Minnesota Timberwolves Photo
Former NBA star Charles Barkley is not a fan of Karl-Anthony Towns — or at least not with the way he is now playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Minnesota is down 2-0 to Denver in the Western Conference playoffs and Barkley put a lot of the blame on the former Kentucky star on TNT after the game two loss when Towns went 3-for-12 from the field in the 122-113 loss. He was 2-for-5 on 3-pointers and finished with only 10 points — only the fifth-best total on his own team and not close to the 41 points by teammate Anthony Edwards or 41 by Denver’s Jamal Murray, another former UK player.
“If you’re the second-best player on the team, you gotta play like it,. Karl-Anthony Towns had more turnovers (5) than made baskets, that’s not going to get it done, 3-for-12,” Barkley said on TNT after the game.
“Karl-Anthony Towns should actually have an advantage size-wise, but he’s ruined his game, in my opinion, by just becoming a 3-point shooter. If you’re as big as he is, you’re going to have a size-height advantage every single night.”
“But if you’re going to stand out on the perimeter, two things. You don’t get to the foul line and you don’t use your height. So it’s useless height and that’s what bothers me about his game.”
Towns was the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft and averaged 20.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game this year while shooting 37 percent from 3-point range. He has only 21 points in the two losses to Denver and has missed 19 of 27 shots, including nine of 12 from 3-point range and that bothers Barkley a lot.
“He’s one of the few players in the NBA where he’s going to have a height advantage every single night. There’s no player he’s going to play against where he’s going to have a height disadvantage. But because he’s become a perimeter player, he don’t punish them when they go small and he just stands out there and shoots jumpers,” Barkley said.
