at this point that you can't be competitive giving big minutes to a big that can't either guard their own matchup or provide help defence, which unfortunately describes Towns.
So I'd rather find another perimeter scorer to pair with Ant, someone who can play both on and off ball and is at least capable on defence. Then work on finding a role player for the C position that can provide that help defence every team needs. Swapping Towns for Brandon Ingram, for example, would make us a better team. And that's not to say Ingram is a better talent but I think a guy like that + a decent C is better than Towns + a decent forward.
