The Phoenix Suns have been awarded the top pick in this year’s draft. With that prize comes much responsibility and they must make the right choice with it. One option is trading that pick but that should only be done for an established young star like Karl-Anthony Towns.
For the first time in the history of the franchise, the Phoenix Suns have the #1 pick in the NBA draft. Should they keep the pick, the top two prospects are Arizona’s big man DeAndre Ayton and Slovenian guard Luka Doncic. We have heard plenty about them over the past few months leading up to the lottery, and the choice is still a very hard one.
However, rather than selecting one of the two prospects, another option could be to trade the pick BUT only “for a young star” in the words of GM Ryan McDonough.
Phoenix Suns
There are only a couple players in this league that could be made available that I’d willingly trade our pick for. One of those is now personalty publicly disgruntled, Karl-Anthony Towns.
Darren Wolfson, a vet reporter in Minnesota, discussed a few weeks ago that Towns’ fit with head coach Tom Thibodeau was “awkward” and that he had a gut feeling something crazy is going to happen there this summer.
Now, on a podcast with a couple ESPN guys, Zach Lowe said KAT and the Wolves are “not in a good place internally.” Brian Windhorst followed that by saying it wouldn’t be unheard of if his name eventually surfaced in trade discussions.
Karl definitely fits the definition of an established young star. He himself was a #1 pick in 2015 winning Rookie of the Year. In 2016 he won the All-Star Skills challenge over Isaiah Thomas, becoming the tallest, heaviest and youngest winner of the event in it’s history. He made regular history too by becoming the first NBA player with at least 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 100 3’s in one season.
This season he appeared in his first All-Star game averaging 21.3 points (down from his career-high of 25.1), 12.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He had career-highs in field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, and free throw percentage, and the only reason he didn’t have a career-high in scoring as well but because he took almost four less field goal attempts per game as Jimmy Butler was added to the roster in the offseason.
For a 7’0″ big man, he can be as physical as he can shooting from the outside, as evidenced by his 42% shooting from beyond the arc. In fact, only Kevin Love and Dirk Nowitzki stood with him as bigs that made at least 100 treys on at least 40% accuracy. He also finished 4th in rebounds, 9th in blocks and led the league in double-doubles.
KAT was a big reason why the Wolves made the playoffs for the first time since 2004. However, as big of a team accomplishment as that is, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. He is (apparently) disgruntled and Andrew Wiggins voiced his unhappiness as the third option. When you have Jimmy Butler as well, all three alpha’s wanting to be the star, it is cause for concern if not managed well by the coaching staff.
Karl may want out of Minnesota now and that’s where the Suns come into play.
Connections are big in the Association. Phoenix is a good place for him in that respect, starting with franchise star Devin Booker. The two are close friends. Towns played college ball with Booker as well as Tyler Ulis at Kentucky.
One of the main knocks coming out on KAT are his drive and work ethic. However, he got where he is for a reason. If he comes to Phoenix not only would he form a Big-2 with Booker and set a foundation for winning a lot of games, but he would be playing next to his friend. One would have to think that would bring out the best in him. If your friend talked to management to bring you on board, you are going to give everything you have to show that was the right decision.
Some also are iffy on his defense but this season alone he had 17 games with at least three blocks and he has shown so much potential on that side of the ball and has much more time to get better similar to how Booker has improved this year.
Also, with new Head Coach Igor Kokoskov, he would have a coach who would hound him but do everything to help him keep getting even better. (By the way, Kokoskov is still filling out his coaching circle and could add Vince Legarza, who has been Towns’ development coach in Minnesota and was just recently let go by the team. That would give even more familiarity and make the star big even more comfortable here.)
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DeAndre Ayton has been compared to Karl-Anthony Towns and as nice as it would be to have Ayton on the Suns, if you can get the sure thing you do it. Towns is a sure thing and would be a very exciting duo with Devin Booker. The Suns should offer the top pick for Towns. Let fans enjoy watching games again and know what it’s like to start winning.